Ölbeat 279: Lehe / St. Erhard Endspiel

Brewery: Lehe Pruulikoda (St. Erhard)
Country: Estonia (Germany)
Style: Barley Wine
Abv: 9,5 %
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What about the beer?
Colour is mahogany brown with a tiny natural white lace. Aroma has caramel, milk chocolate and raisins. Taste begins with sweet slightly boozy caramel. Sweet malty caramel takes over with boozy grapes. Towards the end soft milk chocolate and booze-soaked raisins with gentle fruity bitterness join the caramel flavour. Aftertaste has malty caramel, bittersweet fruits and alcohol bite.

Quite tasty sweet Barley Wine. The required qualities - caramel, fruits, chocolate and boozy bite - are nicely present. There's a bit of rawness in the taste that will probably be rounded by time. Fine Estonian brew.

Ölbeat

Endspiel, the German word, means endgame, the stage of a chess game when there are only few pieces left. If we escalate the meaning to the worldly scale, we're talking about the moment of reckoning, in Finnish: tilinteon hetki . To put things straight I've turned a German name of a beer to a Finnish name of a song, just with only one awkward transition. In the end, it's a great smooth beer paired with a great smooth song. 

Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus: Tilinteon hetki

From the 1997 EP Hävetkää!, the song was written by Timo Rautiainen and Esa Moilanen.

Ölbeat 224: Malmgård (Huvila) X-Porter & Malmgård Oak Porter

Brewery: Malmgård
Country: Finland
Style: Porter 
Abv: 7 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is black with a small tan head. Aroma has sweet roasted malts, espresso and spices. Taste starts with dark-roasted coffee. Strong coffee and heavily roasted chocolate malts take over with gentle bitterness. Near the finish dark chocolate with a bite of sweet alcohol comes through. Aftertaste has dry-turning roasted malts and bitter boozy coffee.

Delicious and diverse Porter. Nice roast, strong coffee, some bitter chocolate and slightly alcoholic finish. Everything is in its right place. Excellent brew from the Malmgård mansion once again.

...and since I had the chance to taste the Bourbon-oak chipped version from tap at Café Rooster Pub, Oulu, let's bring that on, too:

Malmgård Oak Porter

Brewery: Malmgård
Country: Finland
Style: Porter 
Abv: 7 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is black with a small beige head. Aroma has vanilla, chocolate and gentle roast. Taste starts with spiking spicy oaky roast. Dry-bitter roast and spiced dark-roasted coffee take over with oaky vanilla hints. Towards the end strong bitter roast comes in front and leaves dark chocolate in the background. Aftertaste has charcoal-roasty bitterness and oaky-boozy dryness.

Definitely this is X-Porter with bourbon barrel chips. Not over-barreled, just a twist of oak and vanilla mixed in the original. It would be rather easy to pull tricks, but I prefer keeping good things simple. Tasty, a bit twisted, and yet drinkable.

Ölbeat

So let's find something dark and gloomy here. Have to turn to Finnish metal music for a change. Since there were two brews, let's put a couple of songs here, too.

Mokoma: Kuu saa valtansa auringolta (YouTube)

From the 2006 album Kuoleman laulukunnaat, the song was written by Mokoma.

Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus: Hyvä päivä (YouTube)

From the 1999 album Lopunajan merkit, the song was written by Timo Rautiainen and Tomi Tuomaala.

Ölbeat 069: Bryggeri Helsinki Sofia

Brewery: Bryggeri Helsinki 
Country: Finland
Style: Imperial Stout
Abv: 9 %
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What about the beer?
Colour is pitch black with a nice beige head. Aroma has roasted malts, black coffee and a liquorice-like salty-sweet scent. Taste starts rough: thick burned-roasted malts with strong espresso. Roasted malts dominate the taste, soon bitter dark chocolate and hoppy bitterness get aboard. Towards the end bitterness comes clearly through with some alcohol. Aftertaste is strongly bitter-dry and slightly roasty alcoholic.

Sofia is an overwhelming package with heavy flavour after another. Really charred malts and espresso in start, fine roasted malts in the middle and powerful hoppy alcoholic bitterness in the end. It's strongly recommended to savour this slowly and have a magnificent experience.

Ölbeat

To find the musical-lyrical match for a rough, powerful and personally enjoyably brew, I had to pick a piece from a personal favourite. This Finnish metal band impressed me first time almost 20 years ago and other bands in the scene have felt like partial ingenuine copies:

Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus: Nyt on mies! (YouTube)*

From the 2001 EP Kuilun partaalla, the song was written by Timo Rautiainen.
*Yes. In the video, the tiny guy playing with pulley and relatively small weights during the first chorus is Jari "Bull" Mentula.