Christmas beers 2016

I tend to write a Christmas beer post every year, and this year is no different. I've been able to taste some excellent Christmas beers again this year before Christmas, and will hopefully have more good ones in Finland. Here is my this year's selection.

Mikkeller: Hoppy Lovin' Christmas 7,8 %

• India pale ale brewed with ginger and pine needles
• pale colour
• note of booze, tangerine and toffee in the nose
• fresh taste, citrus, tangerine, pine
• very drinkable, with slight tastes of caramel, grass and bitterness in the end

Anchor Brewing Co.: Merry Christmas 2016 Happy New Year 6,5 %

• dark with a light brown head
• toffee, mild burnt notes, liquorice, caramel
• dry spicy aftertaste
• drinkable and Christmas beery

Lervig: Kringly Kris Norwegian Juleporter 4,7 %

• deep brown with a light brown head
• chestnut with a hint of coconut
• toasty malty midtaste
• almost floral notes of spices in the aftertaste
• very refreshing for a porter

Flying Dog: K9 Winter Warmer 7,4 %

• dark red
• booze, fruit and vanilla in the nose
• banana ester flavours
• vanilla flavour throughout
• cocoa aftertaste

Kinn Bryggeri: Julefred 7,0 %

• dark red brown
• slight nuttiness, bit of caramel, good malty taste throughout
• bit or raisins
• gentle hoppy bitterness in the aftertaste

Evil Twin Brewing: Christmas Eve at a New York City Hotel Room 10%

• absolute black colour
• imperial stout
• smells of whisky and booze
• more whisky in the taste, burnt caramel, smokiness, rich bitter fruits, raisins
• sweet and smooth

Buxton Brewery Winter IPA 6,3 %

• red IPA with deep red colour
• well hopped
• grassy undertones with some pine and citrus
• assertive bitterness and darker malts

Enjoy the Christmas beers!

Your VegHog

Squash faces and pumpkin beers

I wasn't sure if I would manage any Halloween related posts, as I've been on holiday and then had a busy weekend back. It always takes a while to get back to the normal cooking routine, although I'm really happy to be cooking at home again. I don't really celebrate Halloween, but find it quite intriguing, so I wanted to make a small starter dish to celebrate the season. Maybe the faces on my chilli-honey glazed butternut squash “pumpkins” weren't quite as scary as I intended, but they did taste good.

I also wanted to taste a few pumpkin beers, so here are my impressions of them. I already wrote a post about Beavertown Brewery's Stingy Jack Spiced Pumpkin Ale last year, so I'm not going to write about that one, even though I bought it again now.

The other two beers that I wanted to taste were Roadsmary's Baby and Pumpkin IPA.

Roadsmary's Baby 6.8% by Two Roads is an ale brewed with pumpkin and spices and aged in rum barrels with vanilla beans. It has a deep orange colour and smells fruity and of vanilla. The foretaste is slightly sour with some fruity esters and spiciness and there's a long aftertaste of vanilla and hint of Christmassy spices. This beer is quite drinkable considering the strength.

The Pumpkin IPA by Flying Dog 6.7% is an ale brewed with pumpkin purée and spices. It has a very spicy scent with maple and there are strong maple notes throughout. The aftertaste has a long hoppy bitterness with strong spices and there's a lot of pumpkin in the aftertaste. Again, there is no real taste of alcohol, so this beer seems more drinkable than expected.

Have a fine All Hallow's Eve!

Your VegHog

Christmas beers 2015

I had to make my yearly Christmas beer review again and chose these seven Christmas and winter beers for tasting. They were all excellent and very seasonal.

Weird Beard - Black Christmas, A Cranberry Christmas Stout 4,5 %

• very dark brown
• toasty, dark malts and caramel with a mild fruity cranberry background

Wiper and True – Plum Pudding Porter 5,9 %

• very dark brown
• spicy foretaste
• rich, bitter malty caramel giving way to an aftertaste of burned notes and plums
• full of notes of citrus peel

The Ilkley Brewery Co. – Mary Christmas, Spiced Amber Ale 4,7 %

• dark amber
• malty, spicy start
• lots of nutmeg giving way to bitter fruits and dark toffee

Fourpure Brewing Co. – Northern Latitude, Winter Ale 6,4 %

• dark brown
• scent of resins, hops and caramel
• treacle, resin, pine and citrus notes with a little tropical fruit in the background
• not unlike a black IPA, very drinkable for such a strong beer

Flying Dog – K-9, Winter Ale 7,4 %

• reddish brown
• toffee, raisins, slightly spicy foretaste
• aftertaste has got alcohol, caramel and bitter hops

To Øl – Shameless Santa 10 %

• reddish brown
• rum, raisins, caramel and booze
• finish is rich, full of smooth malts and lingering bitter citrus

De Dolle Brouwers – Stille Nacht (2015) 12 %

• amber
• scent of toffee and banana
• toffee, nutty, rum, raisins and banana fading to rich boozy notes with a slightly bitter hoppyness

Enjoy your seasonal drinks!

Your VegHog

Beavertown Stingy Jack Spiced Pumpkin Ale

Here comes a quick drink recommendation for the season: Beavertown Brewery's Stingy Jack Spiced Pumpkin Ale. I just had to push this post in before October ends.

I always tend to like the Beavertown beers, but with this pumpkin ale they really have outdone themselves. It's a very spicy drink with many different flavours. There's a background of heavy nutmeg and juicy fruit esters, a gingery tingle on the tongue and a banana flavour. The colour of the beer is deep orange, suitably for the season. The mouthfeel is oaty with some barley, nutmeg and spicy flavour. I strongly recommend this beer and am quite sad that I have none left for this evening.

Once again, have a good time with your Halloween celebrations!

Your VegHog

Sibelius

This year is the 150^th anniversary of the birth of the great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (8.12.1865–20.9.1957). This means that there will be plenty of Sibelius themed events in Finland throughout the year. Sibelius is the one who composed the masterpiece Finlandia, probably his best known work (have a listen here). 

A beer by Vakka-Suomen Panimo was released this year to mark the occasion and Lasse Rantanen's illustration of young Sibelius is proudly presented on the bottle. I tasted this celebratory beer and here are my impressions of it.  

Sibelius Beer 4,5 %

• Foretaste with grassy barley and hints of tangerine
• Powerful toasty, caramel malts with bitter hops
• Fresh, orange citrus aftertaste

This is a good beer to be enjoyed this year and beyond, if you can only obtain it somewhere. I'm lucky enough to be able to visit Finland in a few weeks again, so I'm hoping for some nice Sibelius tasting times.

Your VegHog

Kekkonen, Kekkonen, Kekkonen...

When I was in Finland few weeks ago, I simply had to taste this new beer named after Finland's eighth president Urho Kaleva Kekkonen. Kekkonen's presidency is the longest in the Finnish history, it lasted for over 25 years. He is an iconic Finnish leader known for his active neutrality policy balancing a small country from the 1950s until early 1980s between the Soviet Union and the west. 

The title of my post refers to the vote counting in the presidential election of 1978, my year of birth. Back then the votes of the electors were read outloud, which formed a monotone reading, as Kekkonen was re-elected by a landslide victory. Watch a video clip here to get the idea of how it went. These scenes have basically become a running gag in the Finnish popular culture.

So this spring Kekkonen Keskiolut 4,2 % came to the Finnish beer market as a refreshing novelty. It's brewed by a small family brewery Saimaan Juomatehdas. I was already very keen on tasting it as soon as I heard of it, and on my holiday I finally had the chance. The design of the can is brilliantly lighthearted with Kekkonen's picture and quote. I photographed Kekkonen in the Finnish spring landscape in the countryside, I hope that he would have approved.

The colour of the beer is reddish and it's quite full-bodied. The taste has hints of toffee and bitter almost burned caramel with a light aftertaste of grapefruit. This is a very good beer and I need to get more of it soon!

Taste a Kekkonen if you can or just read about the man himself!

Your VegHog

Craft Beer Rising 2015

Last Saturday I visited a beer festival called Craft Beer Rising in London for the second time (here is my last year's post of my visit there). I liked the event so much the last time around that I knew I would return again. This year it might not have been the perfect timing after an excessive beer tasting trip to Belgium, but at least these beers were now quite different. Again I had some pretty special beer tasting experiences from mostly the UK, but also the US. Here follow some notes on the beers and ciders that I tasted.

Bear Hug Brewing: I tasted this nice Hibernation White IPA (5,2 %) already last year and was hoping that the Bear Hug Brewing would show up at the festival again this year. They are very friendly people promoting some excellent beers. The Himalayan Red Rye Ale (5 %) was a new beer for me. It tasted of pine and grapefruit with rye bread toast and had a long bitter finish.

Purity Brewing Company: Longhorn IPA (5 %) is a fresh, well-balanced beer that has almost like sweet grassy aftertaste and heads of tropical fruit. They had really cute cow beer cans there, but unfortunately the cans weren't on sale at the festival. Surely I can get them online...

Orchard Pig: Hog Father (7,4 %), was the only cider I tasted now, but It's Hog Father! As you may already know, the Orchard Pig ciders are some of my main favourites at the moment. This one was a few months ago couple of times at my local pub on tap. It's a strong still cider with a slight cinnamon flavour and vanilla in the aftertaste.

Black Isle Brewing Co.: Hibernator (7 %) is an oatmeal stout, and I wouldn't have thought that it could be this good. Because I had never tasted an oatmeal stout before, I was being somehow sceptical. The beer has bitter chocolate notes with rum and raisin. There's a liquorice and coffee smell and a smooth rich malty finish. Smoked Porter (5,5 %) seemed like the most unlikely beer for me to like, but I absolutely loved it! It has tar and whisky smell, slightly woody taste, hint of raisins. It's smooth and smoky with an aftertaste like Islay whisky.

London Fields Brewery: A local London brewery with tasty beers with nice names like the Shoreditch Triangle IPA (6 %) that has some grassy hoppy notes, has been dry hopped, dry, aromatic and tastes like a home brew. Hackney Hopster (4,2 %) is a Pacific Pale Ale that has a somewhat German style malty character and is more continental.

Beavertown: I do adore the Beavertown beers in the quirky cans and often buy them at my local beer shop. Now I didn't find the people serving especially friendly, so it also seems to have been that off putting that I forgot to write down any notes on the beers. I drank Gamma Ray (5,4 %) American Pale Ale and Bloody 'Ell (7,2 %) Blood Orange IPA. However these might appear in my blog later for a review.

Euroboozer: I tried the Schremser Bio-Roggen (5,1 %), which is an organic Cloudy Rye Beer. This beer was unfortunately served a little bit too cold. Rye would have tasted better at a warmer temperature.

Founders Brewing Company: These Founders products are just exquisite and came with a very nice service. Backwoods Bastard (10,2 %) is a Barrel Aged Scottish Ale with a blast of caramel whisky, toffee, vanilla and raisins. It's also very smooth. I have tasted the All Day IPA (4,7 %) before. Its tasting notes are resin, pine, maybe papaya and it's very fresh and easy to drink.

Hopefully this could give you some guidance for choosing quality beers, or to inspire you to visit the festival next year in London or at its other locations. Here are also a couple of atmospheric London photos I took on my way home.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Your VegHog

Karhu – "Untamed Karhu is the strongest of its breed"

As usual I brought some Finnish food and drinks with me from my holiday, some of which you will be seeing here in other posts as well. And as usual a few bottles of Karhu were among those souvenirs. “Karhu” means bear in Finnish, but this one hasn't gone for hibernation. It's a bit milder one (4,6 %) than its furry friends, but it's still strong in taste. Of course I'm talking the whole time about beer here (bear beer), in case I was being a bit cryptic.

This beer has a malty nuttiness to it with some fruity esters. The sweet fruitiness is balanced through the moderately bitter aftertaste. All in all it's a very refreshing beer and can be well enjoyed after a visit to the sauna.

I took these photos already in Finland over Christmas, as we haven't seen any snow in the southern England (yet) this winter.

Christmas beers

We're finally very close to Christmas. Here in Finland the celebrations already start tomorrow. There's some snow around here and a pleasant frost, so it's looking good.

Tasty drinks are as an important part of the holiday season as is the food. Mulled wine and cider need to be obtained for the celebrations as well as diverse Christmas beers. Obviously I will only be sipping and tasting these drinks, by no means drinking excessively.

Of course I have been tasting some international Christmas beers for you even this year. Here are my tasting notes on them.

Het Anker Gouden Carolus Christmas 10,5 %

- strong liquorice and anise taste in the beginning

- then rum and raisin and maybe plums after that

- quite different from the other Christmas beers I tasted

St Eriks Bryggeri Julale 5,4 %

- malt character

- mango and papaya

- malty honey aftertaste

- forwardly hoppy without bitterness

- loads of character of late addition of hops

Tuborg Christmas Brew 5,6 %

- malty, a little toffee and banana with a smoky finish

- rather nice wintery, Christmassy beer

- nutty in the aftertaste

- subtle apple taste throughout

BrewDog Santa Paws 4,5 %

- Christmas Scotch ale

- lovely dark deep colour, originally I said "darker than the night" when I saw it

- slight tar and smoke in the taste

- tastes of sweet caramel, roasted malt and even coffee

- aroma of burnt toffee and banana

- bitter yet smooth mouthfeel

Downton Brewery Chocolate Orange Delight 5,7 %

- strong chocolate taste

- burnt notes especially in the aftertaste

- copperly tang

- dark with a citrussy bitterness

Abbaye des Rocs Speciale Noel 9,0 %

- smells of caramel

- has a sweet caramel, toffee, plum and vanilla taste with something fruity, almost like a scorched pear

- peary estery

Mikkeller Red & White Christmas 8,0 %

- fruits, caramel, vanilla, citrus peel

- grassy hops

- floral notes

- lots of grapefruit taste

Great Heck Black Santa 5,4 %

- dark brown stout

- chocolaty, nutty, caramel, bitter

- has a fruity aftertaste

I wish a hoppy Christmas to all friends of beer!

Your VegHog

 

Taras Boulba

Smeirlap! An insult that you probably wouldn't want to make or get, but this Belgian beer has a rather dramatic label with this insult being shouted at a person. You can look the word up, if you want to know what it means. I'm however concentrating on the drink, which is a very pleasant beer by the Brasserie de la Senne in Brussels. Here is a small review of it.

Brasserie de la Senne – Taras Boulba 4,5%

• Extra hoppy ale
• Clean nose of citrus and malts
• Freshness
• Full hoppy bitterness
• Complex, almost chalky mouthfeel

This beer is definitely worth a try, if you can get it!

Your VegHog

The VegHog's great India Pale Ale tasting – Part II

Do you remember the India Pale Ale post I made a while ago? Today the tasting series is going to continue, but this time I only want to introduce one IPA, and that's from BrewDog's Hello my name is... series. 

I couldn't quite believe my eyes when I saw the bottles of Hello my name is Päivi in Finnish Alko. Of course I bought a couple, only to realise that I was one of the lucky ones who got this beer as it was sold out very quickly. I think there was a competition, which Finnish person should be chosen for this, and politician Päivi Räsänen won the voting. Read her Wiki, if you want to know who she is. The VegHog won't be commenting politically.

The photos have been taken this summer in Finland, the tasting took place a bit later in England.

Hello my name is Päivi is a unique double IPA, 8,2% strong and powered by sea buckthorn berries, as is very suitable for a Scottish-Finnish IPA. So, here are my tasting notes:

• Strong grassy, piney aroma with a fruity background
• Notes of sea buckthorn in the middle and aftertaste, in the aftertaste it even overpowers the hops
• Toffee and plum notes in the aftertaste
• It's like fir needles in a forest, like drinking the Finnish woods

Have a beautiful weekend! It's still beer garden weather here, so who knows... can't get a Päivi, though.

Your VegHog