Beer in Finland
J J Farrell
I shall be spending a few weeks in Finland starting next week, based in
Helsinki. Any recommendations for particular beers to try, and anywhere
that sells a good range? I'm aware of Finnish beer being divided into
three strengths by government decree, and that it costs a lot - but that's
about the limit of my knowledge.
Email responses preferred - I'll post a summary if anyone is interested.
My opinions; I do not speak for my employer
Alan Marshall
>
> I shall be spending a few weeks in Finland starting next week, based in
> Helsinki. Any recommendations for particular beers to try, and anywhere
> that sells a good range? I'm aware of Finnish beer being divided into
> three strengths by government decree, and that it costs a lot - but that's
> about the limit of my knowledge.
I recall that the Synebrychoff (Koff for short) beers were quite nice.
The beerded Michael Jackson likes their Imperial Stout, if I recall
correctly. Also, that part of the world is one of the few places you
can find rye-based beers.
--
-- Alan Marshall -- AK20...@SOL.YORKU.CA (York University, Toronto, Canada)
Yli-Kuha Kari
| I shall be spending a few weeks in Finland starting next week, based in
| Helsinki. Any recommendations for particular beers to try, and anywhere
| that sells a good range? I'm aware of Finnish beer being divided into
| three strengths by government decree, and that it costs a lot - but that's
| about the limit of my knowledge.
You preferred e-mail but I think this may interest others as well.
Some facts about finnish beers:
There are three major breweries in Finland, "Megabreweries", one might say,
but compared to AB and Miller I'd say they're "kilobreweries" :)
"Sinebrychoff" (Koff for short), "Mallasjuoma" and "Hartwall" (though the
two latter belong to a larger organization called "Oy Amri Ab"). Back in the
60's there were many more of them but the larger companies gradually
"swallowed" the smaller ones. A few years ago the only smaller brewery was
"Olvi" in Iisalmi.
The beers are, as you pointed out, divided into three categories according
to the alcohol contents:
I olut (olut=beer)
III olut ("keskiolut", "middle-beer" if you like)
IV olut (normally referred to as "A-olut")
A-olut is the strongest. No, there is no "II olut" in the category. In
Sweden they have the so-called "folko:l" (o: = o umlaut) which could be
categorized as "II olut".
Because of the taxation the most popular beer at the moment is "keskiolut".
Expensive? I dunno. The finnish markka (FIM) has been devalued lately so
I think you'll find the finnish prizes quite competitive at the moment.
The prizes vary. The "normal" prizes for a half liter of keskiolut
vary between FIM 14 - 19 (USD 1 ~= FIM 5.7) but you can find places
where the same beer is sold at FIM 10.
The beers made in Finland are mainly more or less characterless and
carbonized lagers and served cold. There's not much difference between
the main brands. There are exceptions, though, some of which made it to
MJ's latest book.
Just recently new local breweries have emerged and they have fortunately
widened the variation of beers to a more tasty direction. One example is
"Lappeenrannan Olut" in Lappeenranta and "Pirkanmaan Uusi Panimo" (PUP) here
in Tampere. Some brands worth (?) trying:
"Lapin Kulta" by Tornion Olut, Mallasjuoma (?) - basic lager
"Nikolai" by Koff, a slightly different lager
"Vaakuna" and "Herttua" by Olvi, lagers having their own nice aftertaste
"Rakuuna" by Lappenrannan Olut - lager. The name "rakuuna" (dragoon) comes
from the fact that there used to be a dragoon regiment in Lappeenranta.
"Brewmaster Ale" by Koff is a new one. The label claims that it's brown ale
but the taste is more like light ale, IMO.
"Imperial Stout" by KOFF, we call this "portteri" and I normally drink it
half and half with normal lager (eg. Lapin Kulta)
I'm eagerly waiting for the new PUP beer which is supposed to be ready for
distribution late January.
Then there are brands like "Lammin Sahti" and "Honkajoen Sahti" which are
harder to find. MJ compares these "sahtis" to english "real ale" and they
are really old, traditional finnish beers. Unfortunately you'll probably
only find them in Alko, the local monopoly, not even in every of them.
Being "live beers" they require coolers.
There aren't many brewpubs in Finland - yet. In Helsinki Koff has a brewpub
in the old brewery, in Turku there is another one, In Pirkanmaan Uusi Panimo
the brewpubs opens this month. The number of brewpubs is rising and I expect
the total number will be closer to ten by the end of the year.
If I want to try a new beer I normally buy some foreigm brand, like
Guinness, Weltenburger Kloster, Newcastle Brown Ale etc.
regards,
--
_ , Kari Yli-Kuha, Systems Designer
' ) / SQ Consulting, Ltd., Tampere, Finland
/-< __. __ o e-mail: yli-...@cs.tut.fi
/ ) (_/|_/ (_<_ phone: +358 31 165 200 fax: +358 31 165 201
Kari Likovuori
> In article <CJMv1...@dsbc.icl.co.uk> j...@dsbc.icl.co.uk (J J Farrell) writes:
> | I shall be spending a few weeks in Finland starting next week, based in
> | Helsinki. Any recommendations for particular beers to try, and anywhere
> | that sells a good range?
> Then there are brands like "Lammin Sahti" and "Honkajoen Sahti" which are
> harder to find.
In Helsinki you can find sahti (Lammin sahti) at a restaurant
called Zetor in the very center of Helsinki (at "Kaivopiha").
> There aren't many brewpubs in Finland - yet. In Helsinki Koff has a brewpub
> in the old brewery,
The Koff brewpub is not in the old brewery, it's in the
restaurant called "Kappeli" (at the Esplanadi park) and the
brews they sell are "Kappeli pilsner" and "Kappeli dark".
There are couple of restaurants that have a large selection
of beers sold in Finland (40-60 brands).
The best selection and about 20 belgian speciaties you can
find from three restaurants (same owner):
- Janoinen Lohi (Thirsty Salmon): Linnankoskenkatu 12
- Vastarannan Kiiski (bit difficult to translate): Salomonkatu 15
- Hilpe"a Hauki (Cheerful Pike): Vaasankatu 7
Also two restaurants called William K have very good
selection and nice environment. They are located at
Annankatu 3 and Mannerheimintie 72. You can also try
restaurant called Black Door (Iso Roobertinkatu 1), very good
selection but not so cozy.
If you have access to Internet Gopher, you can try to find
the gopher of the University of Helsinki and from there
"Ja"rjesto"t/AHOY/Olutravintoloita". Everything is in finnish
unfortunately, but that is a long list of good beer
restaurants in Finland. In the same place is another useful
list "...AHOY/Suomesta saatavat oluet", the beers that can be
found in Finland.
-=Kari=-
--
Kari Likovuori / University of Helsinki / Computing Centre
PL 26 / FIN-00014 Helsingin yliopisto / FINLAND .~~.
INTERNET: Kari.Li...@Helsinki.Fi |--|]
** Academic Friends of Good Beer (AHOY) ** '--'