Spring is supposed to be on!

Strasselberg himself takes the liberty of wishing hilarious May the 1st to all hardworking beer makers & beer drinkers!

Schnaps ist Schnaps und Bier ist Bier!

Jawohl!

Perhon Rohkea by The Perho Culinary College

Semiclear, unfiltered beer, 4,7% ABV, having clean and briskly fruity aroma, the product of fermentation done by some British style ale yeast. This Amber Ale certainly isn't meant to be a hop bomb; obviously, primarily bittering hops have been used, which is most welcome choice and line these days of the overwhelming aftershaveishly fragrant prevalence of American and Pacific hops.

Perhon Rohkea is a full-bodied Amber Ale characterized by, aside from its gentle fruitiness of fermentation origin, chocolaty maltiness counterpoised by moderate hop bitterness suiting well to wide range of beer drinkers and food.

This beer has become a classic having been brewed at the same locality over 20 years now the recipe unchanged. The brewery is a waistcoat pocket-sized educational one with the lilliputian batch size of 120 liters housed by The Perho Culinary College, in Helsinki; the place where the most of the Finnish top chefs de cuisine originate from. All the beer turned out by own brewery is quite naturally consumed by the guests of the popular educational restaurant The Perho located at the premises.

Pietniemi Pale Ale by Rocking Bear Brewers; the chamber of craft beer horrors of the good old 1990's revisited, part two.

Hazy, unfiltered stuff, 4,5% ABV. Watery, nonexistent body with harsh polyphenolic, mouth-puckering astringency in mouthfeel. Furthermore, overcarbonated. Lack of body together with that terrible mouthfeel alone makes this undrinkable to me, the blogger.

Whereas the mouthfeel was marked by astringent polyphenols, the aroma is prevailed by volatile phenols, presumably from various sources! Overwhelming is the clove-like one (4VG) with some pepper. This may well originate from the brewing yeast strain used. In the background, there is an unmistakable farmyard-type phenol (4EP) signature which is most likely to originate from brettanomyces wild yeast contamination. Moreover, the bewildering complexity of the blend of phenolic off-flavors in this non-beer or shit-bomb makes me, the blogger, even to think of the most horrible possibility of the involvement of wort spoilage bacteria...

This self-proclaimed "Pale Ale" makes the blogger's blood pressure rocket to dangerous levels. Just another warning example of crap hastily turned out by the ongoing craft brewing boom. Certainly got the kitchen drain treatment immediately after verdict.

We ought never to forget that in brewing decent beer we need, more than anything else, three assets: culture, experience and wit. Those are the main ingredients of the thing we call craftsmanship...

Rokkarin Luu APA by Mallaskuun Panimo; the chamber of craft beer horrors of the good old 1990's revisited!

Cloudy unfiltered stuff, 4,5% ABV. Aroma is dubiously sulfury-phenolic with cooked vegetables galore (dimethyl sulfide, DMS); disgusting! Certainly there isn't a trace of the hops used (Centennial, Citra, Columbus) mid the thick mess of abhorrent off-flavors.

Taste confirms what the aroma promises, and fulfills the worst fears: vile mess of sulfury and phenolic off-flavors including burnt rubber and bakelite, dimethyl sulfide dominating...

I, the blogger, characterize this as a non-beer, a miserable failure, probably due to both microbial contamination (bacteria and wild yeasts) and brewing technical shortcomings. Calling this an American Pale Ale is a disgrace! Undrinkable crap, certainly went down the kitchen drain immediately after verdict.

A flop like this reminisces me, the blogger, about the notorious contaminated stench bombs from the beginning of the first Finnish craft brewing boom in 1990's; hopefully the ongoing one won't conjure up those old horrors in greater numbers...

In brewing decent beer we need, above all, three assets: culture, experience and wit. Those are the main ingredients of the thing called craftsmanship. Fortunately, the firs two can be developed.

Coyet Ale by Suomenlinnan Panimo

Semiclear beer, not a coyote, obviously unfiltered, 4,5% ABV, having appetizingly fresh, clean and fruity fermentation aromas produced by some reliable British workhorse of the yeast world accompanied by gentle, very English hoppiness.

Immaculate and balanced, full-bodied beer, hairsplittingly anything between Best Bitter and Pale Ale. A delightful example of a traditional and tasty beer style standing up in the chaos of savagely raging "beer trends" of today.

Another proof of Suomenlinna's excellent brewing process and fine craftsmanship; these guys seem to turn out outstanding everyday beers of consistent quality, and, without the hellish rush & fuss.

Seth Lager by Suomenlinnan Panimo

Clear beer, 4,7% ABV; no sputter of irrelevant data like EBU's, EBC's etc. to baffle an ordinary consumer. This beer contains apart from barley malt, wheat and rye, presumably in unmalted form.

Crisp and immaculately clean lager aroma, subtly on the malty side. Medium-to-full-bodied. Probably filtered but not at all too sharply to emasculate the body too much. Furthermore, pleasingly not excessively carbonated!

Taste is clean and pleasantly malty as the aroma forebodes. Rye is likely to impart that agreeable note maillard-like cereal sweetness and flavor as well. A pinch or two of bitterness could well be supplemented, although I, the blogger, don't see this beer as unbalanced at all.

Well done, absolutely no off-flavors at all in an example of the least forgiving beer style; a telltale mark of an excellent brewing process and high craftsmanship.