Ölbeat 286: Lehe / Vasileostrovskaya Ravnodenstvie

Brewery: Lehe Pruulikoda (Vasileostrovskaya - in Russian)
Country: Estonia
Style: Imperial Stout
Abv: 11 % 
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What about the beer?

Colour is black with a medium-sized beige head. Aroma has milk chocolate, strong vanilla and even some berry scent - slightly luring. Taste begins with vanillaish dark chocolate. Roasted malts, dark chocolate and delicious vanilla take over. Towards the end fruity bitterness and coffee get mixed to the sweet vanilla-chocolate liquid. Aftertaste has dark chocolate, vanilla spice and dry cocoa bitterness - and it lasts.

Sweetish chocolate-vanilla dominated Imperial Stout. Chocolate chips and Madagascar vanilla used in the brewing really stick out in the flavour. And it's liquid perfection. Thick, strong and smooth brew - only thing that's missing is booze. But I don't mind. The strong collabs seem to work fine with Lehe.

Ölbeat

Ravnodenstvie (in Russian) means equinox, the moment when day and night are approximately equal, which happens twice a year around 20 March and 23 September. So, choosing the album and the artist was easy. Since the brew is so complex and great, I probably should have chosen the whole album (Spotify, YouTube) here, but because it's one beer and one song, the choice between parts 4 and 5 turned to the victory of the former.

Jean-Michel Jarre: Equinoxe, Pt. 4 (YouTube)

From the 1978 album Equinoxe, the song was written by Jean-Michel Jarre.

Ölbeat 285: Ôllenaut Must Eksport Puidul

Brewery: Õllenaut
Country: Estonia
Style: Baltic Porter
Abv: 11,1 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is black with a diminishing beige crown. Aroma has milk chocolate, vanilla, roast and coffee. Taste starts with sweet boozy roast. Sweet charred malts and milk chocolate take over with some coffee and vanilla flavours. Towards the end chocolate-malty sweetness gets joined with roasted smooth bitterness and spicy oak. Aftertaste has sweet vanillaish chocolate, bitter cocoa powder and malty roast.

Delicious sweet-spicy Imperial Baltic Porter. The bourbon barrel chips show their nature in flavour. Otherwise it's smooth layers of chocolate supported by roast and vanilla. Excellent dessert brew. Top of the art once again by Ôllenaut.

Ölbeat

This is the 10th post of a beer brewed by this great Estonian brewery - hopefully the series continues*. Haven't had an ordinary beer from them yet. All step out of the pack and have been excellent. So the song choice reflects my relationship with their brews.

Apocalyptica (feat. Brent Smith): Not Strong Enough (YouTube)

From the 2010 album 7th Symphony, the song was written by Diane Warren.

* I count the whisky experiment with traditional Must Eksport in, because the beers chosen to the test were top of the notch brews. And other opinions don't matter.

Ölbeat 284: Käbliku Penumbra

Brewery: Käbliku Pruulikoda (in Estonian)
Country: Estonia
Style: Imperial Stout
Abv: 10,6 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is black with a tiny beige lace. Aroma has sweet espresso, dark chocolate, roasted malts and spicy booze. Taste starts with sweet and bitter espresso. Sweet roasted malts and strong espresso take over with dark chocolate and spicy booze. Towards the end dark chocolate bitterness and boozy sweetness take over. Aftertaste has bitter cocoa, dry roasted malts and spicy alcohol.

Complex, simply superb Imperial Stout. Beautiful domination of dark chocolate and sweet espresso, not forgetting the solid roast and growing bitterness. Flavours seem simple but strong. Great work from this rather new Estonian brewery.

Ölbeat

Umbra, penumbra, antumbra. All are forms of shadows - umbra the perfect one, while the others are partial. Or something. Well, at least there's a lot of darkness in the brew. Probably some perfect and some partial.

Children Of Bodom: Kissing the Shadows (YouTube)

From the 2000 album Follow the Reaper, the song was written by Alexi Laiho.

Ölbeat 283: Emelisse / Bad Hair White Label Barley Wine (Yura / Old Pulteney BA)

Brewery: Brouwerij Emelisse (Bad Hair Brewing)
Country: Netherlands
Style: Barley Wine
Abv: 12 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is dark coffee brown with a thin tan head. Aroma has sweet chocolate, dark fruits and boozy caramel. Taste begins with silky milk chocolate. Fruity caramel sweetness and spicy-oaky whisky takes over with boozy bitterness. Towards the end sweet chocolate rises with warming alcohol and growing bitterness. Aftertaste has bittersweet boozy dark fruits, smooth chocolate and lasting warming alcohol.

Sweet, strong and delicious barrel-aged Barley Wine. Fruits, chocolate, caramel - all in aroma, delivered in flavours, too. The whisky adds oak, spices and booze and enhances fruits and bitterness. At least Old Pulteney is clearly present - and hopefully the name of the other whisky on the label is misspelled (Yura -> Jura). Despite one wrong letter, this is a magnificent brew from Emelisse.

Ölbeat

Barrel-aging is based on experimenting with beer. This experiment was done with fine Scottish whisky barrels. So I searched for experimental rock from Scotland. Had some questions - the brew gave me excellent answers. And there we have it.

Biffy Clyro: Questions and Answers (YouTube)

From the 2003 album The Vertigo of Bliss, the song was written by Simon Neil.

Ölbeat 282: Hiisi Hati

Brewery: Panimo Hiisi (in Finnish)
Country: Finland
Style: Saison
Abv: 5,7 %
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What about the beer?

Colour is hazy yellow with a medium-sized white head. Aroma has lemon, sour apple and yeast. Taste starts with spiky fruity tartness. Tart lemon and spicy fruity yeast take over with some wheat-malty sweetness. Towards the end sour-sweet citrus takes the upper hand. Aftertaste has sour-bitter citrus and spicy dryness.

Refreshing fruity and spicy Saison. Tart-sour citrus is nicely supported by yeast, wheat and spiciness. Fine summer ale from Hiisi.

Ölbeat

According to Norwegian folklore, Hati ("He Who Hates") is a warg, a wolf that chases the moon to swallow it during the Ragnarök, an apolyptical event. The wolf is obviously hungry for the rock that the Moon consists of. In this classic pop song, there's some different kind of hunger. Norwegian electropop hustlepuff that the brewery recommends just doesn't fit to the picture. 

Duran Duran: Hungry Like the Wolf (YouTube)

From the 1982 album Rio, the song was written by Duran Duran.