The best beer of the first three months, and one of the best beers I’ve ever tasted is Anchorage Brewing Company’s A Deal With the Devil – Triple Oaked. A massive and hefty barley wine that clocks in at an impressive 23ABV, without any intrusive booziness. It’s also the most expensive beer tasted so far, 4cl weighing in at 23€. My first exposure to Anchorage’s beast, at the annual Deal With the Devil day – looking forward to the next.
Domestically the top honours go to Revenant’s Archway – a fabulously fruitful IPA that truly delivered after a great meal at Teller.
FI: AAA-luokan tavaraa niin kotimaasta kuin Alaskastakin
The best beer of the year was picked up on location, on Aker Brygge in Oslo: Lervig’s Spicy Dark Choco Mole was a culmination of mexican-flavoured beer. With chili and chocolate aplenty in the taste, the only shortcoming was that I only bought a single bottle.
The best domestic is from the newcomer built on the sadly missed Pien Brewing. Factory’s High Tide is truly an awesome hazy IPA, with juice and hops at just the appropriate mixture.
FI: kansainvälisesti mustaa ja makeaa, kotimaasta maailmanluokan IPAa.
Despite the lack of fanfare for the past in this blog, it’s nonetheless nice to note the best beers tasted during the Years of Darkness. The rules remain the same: one beer only, and (even when there’s a tie in the ratings) and a strict preference for new entries ahead of repeats.
Mortalis Brewing Company’s Zeus takes the pole position. A full-bodied double IPA packed full of grapefruity goodness.
On the domestic side the winner is also an IPA: Olari’s Olaron Michigan Copper – their first experiment with a new hop. This was the headliner on midsummer fish table, and still remains the benchmarks for the occasion.
When trying in vain to catch up with reality, month-granularity is your friend.
The mostly pleasant summer season was dominated by hoppy IPAs.
Top honours go to Omnipollo’s I’m With Stupid, which provided exquisite liquid relief after a ragingly hot day in Stockholm.
And the domestic center podium is occupied by Salama and Track collaboration Monopods R Us, which was the highlight of the brewery visit (and stupidly enough I bought only one can on the occasion).
FI: Loppukesän kärjessä tiukasti humaloidut oluet.
The best beer of the first six months was Cloudwater’s take on a Trillium-original: Insert Hip Hop Reference There, a massively heavy New England Triple IPA that skirts both booziness and hop burn neatly and remains just omnipleasantly juicy throughout.
Domestically the top dog is Salama’s Choco Loco Maca, which neatly combines two of my favorites: macadamia nuts and chocolate. Soft, sweet and dark.
FI: Yllätyksettömästi alkuvuoden valiokisi valikoitui hedelmäistä IPAa ja makeaa stouttia.
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.
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.
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.
The best beer of July is the brighest light in the six cans released by Olarin Panimo in one big bunch: Runaway, a multihopped NEIPA that delivers a righteous mix of fruit and bitterness in a convenient package.
Outside of Finland’s breweries, the highest marks went to a discovery from the lowest reaches of the stash: Giljagaur Nr. 14 from Borg BrugghĂşs in Reykjavik. This barley wine had stayed forgotten for ages, but was, obviously, none worse for wear: full-bodied and strong without any extra booziness or sweetness.
FI: Polkkaustauon aikana Olarin Panimo on ottanut huikeita edistysaskeleita ja on kevyesti Espoon ja koko valtakunnan ykköspanimo tällä hetkellä.
Oops, very late with this, forgot the longest tradition when resurrecting the blog.
The pole position goes to a very seasonally inappropriate beer: Coolhead’s Peanut Butter Caramel Crisp, a dark and sweet imperial stout better suited for November. Nonetheless, it beat the summery competition, all the perky pilses and invigorating IPAs clean out of contention. And happily enough it looks like being available in the Friday’s can sales in Tuusula.
Peanut Butter Caramel Crisp
The best non-domestic beer is FrauGruber’s Sunrise to Sunset, one of the invigoration IPAs, with a low ABV and a heady mix of fruitful hops.
FI: Synkänvärinen pähkinäsuklainen nesteytetty mutakakkuhan se heinäkuun palkinnon vei.
The best beer of the months was also the most expensive one (some correlation, definitely no causation): Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Cocoa Shake sampled when the brewery opened a bar in Helsinki. Essentially this is a liquid chocolate cake, and would be awesome as a dessert beer in November – served way-too-chilled on an ever-bright summer evening was not its optimal operating environment.
Beer Geek Cocoa Shake
The domestic winner was Radbrew’s Wasteland Oasis, a well-hopped wheat beer. The hops keep the bananish aromas well in check, and the beer is refreshing and very summery indeed.
FI: Vahva kontrasti – toinen toimii kesällä ja toinen olisi parhaimmillaan muumilaakson marraskuun depistä vastaan taistellessa.
Stone’s Xocoveza was an unexpected pleasure – a quasi-mexican imperial stout packed with chocolate, chili and spices. An unlikely combination, but one that ended up being the top dog in the christmas sortiment.
The best finnish entry is seriously dark as well, though I found the original Iku-Turso a more balanced beer than its barrel-aged big brother Ikii-Urso).
The latter domestic (as in Humala Halkaisi Ihmisen Kahtia, a fine NEIPA indeed), the former Estonian (Öö Xo, yet another entry in the mostly high-quality Öö-series).
Vermont RavitThe top honors of a month are awarded to a domestic beer for the first time in ages. Tuju’s Vermont Ravit shines so bright that it cannot be bypassed. A massively hopped NEIPA that just waits for a re-run.
On the international side Stone’s Tangerine Express continues the seemingly eternal march of the pale ale. Though this is well-fruited, it never loses the spry hoppiness either. And the bomber size makes it just right for a slightly larger crowd.
brewnardo 