Ölbeat 190: Sori Brewing Vanilla Cake Fever

Brewery: Sori Brewing
Country: Estonia
Style: Baltic Porter
Abv: 9,9 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is black with a finger-thick vanishing beige head. Aroma has charred malts, espresso, spices and dark chocolate. Taste begins with sweet vanilla-spiced chocolate. Sweet roasted chocolate malts with spicy bitterness and vanillaish black coffee takes over. Towards the end chocolate, vanilla and alcohol come through. Aftertaste has roasted dryness, spicy dark chocolate and alcohol bitterness.

Black, sweet and tasty. Great Imperial Baltic Porter with lots of chocolate and vanilla. Roast, coffee and booze flavours are there too. Excellent dessert brew.

Ölbeat

This was a choice between vanilla, cake and fever. Since Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli are meant for other blogs than this, and Peggy Lee's or Madonna's Fever just isn't there, we're left with the cake. Since it's always nice to watch middle-aging men running around the stage on the music video, I chose this classic. What? It ain't a Benassi or Prydz video, is it?

Van Halen: Poundcake (YouTube)

From the 1991 album For Unawful Carnal Knowledge, the song was written by Eddie Van Halen, Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar and Alex Van Halen.

Ölbeat 171: Lagunitas IPA

Brewery: Lagunitas Brewing Company 
Country: United States
Style: India Pale Ale
Abv: 6,2 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is clear straw yellow with a large white head. Aroma has fresh grapefruit, orange and pineapple. Taste begins with sweet fruity and slightly bitter bite. Fresh grapefruit bitterness with growing sweet orange flavour takes over. Near the finish gently piny dryness is added. Aftertaste has stronger piny dryness and bitter grapefruit.

Excellent. Delicious. Super fruity India Pale Ale. Bitter grapefruit and sweet orange with nicely growing pine. No wonder that this brew is considered as one of the West Coast IPA landmarks.

Ölbeat

So I chose this one instead of all the Californian style songs available. At least the band is from the same state with the brewery, but why pick a song titled Panama? Beats me but just did. But I wasn't going to San Francisco or Hotel California or even dreaming about the state.

Van Halen: Panama (YouTube)

From the 1984 album 1984, the song was written by Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth.

Ölbeat 118: Founders Devil Dancer Triple IPA

Brewery: Founders Brewing Company
Country: United States
Style: Imperial IPA
Abv: 12 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is bright dark copper orange with a small whiteish head. Aroma has mango, sweet berries and flowery hops. Taste begins with dry pine and burning heavy bitterness. Piny bitterness with grapefruit and some sweet orange flavours take over. Towards the end the orange with a strong alcohol burn comes clearly through. Aftertaste has long-lasting extra dryness and heavily bitterness with alcohol-powered fruitiness.

Insanely intensive and aggressively alcoholic hop-bomb. Bitterness and dryness are the strongest forces with citrus fruits coming through in their full force near the finish. Delicious Triple IPA but not for the faint-hearted.

Ölbeat

There's an obvious American rock song for this American brew. It's got nothing to do with dancers but the devil is clearly here. The loud intro with car horns pretty well describes the first impression of the beer's taste.

Van Halen: Runnin' with the Devil (YouTube)

From the 1978 album Van Halen, the song was written by Michael Anthony, David Lee Roth, Alex Van Halen and Eddie Van Halen.

Ölbeat 060: Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA

Brewery: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
Country: United States
Style: India Pale Ale
Abv: 7,2 %
@RateBeer

Liquid explosion without gunpowder

What about the beer?
Colour is bright copper orange with small natural white head. Aroma has orange, lemon and hops. Taste bites first with citrus and hoppy bitter freshness. The biting hops and sour grapefruit continue carrying the brew. Towards the end some piny dryness and a fruity sweet notes get added to the package. Aftertaste has first bitter and fruity elements and then dryness.

What a super fresh experience. The hop and citrus flavours are unrounded and pure, which makes Torpedo stand out of the ocean of ordinary India Pale Ales. Truly an IPA worth the reputation.

Ölbeat

Powerful Californian beer cries for a powerful Californian rock song. Since the beer is a classic, let's listen to a true American rock classic:

Van Halen: Jump (YouTube)

From the 1984 album 1984, the song was written by Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth.

Ölbeat 037: Buxton Rain Shadow

Brewery: Buxton Brewery
Country: England
Style: Imperial Stout
Abv: 11,8 %
@RateBeer

No dry desert, but incredible dessert

What about the beer?
Colour is pitch black with small brown head. Aroma has heavy roast sweet black coffee and dark chocolate on the side - I drown myself in the scent. Taste begins with heavily hopped and roasted first bite. Salty-sweet malts and A-class dark-roasted coffee take control. Palate adds strong sweet hoppy and alcoholic bitterness. Aftertaste is awesome: unbelievably delicious bitter dark chocolate with an espresso note.

Extremely powerful beer. All flavours are strong and intense but still it's a perfectly delicious experience. From the first sip and the rush of hops, roast and coffee I knew that the taste at least keeps the promise that the aroma gave. One of the best imperial stouts I've tasted, and since imps are among my favourite beer styles, this goes to the top of the list.

Ölbeat

Since the brew really got me, I could only match this rock classic with it:

The Kinks: You Really Got Me (YouTube)

Song from the 1964 album Kinks, written by Dave Davies. 

...and because Rain Shadow really got me, here's the great cover, if you prefer it:

Van Halen: You Really Got Me (YouTube)

Song from the 1978 album Van Halen.

Blogger's note:
As you can see, I've decided to cut off the brewery or beer descriptions and the song description, since anyone can find some facts about the brewery/beer and the song. From now on, it's just the beer and the song with less unnecessary crap.