Ölbeat 255: Ôllenaut Linnutee Double Milk Stout

Brewery: Õllenaut (in Estonian)
Country: Estonia
Style: Sweet Stout
Abv: 8 %
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What about the beer?
Colour is black with a small vanishing beige head. Aroma has milk chocolate, coffee, roasted malts and alcohol. Taste starts with sweet roasted malts. Roasted malts and sweet alcohol take over with coffee and chocolate hints Towards the end sugared coffee and milk chocolate get through with rising bitterness. Aftertaste has sweet coffee, bitter roast and cocoa-flavoured liquor.

Sweet and strong Milk Stout. Roast, alcohol and sweetness dominate, but coffee, chocolate and bitterness get their share of the spotlight, too. A bit too sweet and boozy to hit the perfect spot, but definitely this has strength and complexity. Ôllenaut has created a fine dessert stout.

Ölbeat

The sweetness of the brew steers the choice towards mainstream rock. 'Linnutee' is Milky Way in Estonian, so instead of picking any of the electro-disco-whatever track available on the theme, I turned to this 80's classic from Australia. The song was nicely covered by Sia Furler in 2010.

The Church: Under the Milky Way (YouTube)

From the 1988 album Starfish, the song was written by Steve Kilbey and Karin Jansson.

Ölbeat 208: Rekolan Kaffe Stout

Brewery: Rekolan Panimo (in Finnish)
Country: Finland
Style: Sweet Stout 
Abv: 5,5 %
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What about the beer?
Colour is black with a small creamy white head. Aroma has charred malts, dark-roasted coffee and sweet spices. Taste starts with slightly bitter charcoaly roast. Sweet charred malts and fresh cappuccino take over with some spiciness. Towards the end roasted and spiced chocolate malts and bitter coffee get on top. Aftertaste has malty roasted dryness and coffee-cocoa-flavoured bitterness.

Nice sweet coffee-flavoured Milk Stout. Different levels of roast and coffee give the beer versatility. Not too challenging though, goes down easily. Good brewing. Thanks to the brewery for this treat.

This beer was part of Alko's Finnish microbrewery craftbeer selection in spring 2017.

Ölbeat

Some people need coffee in the morning to get their eyes open. For some people there's not enough coffee in the world to make them open their eyes. Maybe Zach de la Rocha's tender rap-singing with a pint of this brew can help them wake up gently?

Rage Against The Machine: Wake Up (YouTube)

From the 1992 album Rage Against The Machine, the song was written by Rage Against The Machine.

Ölbeat 030: Nøgne Ø Havrestout

Brewery: Nøgne Ø
Country: Norway
Style: Sweet Stout
Abv: 4,5 %
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Brew with oat - you'll have black beer...

Nøgne Ø, founded in 2002, is a craft brewery from Grimstad, Norway. The name of the brewery means 'naked island', referring to the name used of the barren islands near Norway's southern coast by the 19th century playwright and poet Henrik Ibsen in one of his poems, Terje Vigen. Their webpage describes the mission of the brewery "to create fantastic full bodied and handcrafted beers" and the subtitle to the brewery's name is "The Uncompromising Brewery".

What about the beer?
Colour is espresso black with small bubbly beige crown, that rebuilds as a tiny foam top after vanishing due to high carbonation and oats, probably. Aroma has coffee, dark chocolate and sweet malts with a slight roast. Taste starts with the carbonated mouthfeel, which turns to caramel and chocolate malts. Palate adds soft bitter hops and coffee with a gentle roast. Aftertaste has roasted malts and coffee.

After getting over the strongly carbonated mouthfeel, there are elements of a really fine stout. The oats added to the brew really give an extra taste to the malt. Coffee is clearly present in the aroma, but surprisingly shows up in the taste in the last minute. Very nice beer especially for the abv.

Ölbeat

The colour of the beer doesn't make it heavy. On the contrary, this stout was pretty light to drink but there was some serious soul present, so that's what we get:

Marvin Gaye: I Heard It Through the Grapevine (YouTube)

From the 1968 album, In the Groove, the song was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for Motown Records. First recorded in 1966 by The Miracles and first released as a single in 1967 by Gladys Knight & the Pips, it was Marvin Gaye's version that became the soul classic. Gaye had an argument with the producer about singing higher than his normal range. The producer was the one to finally decide, and as we can hear Gaye's raspy overhigh vocals give the cake its icing. The sharp-hitting soul is played by the Funk Brothers and the recording was enhanced with the string section of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Lyrics tell a story about the betrayal of the singer's lover, that he hears from the gossiping people ("through the grapevine"), and his suffering on the ordeal. It was the serious subject and the gently floating soul that I felt with Havrestout to make this match.