Ölbeat 027: Anderson Valley Hop Ottin' IPA

Brewery: Anderson Valley Brewing Company
Country: United States
Style: India Pale Ale
Abv: 7,0 %
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Hoppy brew for the moose... not!

Anderson Valley Brewing Company, founded in 1987, is a craft brewery in Boonville, California. It is one of the 20-or-so craft breweries in the States that existed at the time. Started with a 10-barrel brewhouse in the downstairs of the brewpub, the brewery expanded in 1996 to a 30-barrel brewhouse and reached 15 000 barrels per year. In 1998 they stared another expansion, and in 2013 they produced 45 000 barrels per year. Hop Ottin' IPA is one of the legendary brews from the brewery, so it wasn't hard to pick it for tasting.

What about the beer?
Colour is cloudy rusty orange with medium natural white head. Aroma has fresh grapes, plum and citrus. Taste begins with dry and bitter hops. Then you get heavy pine and grapefruit with a tiny hint of sweetness. Palate turns bitter again. Aftertaste is dry, bitter and long.

Aroma made me expect something fresh and fruity. Instead I got something dry, hoppy and piny in the taste. It wasn't a bad deal, but filling the fruit gap would have made this fine brew an excellent one.

Ölbeat

Since craftbeer - and especially West Coast IPA - in the States seems to be a modern classic, I reached out for those two elements in music. I turned to hip-hop genre and California, and picked the first option that showed up, since it was the best:

2Pac feat. Dr. Dre: California Love (YouTube)

From the 1996 album, All Eyez on Me, the song was written by 2Pac and Dr. Dre. It contains a sample from Joe Cocker's Woman to Woman (1972), and the chorus "California knows how to party" was sampled from Ronnie Hudson & the Street People's West Coast Poplock and is sung by Roger Troutman from the funk band Zapp. The song celebrates and pays homage to the Californian wild hip-hop lifestyle, while Dr. Dre and 2Pac rap about the activities available but also warn about crime and violence present. The song turned out to be the final peak of 2Pac's career, since he was murdered by drive-by shooting in September 1996. Even though the song represents everything else than the forest lake scenery in the bottle label shows, it was the Californ-I-A in Hop Ottin IPA that locked my choice.

Ölbeat 026: CREW Republic Roundhouse Kick

Brewery: CREW Republic
Country: Germany
Style: Imperial Stout
Abv: 9,2 %
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The beer that slammed the revolving door.

CREW Republic, founded in 2011, is a microbrewery in Munich, Germany. The brewery is known for brewing something else than standard German-type beer. Breaking the tradition is intentional according to the webpages of the brewery. When Roundhouse Kick came available in Finnish market, I was straight away interested about a beer that reminds me of the legendary Chuck Norris. 

What about the beer?
Colour is pitch black with huge beige head. Aroma has roasted malts with traces of hops and salty liquorice. Taste unleashes heavy bitterness with burned-roasted malts first. The hop-coal combo gets joined with strong black coffee and salty liquorice. Palate is beaten by dry bitter hops and strong citrus flavours in a very black-IPA'ish way. Aftertaste is powerfully dry, roasty and hoppy - a finish-off with style.

Ba-da-boom, ba-da-bing! Rough and aggressive, as the name promises. It's the Chuck Norris of craft beer, kicks and punches in the mouth. I loved the roughness and the complexity.

Ölbeat

What we need here is positively aggressive rock tune, that comes straight to the face. This one was the first that hit my head:

Foo Fighters: Monkey Wrench (YouTube)

From the 1997 album The Colour and the Shape, the song was written by frontman Dave Grohl, guitarist Pat Smear and bassist Nate Mendel. Described to be a power punk song by Grohl, the music is based on one fast-tempo main guitar riff and its alterations. Even though the video of the song shows then the newest band-member Taylor Hawkins on drums, it's Grohl who handles the sticks on the album and single version besides singing and playing guitar. The lyrics are about feeling trapped in a relationship that doesn't work and realizing that one of the problems is yourself. Despite the song is usually interpreted as venting negative feelings about a failed relationship, I've always found the song positively motivating with its in-your-face attitude. That's why it fits on the background of Roundhouse Kick perfectly.

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.