Explorations in beer
The annual late July Stockholm trip is upon us again.
This time I’ve made preparations on two new fronts:
FI: Kohta kohti Tukholmaa.
Skipped this year’s Helsinki installment of Suuret oluet, pienet panimot, and accidentally participated in not just one, but two tap takeovers: Cloudwater’s in Pien (very good batch of fresh Yakima Valley hops) and Ritual Lab in Sori (pleasantly multi-genre affair).
FI: Vahinko-osallistuminen kahteen hanaryöstöön oli oivaa tekemistä lauantai-iltana.
Spent a lazy hot sunday in Fiskars, after an absence of a couple of years.
The village had changed a tad for the better – on the previous visit the number of vacant shops was noticeably higher.
Unfortunately the number of restaurants remains low. Opted for Kuparipannu for lunch, and the result was the same as the last time: the fishy appetizers were excellent, the main course far from it. And as an insult to injury, the dessert buffet ran out of pannacottas just before I went to claim mine.
Kuura Cider was also down in its selection. Their three mainliners were all at zero, but picked up a couple of ice ciders and limited editions, and got a look inside the factory – so definitely came out ahead.
Fiskarsin Panimo was chugging along as well. Hadn’t really paid much attention to them since their “we’re getting out of pale ales”-statement, but picked up a full set of the farmhouse series, as well as a bomber-sized Floridus. While Flanders Red is nowhere near the top of my genre-list, it’s nonetheless an interesting bottle to crack open in an appropriate company.
FI: Fiskars oli muuttunut edukseen sitten viime näkemän, etenkin Kuuran meininki vakuutti.
Schlenkerla’s Urbock is one of my all-time favorite beers.
It traditionally lands in Finland as part of the annual christmas beer selection in Alko, serves beautifully as a ham accompaniment, and one or two bottles end up in the stash, to be consumed during the summer.
Urbock, as the name lets on, is an old-school, archetypal beer – and in this particular case the ecological niche is rauchbier, smoked beer. And Urbock is indeed smoked, very well smoked. It’s not a light dusting of smoke as an add-on flavor – nope, Urbock goes all-in, and apologizes to no-one. In comparison to the more common Märzen from the same brewery, Urbock is a much more powerful beer. And with great power comes great polarization: this is not a beer that you “kinda like”, either you love it or you hate it.
The coloration is dark, and the smoke meets the nose as soon as the bottle is cracked open. The pour is thick, with a pretty dark head – but the mouthfeel does not reflect the totalitarian presence of smoked ham, no perceivable oiliness at all.
The taste needs warmth to be fully appreciated – there’s subtle hints of caramel sweetness and bitterness that surface much better with time as the beer warms up.
Even if I’m firmly in the “love it”-camp, there’s no denying that Urbock is a tad one-dimensional. No matter how pleasant that dimension is. So, 4.5 stars (and a smoky the bear badge as an additional merit).
FI: Savuoluiden kantaisä.
Visited Coolhead in Tuusula, and came away slightly disappointed, especially considering how well last year’s World Cup kickoff extravaganza went.
They had run out of Peanut Butter Caramel Crisp (which obviously was something beyond their own control, and should have nipped in on Friday instead).
They had only vegetarian barbecue (which is a major sin, considering I had quite a hunger for chicken hearts and well-roasted steak).
But came away with almost full 24-box of beers (and a bottle of the brand new peated whiskey sour, so the visit was definitely a victory. And I’m looking forward to the equivalent August outing.
FI: Ei ihan putkeen Tuusulan visiitti tällä kertaa.
Ever since the disappearance of Pien from Iso Omena, there’s been a beer-store shaped void in Espoo.
The arrival of a “Powered by Pien”-shelf in the Lasihytti K-store is a move in the right direction, but a single cabinet is obviously a far cry from a dedicated shop.
The selection includes Pühaste, Frau Gruber (their first day in Finland), Brekeriet, Whiplash and others.
I’ll be keeping an eye out on how the selection evolves – though as this is not exactly a neighbourhood store, it’ll be a while between reports.
FI: Pien palasi Espooseen.
Craft Beer Helsinki, now on its fourth year, continued strong.
The breweries were recruited deep and wide, and the food-side of things offered plenty of alternatives.
There was no unifying theme – sours, IPAs and imperial stouts were very much in the vogue.
Omnipollo was (again) the brewery with the longest queues, and while they apparently had run out of the dessert-y excesses, the pale ales (Henosis and Tetraktys) were pleasant new acquaintances.
By far the worst disappointment was Stone’s Enter Night, a limp pilsner that utterly fails to capture what’s good about Metallica. Like the band itself these days, the beer was about maximizing the audience – hence it is an immediately forgettable pilsner that evokes no meaningful positive response beyond “wet” at all.
The best in show-award goes to Coolhead’s Peanut Butter Caramel Crisp, a massively sweet imperial stout that piles on the chocolate and nut flavours.
Other notables:
Looking forward to 2020.
FI: CBH onnistui taas.
The best beer of the months was also the most expensive one (some correlation, definitely no causation): Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Cocoa Shake sampled when the brewery opened a bar in Helsinki. Essentially this is a liquid chocolate cake, and would be awesome as a dessert beer in November – served way-too-chilled on an ever-bright summer evening was not its optimal operating environment.
The domestic winner was Radbrew’s Wasteland Oasis, a well-hopped wheat beer. The hops keep the bananish aromas well in check, and the beer is refreshing and very summery indeed.
FI: Vahva kontrasti – toinen toimii kesällä ja toinen olisi parhaimmillaan muumilaakson marraskuun depistä vastaan taistellessa.
This blog is now four years old.
Considering that last year was utterly silent, things can only get better from now on.
FI: Neljä vuotta takana. Niistä jopa kolme aktiivisia.
Mikkeller finally landed in Helsinki. The bar opened after a couple of years worth of searching for an appropriate location. The location is smack in the middle of downtown, a couple of blocks up Kalevankatu from Stockmann. The location used to be a cafe, and is very much on the small side with half a dozen tables and the bar itself.
On the opening night the party spilled into the street, with easily more than 80% of the customers located outside rather than in.
There’s twenty taps, and on the opening night they were all Mikkeller’s own (or Warpigs), no guest taps in sight.
This is not that big of a problem, considering the width of Mikkeller’s portfolio – all corners were covered, from basic pils to imperial stout via the appropriate pale ales and sours along the way.
The price level, on the other hand, is a huge problem. A NEIPA costs 15 euros for a large glass (euphemistically just 0.4 liters), whereas the imperial stouts and double fruited beers hit the bell at close to 30 euros. Considering the prices in comparable bars (Brewdog, Bier Bier), this is easily too high by a half, and I would expect the invisible hand to adjust the pricing soon.
With the Mikkeller now opened, it’s time to speculate on the next arrival. Thornbridge has allegedly been sniffing around the downtown for several years without concrete results.
FI: Mikkeller aukesi. Kovin oli kallista.
brewnardo 