Jimbo's Beerblog

Splendid session IPA! Fruits, freshness, high drinkability, beautiful and super tasty! **** Great PS. Pic by me from my yard in the midst of beautiful Finnish summer in my home town of Kajaani, 2017

Lager  Piss all night long! deviantart.com *** Imperial Stout   Wanna be an imperial fool? kalenotolan.com     *** Double IPA   Double hangover guaranteed! telegraph.co.uk   *** Saison   Taste the horse saddle modelmayhem.com

Very tasty 8,7% ABV reddish ale with huge malty body tackled with hops, which makes it easy to drink – not too sweet or hoppy, but very tasty, fullbodied, enjoyable nightwarmer. **** Great 

Nice citrusy 7,3% ABV IPA.  Very easy-drinkable, refreshing but still very tasty, with fruity hoppy overall taste. ***+ Very Good

Nice ale. Easy-drinkable, easy-going.  Maybe more of a malty “scotch ale” than American styled, though hops are dry at the finish.  Didn't make any notes during a taste, so sorry to say, that overall this was a bit forgettable... *** OK

Tangerine and pineapple infused IPA from high quality brewery.  Great, fruity IPA. Tasty and high drinkable. Beautiful stuff. **** Great

Wow. I love Mikkeller Porter, it is the best porter in my books.  Now some Chipotle Chili -infused stuff and I'm amazed – it is even better.  This is so fucking overwhelmingly tasty! I love chipotle. I love hoppy porter over sweet ones.  This has nicely roasted malts, chipotle and hoppy aftertaste. Dark chocolate and coffee/espresso. Just beautiful and perfect. ****+ Perfect porter, magnifique!

Beer that tastes nothing? Almost.  Definitely easy drinkable :D **+ Not bad, but forgettable PS.  <- That is a very rare own picture from my own yard party in the middle of nice Finnish summer of 2017 :)

Summer holidays and American Wit, cool.  Nice, spicy, Belgian styled wheat beer with coriander and something else, forgot it.  But who cares, this is great summer beer, so let’s enjoy, cheers! ***+ Very Good PS. This review is from summer of 2017 :)

UU JEAH! Saison for the summer.  Crisp, summery, peppery, fucking great and enjoyable saison! Perfect man! **** Great summer beer PS. Review is from summer 2017 :)

Friend brought this as a souvenir from Venezia, Italy, where he and his wife were celebrating their anniversary. Nice gift, though (of course) I was first a bit suspicious, because my first thought after seeing the bottle was “oh my, is this another strong industrial lager…” Oh boy, was I wrong. Very, very nice strong ale feel, almost like sniffing a barley wine, though not that strong. Specs I copied from net: 8,6% ABV, yeast is Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, hops used are Tettnang and Spaalt with four kinds of malts: Monaco, Pils, Caramunich and Carafa. Taste is full, warming, sweet but not ugly sweet. Malty, fruity feel (dried fruits) and enough hoppy bitterness to give drying balance to the sweetness.  Have to admit I was positively surprised but this is a brewery with historical background and they make only this strong ale and pils, so they definitely have put some effort in these selected beers. If you want some great strong ale, choose this! **** Great

A bit disappointing pils which tries to be bitter like Urquell, but manages to be it just a tiny bit.  Still, not the worst of pils’s, but could be much more with a more malty body. **+ Drinkable+

A bit watery saison which is kinda acceptable, because this was obviously forced to be lighter than the real saison with these ingredients (thanks to our now former stupid laws that forbade over 4,7% beers to be sold anywhere else but state monopoly stores - obviously it is 2018 now, and the law has changed!! But review is from dark ages of 2017).  This manages to give some nice funky and peppery tastes, and is an easy drinkable and sessionable stuff. ***- Quite OK PS. There is a new version of this with its natural ABV!

I bought a “Big Four” –pack from local grocery store. This is Finnish indie brewery from Tampere and the 4-packs name in Finnish is “iso nelonen”, which is a humorous nod to the beers earlier known as IV-beers here in Finland, that were only sold in state monopoly Alko and restaurants. When people got to a bar, they ordered a beer by saying “tuoppi”, “olut” or by taxation classes “kolmonen” (III class beers sold in stores) or “nelonen” (IV class beers). Nowadays most bars sell beers by their name, but there are still those more traditional Finnish shitty bars (“räkälä” in Finnish, which translates roughly as “snotty house”), in which the beer is sold either by “tuoppi” (which usually is III class basic lager) or if asked, as “iso nelonen”. So, nowadays we can buy “iso nelonen” also from grocery store – but just as a Pyynikin humorous 4-pack of 0,5l cans :D Well, what about the beer? This was a bit cold when I opened the can, so scent was a bit metallic, but the taste was suber...

pic from:  https://raimoleskinen.1g.fi/kuvat/ Okay, this might be the best porter ever, but its greatness is due to couple of things: Its cheap, its Finnish, its classic.  Is it good? Hell yeah.  Is it great? Well, of course.  Is it the best beer ever? Hmm, nope. Im sorry, times have changed, this is “just” great :) **** Great Porter

My old favorite indie brewery from Finland. They use traditional emmerwheat  and other rare grains, but here emmer is the key to success. Soft, easy-going, easy drinkable, but enjoyable pure pale ale to drink with food and just enjoyment of course.  No gimmicks, just good stuff with nice, balanced, nicely hopped beer. ***+ Good

Well, this was a bit harder to digest than Duvel, because there are so much dark ales and Belgs and everything out there, so why should this trappist be called classic?  Its good, its nice, its enjoyable, its easygoing, its nice and its so fucking tasty. But is it great?  It’s a classic, and I cant complain, but there are great ones and there are very good ones, and honestly, I have to classify this now as the latter one. Thanks monks, you do a great job and every beer of yours is great, but I cant raise this to a pedestal. Still, this is... **** Great Dark Belgian Ale

Mandarina Bavaria hops in this Finnish indie brew.  Nice, hoppy, fruity feel. Great hoppy taste and scent is nicely hoppy too. ***+ Good

Oh my fucking god, The Devil! The beer that started it, the beer enthusiasm.  This was the first beer to blow my mind.  At first it feels like so many Belgian beers – you know from the smell, that there are Belgian yeasts doing their magic.  Then there’s the color, that’s so light yellow, that you think, that maybe this doesn’t taste a lot, but how wrong can you be. Pepper, coriander, orange peel, grapefruit, bitterness, pepper, pepper, fuck this is good.  I am not a huge fan of Belgian yeasts in general, but here they make their best performance, they are at their prime, and wow, I just love this beer, year in year out, forever. ***** Great and obviously Absolutely Fabulous

Session IPA from Oulu Finland. Now we got some hops!  Magnum, Cascade and Citra make this grapefruity, citrus-infused very hoppy bitter session IPA and apricot used as spice makes this maybe a bit more fruity than just malty hop bomb.  Quite nice in its own segment of heavily hopped beers. ***- OK

A profession-series, arkkitehti means an architect and this is IPA, quite British like with not so bitter ending, but still high drinkability, very easy going stuff, malty and nutty, enough hops to balance this as an easily enjoyable beer. *** Good

Spring is here! Green Currant infused Saison from Mathildedal, small Finnish indie brewery.  Quite flat with no head, a bit soda-like stuff, even in taste, which still has very nice saisonish bitterness and spiciness, but very easy drinkable and refreshing stuff.  Not any wow-factors here, but could be a good portal beer for the white wine drinkers and such :) ***- OK

Another highly sessionable Pale Ale. Just tasty and easy-drinkable.  Nothing to complain, could drink this any time with anything / anyone. Good one. *** Good

Pale Ale with Orange peel. Very easy drinkable and easy-going ale.  Highly sessionable as many other Brooklyn beers. I like it. Its not anything big or huge, and maybe even a bit “too light” bodied, but this is basic good beer. ***- Sessionable easy-going Ale

Dark Red Ale with Rowan berry. In Finland we punks know legendary rowan berry wine Sorbus (which is actually a latin phrase for rowan). “Sorbus, nectar of the gods!” shouted Soppatykki-singer – in Finnish obviously so here’s some of the lyrics for you people to sing along: “Vituttaa natsiskinit, ja muka täydelliset pilvihipit, vittu ei kiinnosta, siks juomme Sorbusta!”  What has punk rock then got to do with Jazz ale? Well, I believe, that greatest jazz is also anarchism towards the “rules”. Pyynikin brewery is definitely a mix of punk and jazz, an indie brewery making things their way and also this beer shows, that you can do very tasty “mild” ales mixing up things and experimenting with different kinds of spices, hops and malts. Nice, malty, red/copper brown beer, with lots of nice hoppiness to tackle the malty sweetness. Very good beer that does not lack any body for its 4,7% ABV. Hop palette is  Target, EKG, Amarillo, Citra. There’s also lots of different malts...

Indie brew from Manse, Finland. Not a lot Pyynikin beers have visited my glass, so its time to correct the situation with possibly one of their crown jewels.  This black stuff smells like bourbon all right, sweet and sugary rum. Taste gives the same sensations but with very nice hoppy bitterness that gives a nice afterburn to melt down too sugary feel. Very nice first touch, quite nice and balanced.  Still after couple of tastes this feels even a bit too easy? I’m not saying this is bad, but it could use some edge somewhere, its juts very nice, but… Don’t get me wrong, this is not bad, this is fucking good. But for it to be for example “best beer in Finland” or even close to the best imperial stouts, well, there is still something to be done to get there. After all this blaablaa, I just have to say, go get this and enjoy, its very good, but not sensational. ***+ Very Good

Porter with coffee and vanilla.  It has been long since I had Ballast Point beers, but I remember I loved them. This is no exception.  A very refreshing porter with fucking nice hoppiness.  Exceptional. **** Great

WTF?! Smoky IPA.  Sounds shit, tastes like, umm, nice. And whats most interesting, it tastes refreshing as hell, this is highly sessionable beer.  All-around nice, easy-drinkable beer which actually benefits from the smoke as it gives this a unique vibe with session-IPA style. **** Great

Nice Wit with great hoppiness = White IPA.  Very enjoyable beer indeed.  Bitterness, spicyness, hoppiness. Citra, Cascade, Equinox, Centennial hops. Orange peel, coriander and juniper berries also as spices.  Very light yellow foggy bitter magic. **** Great

Black Forest IPA as they say in label.  7% black liquid with huge head.  Sugar and bitterness, a bit too harsh/sharp/raw for me.  Disappointing, as many of these Pohjala-beers have been huge. ** Drinkable

Another one from Scottish Orkney Islands based craft brewery.  This one is interesting: Only 3,9% ABV, so is this just watery hoppy juice?  Not at all, highly sessionable “light” beer for those, who want a low ABV beer but still hoppy ale. Great! **** Great

Scottish Orkney Islands based craft brewery.  Interesting American hopped 4,7% ale from grocery store. Scent is beautifully fruity, at least mango-like vibe.  This includes wheat alongside barley and is very easy drinkable nice Pale Ale with enough hoppiness to be highly sessionable brew. *** OK

Amorphis is a Finnish heavy/progressive/folk metal band that started in 1990 as a Death metal act and has this tribute beer made by Finnish indie brewery Maku. Usually band brews have been tasteless or metallic (sic) piss, so I didn’t expect a lot. Maybe this has that metallic sense in smell, but taste is way better, nicely hopped lager. Simple, basic lager with Czech pils-styled hoppiness, which I like a lot ***+ Very good lager

Flat, no head. Very juicelike outlook. Smells like ginger.  A bit sour, but still sweet juice. Ginger gives freshness.  Good dessert beer with fruity feel. *** OK

Another Estonian beer I ordered from our beloved alcohol monopol’s new onlinestore, as it delivers the beers thoughout Finland to this backwoods town in the middle of nowhere. A sweet nectar with an espresso (expressly sweetened) vibe. Maybe a bit too sweet to be called “A Dark Night” for me, but I like these overthetop-sweetened ones still more than those burnedburnedburned-ones. Actually I don’t think sweetness is necessary for imperial stout, but it might still be necessary for the full-bodied-experience and to hide its volume of alcohol.  Nice and mildly bitter one this is, maybe some of that fine hoppy bitterness would make this better, but it matters not, this is Dark Night, so fuck it, I take and ingest and drink and swallow this as it it. ***+ OK+