The Finnish craft beer scene gets its biggest exposure on the multi-stop Suuret Oluet Pienet Panimot exhibition tour.
Spent a good chunk of the Thursday afternoon in the festival when it reached Helsinki.
Our three-strong entourage sampled a total of seventeen beers. Seventeen as a group, not per person. Even with 2dl pours, such a set of high voltage beers on a moderately warm day would have been interesting.
My best-in-show award goes to Radbrew’s Wasteland Oasis – a fresh and fruity hefeweizen that just worked wonders.
The whole list is obviously easily available on Untappd, but I’m appending it here as well for maximal accessibility:
- Bryggeri’s Supernova, 2nd edition: not as good as the original (the hopping felt somehow off-kilter), but a good IPA nonetheless.
- Maku’s Diana: of which I made no notes whatsoever, but do recall that it was another decent IPA without any remarkable features.
- Maku’s Black IPA: Roasty.
- Närke Kulturbryggeri’s Anders Göranssons Bästa Rököl: probably the finest rauchbier not from Bamberg. Very dark, very smoky – impressively tasty, but I was happy that I took a short pull, this could have murdered tastebuds in larger quantities.
- Nynäshamns Ångbryggeri’s Brännskär Brown Ale: another beer with no real notes, mostly bland in comparison to the preceding.
- Bryggeri’s Spezial: another rauchbier, though one with a far more moderate taste than the swedish colleague’s. Missed out on this when it was on Bryggeri’s tap last year so it was nice to catch up.
- Närke Kulturbryggeri’s Tallskott: sadly this had far less of a piney taste than the barkeep let on. FIrst “braggot” that I’ve tasted so far.
- Maku’s Maalais-Tamminen: a bit bland, stronger oaking would have helped.
- Hopping Brewsters’ Warthog IPA: unpleasantly one-dimensional, the hopping steamrolled any other flavours. They were temporarily out of “Double Warthog”, whose 200IBU would have been a leap into an even more extreme direction.
- Hopping Brewsters’ Resistance: a soothing mild ale in the middle of hoppy beers was a welcome break.
- Ruosniemi’s Diplomi-insinööri: takes the original Insinööri and improves on it with a stronger flavour (as double IPAs tend to do).
- Ruosniemi’s Lomittaja: a good take on saison, pleasant but without any extra edge.
- Ruosniemi’s Konttorirutto: a barley wine is out of season in the high summer, but I’m definitely looking forward to a second encounter when the autumn descends upon us.
- Hiisi’s Kaksi Kotia: Granaattiomena: my first pomegranate beer, tasted genuine (not essency) and was non-bubbly as a bonus as well. Expected a tad more as a card-carrying member of the pomegranate fan club, but this could have been so easily so much worse.
- Hiisi’s Jyväskylän Kesä: moderately bitter APA that didn’t leave a lasting impression (beyond one of liking the taste).
- Radbrew’s Alone in the Dark: sweet stout also a bit out of season in the summer.
- Radbrew’s Wasteland: Oasis: just very very good.
As the list proves, we didn’t reach the bars of a lot of the breweries (like Plevna or Lapin Voima), there was plenty to sample in the beginning of the circuit.
The experience was a pleasant one once again, though during a bout of heavy rain the crowding under the canopies was kind of excessive.
FI: Eipä pettänyt SOPP tänäkään vuonna, kokeiltavaa olisi ollut useammaksikin päiväksi, nyt tuli bongattua vain muutaman panimon antimia.
brewnardo 