Ölbeat 204: Pôhjala Mets Black Forest IPA

Brewery: Pôhjala
Country: Estonia
Style: India Black Ale 
Abv: 7 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is black with a huge foamy beige head. Aroma has sweet mango juice, roast and coffee. Taste starts with bitter strong roast. Heavy piny roast and striking bitter grapefruit take over with some sweet tropical fruits in the background. Towards the end piny citrus bitterness and dry salty liquorice get on top. Aftertaste has dry roast and piny bitter grapefruit

Strong-flavoured India Black Ale. Heavy dry roast meets grapefruit bitterbomb. Delicious dark brew from Põhjala once again.

Ölbeat

I associate black forest strongly to darkness in a sad but calming sense. This brew needs to paired with a powerful but peaceful song. "Darkness cover me / Deny everything". That says it. 

Disturbed: Darkness (YouTube)

From the 2003 album Believe, the song was written by Disturbed.

Ölbeat 203: Thornbridge Huck

Brewery: Thornbridge Brewery

Country: England

Style: Imperial IPA

Abv: 7,4 %

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What about the beer?

Colour is bright golden orange with a finger-thick white head. Aroma has grapefruit, lemon, orange - nice fresh citrus palette. Taste starts with citrus bitter bite. Fresh grapefruit with gentle resin takes over. Towards the end bitterness grows and both citrus (grapefruit-lemon-orange) and pine come clearer through. Aftertaste has lots of lasting strong grapefruit and spicy piny dryness.

High quality Double IPA. Beautifully tasty citrus with developing piny bitterness. Extremely enjoyable. In my books Thornbridge seems to have the top resume in Pale Ales in England.

Ölbeat

The combining theme with the beer and the song's name is obvious. The brewery hasn't kept its beers inside Derbyshire borders, but sent them "over the hills and far away". Good for people like me, since we like ales that rock.

Gary Moore: Over the Hills And Far Away (YouTube)

From the 1987 album Wild Frontier, the song was written by Gary Moore.

Ölbeat 202: Thornbridge Crackendale

Brewery: Thornbridge Brewery
Country: England
Style: American Pale Ale
Abv: 5,2 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is bright light yellow with a small white head. Aroma has fresh lemon and a malty scent. Taste begins with sour-bitter lemon. Sour-tart lemon and bitter malts take over. Near the finish malty dryness is added to the flavours. Aftertaste has lemon sourness and gentle malty-dry bitterness.

Refreshing sour fruity American Pale Ale. Citra hop really comes through with bitter malt flavour and gently dry finish. Easy and nice.

Ölbeat

Almost picked the neighboring song Lemon, but this proved to be just the right kind of funky piece of music. Spoken disco rock - or whatever you want to call it - fits the brew perfectly.

U2: Numb (YouTube)

From the 1993 album Zooropa, the song was written by U2.

Ölbeat 201: Thornbridge Chiron

Brewery: Thornbridge Brewery
Country: England
Style: American Pale Ale
Abv: 5 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is bright golden orange with a finger-thick white head. Aroma has fresh orange, lemon, pineapple and flowery notes. Taste begins with fresh grapefruit. Smoothly bitter and superfresh grapefruit juice fills the mouth with slightly sweet citrus side tone. Near the finish bitter grapefruit and gentle pine get on top. Aftertaste has fruity bitterness and slight dryness.

Fresh and fruity American Pale Ale. Nicely drinkable grapefruit mouth massage. Excellent example how fruity and good a relatively low abv ale can be, when the right hops are used with a solid malty base.

Ölbeat

Probably a wrong choice, but easy drinking beer is matched with a simple and catchy pop rock song. First that popped in my head.

Blur: Song 2 (YouTube)

From the 1997 album Blur, the song was written by Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree.

Ölbeat 200: De Molen Hel & Verdoemenis

Brewery: Brouwerij de Molen 
Country: Netherlands
Style: Imperial Stout 
Abv: 10 %
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What about the beer?

Bottled 13.5.2015. Colour is black with no visible head. Aroma has charcoal roasted malts, strong black coffee and dark chocolate. Taste begins with strong charred roast with sweet alcohol bite. Silky bitter charcoal roasted malts and semisweet smooth leathered alcohol take over with coffee and chocolate notes in the background. Towards the end dark-roasted sweet coffee and bitter dark chocolate come through, mixed in spicy and delicious liquor. Aftertaste has roasted coffee dryness, cocoa bitterness and alcohol warmth and lasts unbelievably long.

Incredible and magical Imperial Stout. Had this as my first De Molen brew over a year ago as a half-year old bottling. Wanted another one, waited to open the bottle for over a year. "Worth the wait" is the worst diminutive now. Strong and heavy but still smooth and silky. Flavours - roast and bitterness, coffee and chocolate - are powerful and unflattened. Just want to keep the liquid evolving in your mouth forever. Perfect beer for me, if there is one. Truly deserves to bee the 200th Ölbeat.

Ölbeat

Classic heavy beer has to be accompanied by a classic heavy metal song. Besides being on the list of my all-time favourites - with couple of other Sabbath tracks - the theme of paranoia fits the brew's theme nicely. Thoughts of afterlife, especially the condemning kind, are generally a result of someone's impaired mental health.

Black Sabbath: Paranoid (YouTube)

From 1970 the album Paranoid, the song was written by Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne.

2nd Ölbeat

Of course, the 200th Ölbeat deserves two songs. We stick with the same band - who asked for a change? - and move the their next album. This song's connection to the brew: thinking about one's personal destiny while living isn't worth a shit when there are people facing Hell and Damnation in their daily lives.

Black Sabbath: Children of the Grave (YouTube, w/ Embryo as an intro)

From the 1971 album Master of Reality, the song was written by Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne.