Huvila Arctic Circle Ale

Brewed by Malmgårdin Panimo
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Malmgård, Finland

Keg 0.25L glass. Pale head. Reddish coppery colour. Soft slightly thin junipery taste. At the end hoppy bite. Soft slightly berrylike taste. Some grassiness in the nose. Something is missing...

Bottle. Pours a mahogany body with an off white head. Very hoppy pine and grapefruit with juniper twigs light bark and a salty barley wine esk finish. Medium etoh warming with a hoppy piney bite, almost like an American style barleywine. Nice ale.

Murky chestnut pour reveals some sticky lacing left by a 1/2 inch eggshell head. Aroma of raisin, brown sugar, and spice. Flavor is buttermilk biscuit, honey, roasted malt and only the slightest inclusion of juniper. Medium mouthfeel. Tasty.

Draught (Villi Wäinö, Helsinki) - Brown with a slight haze and some red tinges. Fruity aroma with juniper, raisins, marzipan and malt. Fruity and slightly hoppy taste with juniper, strawberries, malt and pepper.

Pours a dark but not opaque red-brown with a fizzy head. The aroma is of sweet malt, and the flavor follows suit. Sweet and slightly bitter. The juniper twigs appeared to contribute some bitterness, but not much else. Nice, but not sufficiently different from some other malty, strong European ales to merit the very high price. Listening to some Finnish metal or sitting in a snowy forest would enhance my enjoyment of this.

Bottle. Pours hazy tawny with an average, fizzy light brown head, mostly diminishing with spare lacing. Aroma is heavy malt (bread, cookie, caramel, nutty), average hop (herbs, grass), average yeast (earth, leaves) with notes of plum, date, dust, and juniper. Medium bodied, alcoholic texture, lively carbonation, and a metallic finish. Average duration, moderate sweetness, acidity, and bitterness.

50 cl bottle graciously given to me by beastiefan2k. Pour is a cloudy brown ruby with nice settling building up a dense 3 inch tan head. Head falls slowly with minimal lacing. Aroma is sweet fig, cocoa malt and lively juniper earthiness. Interesting nose, soft and fresh. Taste is more skewed to juniper and wood, with the grassy somewhat sweet fig behind that. There is a real nice straw element in the finish which finishes crisp and dry. As it warms, I get some of the cocoa from the nose in the taste. More like dry baking cocoa. Palate is medium bodied, with a fair amount of carbonation. There is a warming alcohol sensation to the finish which comes across a bit odd with the dryness. Overall an interesting complex beer, thanks for giving me this Eugene.