Ölbeat 025: Jopen Koyt

Brewery: Jopen B.V.
Country: the Netherlands
Style: Traditional Ale
Abv: 8,5 %
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Ale with Gruit spices from the 15th century

Jopen B.V., founded in 1996, is a brewery in Haarlem, the Netherlands. The brewery's roots are in the Medieval period in the 1300's when Haarlem-brewed beer was freighted even abroad in 112 barrels called Jopen in Dutch. The brewery moved in 2010 to an old church (now Jopenkerk, old Jacobskerk) and expanded to a new brewing facility in 2014. Two of the brewery's continuous brews are made with original old recipes: Hoppen, the hopped beer, originates in 1501 and Koyt, the Gruit-spiced beer, in 1407. Both these beer brands have been Jopen brand before the brewery was founded, Hoppen from 1994 and Koyt from 1995.

What about the beer?
Colour is deep dark brown with a foam crown. Aroma caresses the nose with sweet malts and forest berries. Taste follows the aromas: mildly sweet, spiced caramel malts flow in the mouth in a very old-aleish way. Palate adds a gentle herbal, slightly alcoholic bite. In the end, aftertaste is sweet and malty.

Despite the obvious availability problems I should travel to the world of traditional gruit ales more often. When long history and culture are behind the birth of a brewery, it usually creates a rich and silky smooth experience.

Ölbeat

It wasn't easy to pick a song for this one. An acoustic folky tune was what I had in mind, but instead of a traditional hymn I found this modern one:

Eddie Vedder: Rise (YouTube)

From the 2007 soundtrack/album Into the Wild, the song was written by Vedder. It's an acoustic man-and-the-mandolin folk song, the Pearl Jam singer taking care of the vocals and the only other instrument involved. Lyrics seem to tell about the narrator's will to forget the wrongs in his past and keep going forward: "Gonna rise up / Burning black holes in dark memories / Gonna rise up / Turning mistakes into gold". The song gives the same kind of emptied positive feeling that I got after enjoying Jopen Koyt.

Ölbeat 024: Hop Valley Alphadelic IPA

Brewery: Hop Valley Brewing Co.
Country: United States 
Style: India Pale Ale
Abv: 6,7 %
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Different shade of West Coast IPA

Hop Valley Brewing Company, founded in 2009, is a craftbeer brewery in Springfield, Oregon, US. Named after the hop-growing history - and also the present - of the county and the state, the brewery has grown its production from 1 000 barrels in the first year to 12 000 barrels in 2015. Fast growth is explained by the popular demand, and the popular demand rises - in the case of beer - because of the quality brewing. So, in the webshop, it wasn't so hard to pick some brews for tasting.

What about the beer?
Colour is clear golden orange with tiny natural white head. Aroma has fresh sweet fruits: grape, pear, peach. Taste begins with softly biting rather sweet caramel than heavy bitter hops. The gentle hoppy bitterness dominates, fruitiness and citrus stays in the background. Palate adds some dry pine, and the finish is bitter and dry.

Fresh and fruity aroma promised a little different journey, but nevertheless the ride was smooth and balanced. Not the usual West Coast IPA hop rollercoaster.

Ölbeat

The smooth freshness and the complete lack of harshness made me look for a blues rock song. There were some artists and songs to turn to, but I chose this rather new one:

Joe Bonamassa: Oh Beautiful! (YouTube)

From the 2014 album Different Shades of Blue, the song was written by Bonamassa and country singer James House. The song opens with Bonamassa singing the first verse a cappella peacefully, then exploding with steady guitar-led bridge to the second verse, which is slow vocal-driven again. The song ends with the last verse sung a cappella. Don't worry: the artist gets to show some blues guitar mastery on the way. Lyrics build up a Shakespearian style love poem, first and last verse owned to "beautiful", the loved one, and the second to "gravity", the singer's connection to her. There's the same kind of one-sided attraction between the singer and the loved one as there's with me and Alphadelic IPA, so the song matches with the beer nicely.

Ölbeat 023: Ruosniemen Musta Lomittaja

Brewery: Ruosniemen Panimo 
Country: Finland
Style: Smoked Saison
Abv: 6,3 %
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This Black Stand-in gets hired

Ruosniemen Panimo, founded in 2011, is a microbrewery from Pori, Western Finland. The brewery's slogan is "Brewed by engineers". Despite lacking the skill of inventing attractive slogans, the brewery was Ratebeer's best new brewery in Finland in 2013. Having tasted most of their continous brews, I have to say that these engineers really know what they're doing. Hit is the rule, miss is a rare exception. Of the two good reasons for living in Pori, this is number two.

This beer was part of Alko's Finnish microbrewery craftbeer selection in spring 2016. 

What about the beer?
Colour is sizzling black with medium, immediately dissolving beige head. Aroma has meaty smoke and roasted malts with a slice of coffee. Taste gives roasted malts in very first bite. There's pretty high carbonation. Pure smoke flavour joins the party and grows quickly. By the palate sour lemon and mildly bitter hops are in. The night out gets finished with gentle smoky, sour and a bit salty aftertaste.

Smoke dominates here. Still there are sour and gently bitter elements of saison present. Clearly a fine "out-of-the-box" brew and a versatile experience.

Ölbeat

Pairing the beer with a song was easy in this case. Despite the fact that the product is actually bottled, similar kind of unordinary approach can be found here: 

Jamiroquai: Canned Heat (YouTube)

From the 1999 album, Synkronized, the song was written by singer-frontman Jay Kay. Canned Heat was originally - in the beginning of the 1900's - an alcohol-based fuel used in catering service to keep the food warm. Since containing alcohol the substance was abused, which was the story behind Canned Heat Blues by Tommy Johnson in 1928. The blues group Canned Heat that started in the 60's as named after the song. However, in Jamiroquai's funk-jazz song canned heat is something on one's shoe heels that urges him to dance. Whether it is the name of the song, the history behind the word play or just the funky music, I don't know, but it fits the mood of Musta Lomittaja perfectly.

Ölbeat 022: Beer Hunter's Mufloni Imperial Stout

Brewery: Beer Hunter's
Country: Finland
Style: Imperial Stout
Abv: 10 %
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Beer Hunter's (Facebook, mostly in Finnish), founded in 1998, is a microbrewery (and a beer restaurant) from Pori, Western Finland. The brewery has been awarded e.g. the best brewery in Finland in 2015 by Ratebeer. They occasionally distil whisky named Old Buck, which has been chosen as European Mainland Whisky of the Year by Jim Murray in 2009. Personally I think there are two good reasons to live in Pori - Beer Hunter's is the first.

This beer was part of Alko's Finnish microbrewery craftbeer selection in spring 2016. 

What about the beer?
Colour is black with a small beige crown. Aroma has roasted malts, coffee and dark chocolate with a hint of smoke. Taste gives first heavily roasted and burned coffee with moderate sweetness. There are flavours of cocoa and liquorice, too. Palate adds late bittersweet hops to the palette, which stays in the coffee and roast section. Aftertaste is warm, bitter and dry. The high abv is well hidden between the superb flavours.

This is what you get when you brew imperial stout by the book. And what you get is perfection: everything has its place and everything is on its place. If someone would point out that "this beer lacks that something special" - I'm not suggesting that anyone would do that, am I? -, I would add that it lacks cracks and inperfections, which are necessary for human beings.

Ölbeat

It's obvious that we needed a solid rock song for this one. When you get this kind of jewel, there's no need to stick inside neither the city nor the country borders. Fuck modesty. Sorry, Neumann, Perjantai just won't do:

AC/DC: Back in Black (YouTube)

From the 1980 eponymous album, the title track was written by singer Brian Johnson and the guitarists Angus and Malcolm Young. The song was the band's tribute to the former singer Bon Scott, who had died earlier in February, 1980. The band asked Johnson to write the song's lyrics for Scott and told him that "it can't be morbid, it has to be celebration". The new singer wrote - "whatever came into his head" - about wild lifestyle and immortality, and the bandmates loved it. The song and the album opened the Johnson era by a storm - both became instant classics. In the craftbeer scene, I wish that Mufloni Imperial Stout could be an almost similar classic. ;)

Ölbeat 021: Lammin Sahti Ruisrääkkä

Brewery: Lammin Sahti
Country: Finland
Style: Specialty Grain
Abv: 7 %
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The corn crake got into the bottle

Lammin Sahti, founded in 1985, is a microbrewery in Lammi village, which is a part of Hämeenlinna city in Southern Finland. The brewery is one of the most known sahti breweries in Finland, but they brew also beer and cider. Sahti is a traditional Finnish non-filtered beer, which is brewed using more malts than when brewing regular beer and spiced usually with juniper berries, hops or both. The result is a sweet banana-like flavoured drink, that can't be stored for long.

This beer was part of Alko's Finnish microbrewery craftbeer selection in spring 2016.

What about the beer?
Colour is hazy dark brown with tiny tan-beige head. Aroma gives scents of sweet malts, rye bread and Finnish malt beer. Taste has medium-sweet grainy malts and a hoppy first pinch on tongue. Flavour grows into very distinctive rye taste: there's a strong breadiness present. Palate gives some gentle hops and notes of cherries and some sweet berries. Aftertaste has maltiness and warming alcohol.

Now we have a beer, that pays respect to the rye malt. Strong malty flavours with nice and smooth sidetrips to bitter hops and sweet berries. Unique and enjoyable brew, I must say.

Ölbeat

The strong presence of rye and the bready taste basically forced me to choose this forgotten treasure. One sure earworm, but you have been warned - and watch the video:

Laid Back: Bakerman (YouTube)

Released in 1989 and from the 1990 album, Hole in the Sky, the song was written by the Danish Laid Back duo Guldberg - Stahl and songwriter Arthur Stander. It's a slow synthpop tune which features guest vocals by Hanne Boel. Lyrics are unharmful nonsense, consisting mostly of phrases: "Bakerman is baking bread / Sagabona kunjani wena (Swahili: Hello, how are you?) / The night train is coming / Got to keep on running". Video for the song was directed by Lars von Trier in one take and features the song personnel freefalling in the sky singing and playing instruments. I really can't tell why Ruisrääkkä made me think of this song but it just happened. Sorry, guys.