Explorations in beer
This month’s special selection in the monopoly features “abbey-styled beers”.
Four belgians, featuring a single genuine trappist: Chimay Première / Red.
Two germans.
Very much on the boring side. Presumably next month’s selection will be devoted to even more boring group: Oktoberfest.
Have the Carcassonne graphics been spruced up between editions, this does not look like a classic cloister at all.
FI: Tylsänpuoleinen luostariolutvalikoima.
This year’s best beer brewed in Finland is Takatalo & Tompuri‘s Kaski Savubock.
Unfortunately it is a very limited release, available at the brewery in Virolahti and the nearby monopoly stores. Will keep an eye out, but I bet it’ll be a while before it lands in the capital area.
While some of the annual selections have been questionable (like blandly boring Valo a couple of years back), the 2021 choice was spot-on: Olari’s Runaway was and is an impeccable take on NEIPA.
As expected the wikipedia page on the subject provides a mighty lowdown on the prospects and winners. But only up to 2020, so there’s two years of statistics waiting for somebody to act on.
FI: Harmittavaisen vaikeasti haalittavaan raati päätyi.
No question about it, 2021 was a very dark year – personally and globally, and that shows in the selection. Two hefty and pitch-black imperial stouts take the top positions both domestically and overall.
Goose Island’s Bourbon County Brand Stout has long been a bucket list beer, and when Beer Republic advertised its availability, picked up the vintages that were available. And it lived up to the hefty expectations. Rampant bourbon, but far less booziness than expected of a beer closing in on 15 ABV.
Domestically the podium position went to an old comrade in new clothing. Hiisi’s Ikiiurso Islay Barrel Aged ticks all the boxes. Dry and smoky, black and imposing. Just the thing to cap off a miserable November day.
FI: Koronavuosi 2021 valitutti vain ja ainoastaan pikimustaa.
Following Mikkeller’s licensing of Game of Thrones-related brews, Brewdog takes on the other big gorilla in the room: Lord of the Rings. Though initially only in the US. Which is more than a little odd and unexpected, since the new Amazon-produced series is streaming worldwide.
Starting with a fashionable IPA, I’m sure the range will be expanded mercilessly. And for the record, I will be looking forward to inevitable the Chili-infused imperial stout celebrating the Balrog.
FI: Sauronin maissilageria odotellessa.
The lapse into silence for a fortnight was due to unexpectedly hectic bout of work.
Ought to be better now.
Or at least louder.
FI: Tauko. Lyhyt. Tahaton.
c/o Hops, the finest nordic beer magazine has decided to call it quits.
But instead of a simple “that’s it”, the editors have ruled that four more issues shall be published as a long goodbye.
Bought a thick stack of the back issues and subscribed for the final stretch.
FI: Pohjolan paras olutlehti poistuu pitkin jäähyväisin.
Had completely missed that Alko is running a program of limited selections. No idea how long it has been running on beers, but this discovery of a triplet of Mikkellers was pleasant – two big imperial stouts and one interesting / scary cherry wild ale is a fine combination.
FI: Ainakin ensimmäinen bongattu pienerä näyttää sopivan vaikuttavalta.
Scoreswise, the 2020 crop was even – both the domestic entry and the overall winner shared the score.
Brouwerij de Molen does not compete with fancy labels, but contents-wise the edition of Hel & Verdoemnis aged in Bowmore barrels left a deep impression. It combines dark chocolate with smoke – just as expected for an Islay-touched beer. I think this baby got picked up in Amsterdam’s Bierkoning – should have stocked up on a much wider variety of de Molen’s darkest brews.
Domestic winner was also an imperial stout: Coolhead’s Peanut Butter Caramer Crisp, whose beauty has been previously extolled in this very blog. A far sweeter stout than its dutch colleague, sticky and clingy even.
FI: Tumma voimakaksikko.
Took a slightly more modern theme in use.
Clearly the era of carefully inlining photographical content into the flow of text is gone.
And that necessitates a reworking of the posts, as the narrow confines of a message no longer accommodate the old skool ways.
So pardon the mess in the archives for a while. This should not take that long to accomplish.
FI: Kuvien säätöä WordPressin mielestä tolkullisemmin asetelluiksi.
Upgraded to a paid plan.
New domain is use right away: http://brewnardo.com.
No more commercials spewed amongst the content.
And there was much rejoicing.
FI: Mainokset pois ja uusi osoite.
Every hobby (and laterally, every blog centered on a hobby) needs a side project.
The first side project here will be a series of articles on beers that left a lasting impression – most of them positive, but hardly 100% so.
Aiming for chronological order, to the limits of recall.
Kicking off with a truly classic czech entry first. Stay tuned.
FI: Vahvimpia muistijälkiä oluenmaistelu-uran varrelta.
Visited Panimo Himo last month and was quite thoroughly impressed. So impressed that I failed to take any photographs on site.
Himo is located in the Pirkkala Citymarket überstore in Tampere. The location pretty much necessitates using a car, as it is firmly located in the big box store neighbourhood.
The brewery itself is within the store, whilst a subset of the offering (anything over 5.5 ABV) is sold in a separate location within the building. A location that is not at all signposted in the main store, likely leading to missed sales.
Himo is a real and serious brewery-in-shop, and first of its kind – its sole predecessor, Tammisto failed to impress with its offers of bland beers regularly sold out, and not one of them going above the milkstore limit. Himo, on the other hand ranges from odd sours to quadruple IPAs, not catering solely for the everyday shoppers.
Pirkkala shop’s beer selection is the biggest I’ve seen in Finland, and very nicely laid out, with most of the wares cold-stored.
Will be back. With a camera.
FI: Himo yllätti erinomaisen positiivisesti, oluita monesta tyylistä.m
In a much abbreviated archæological trawl of memories, the “best of”-selections shall be constrained to annual updates up to the most recent past.
Top honours go to Stone Brewing’s 2018 edition of W00tstout. A thick and wondrously deep and sweet stout. It truly is a mystery why I never stocked up on this afterwards as it was easily available over the christmas period.
And curiously enough, this beer further cements how wrong I was about Wil Wheaton back in the day – my dislike of Wesley Crusher has been reversed by the likes of headlining Stand By Me, being a reliably prickly NPC in Big Bang Theory and creating Table Top, the first sensible board game channel on Youtube. And this magnificent “pushing the winter away, sip by sip”-beer.
Domestically the highest score was attained by Coolhead’s Juicy Lucy, a very hop-heavy DIPA. Especially appropriate with its namesake – a cheeseburger in which all the cheese has been stuffed within the patty, explicitly helping prevent the meat from drying out.
In this, as in all “best of”-listings new beers shall have precedence ahead of repeats (even if the scores do not agree, otherwise the winter solstice-classic Sunturnbrew would top the chart every year).
FI: Vuoden 2019 parhaat kahdesta ikisuosikkikategoriasta: sameaa IPAa ja makeaa imperial stoutia.
For a few years Alko, the domestic supplier, has provided monthly “special batches” – divided to beer, wine and harder liquors, which are released on the first Thursday of the month.
The selection themes have been rather variable, ranging from severely unnecessary (milkstore-ABV’d beers) to really interesting (european IPAs from odd countries). The special batches have also replaced the annual “craft beer months”.
August theme is on the limp side, opaquely termed “low alcohol choices” has two beers that are easily available in any well-equipped stores, a sour that I wasn’t that fond of, a low-voltage gin’n’tonic and fortunately also two actually worthwhile entries – both previously unsighted session IPAs.
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