That time of the year
Best beers of the first quarter of 2025
The best beer of the first three months, and one of the best beers I’ve ever tasted is Anchorage Brewing Company’s A Deal With the Devil – Triple Oaked. A massive and hefty barley wine that clocks in at an impressive 23ABV, without any intrusive booziness. It’s also the most expensive beer tasted so far, 4cl weighing in at 23€. My first exposure to Anchorage’s beast, at the annual Deal With the Devil day – looking forward to the next.
Domestically the top honours go to Revenant’s Archway – a fabulously fruitful IPA that truly delivered after a great meal at Teller.
FI: AAA-luokan tavaraa niin kotimaasta kuin Alaskastakin
Best beers of 2024
The best beer of the year was picked up on location, on Aker Brygge in Oslo: Lervig’s Spicy Dark Choco Mole was a culmination of mexican-flavoured beer. With chili and chocolate aplenty in the taste, the only shortcoming was that I only bought a single bottle.
The best domestic is from the newcomer built on the sadly missed Pien Brewing. Factory’s High Tide is truly an awesome hazy IPA, with juice and hops at just the appropriate mixture.
FI: kansainvälisesti mustaa ja makeaa, kotimaasta maailmanluokan IPAa.
Best beers of 2023
Despite the lack of fanfare for the past in this blog, it’s nonetheless nice to note the best beers tasted during the Years of Darkness. The rules remain the same: one beer only, and (even when there’s a tie in the ratings) and a strict preference for new entries ahead of repeats.
Mortalis Brewing Company’s Zeus takes the pole position. A full-bodied double IPA packed full of grapefruity goodness.
On the domestic side the winner is also an IPA: Olari’s Olaron Michigan Copper – their first experiment with a new hop. This was the headliner on midsummer fish table, and still remains the benchmarks for the occasion.
FI: IPAa kansalle.
Is this thing still on?
So. Returning to the scene of the crime, two years after the last post.
Many things intervened: busy with lack of and changing jobs, a health scare and all around just not getting to maintain the blog.
And many things have changed since the last. First amongst the changes is obviously the new domestic legislation that allows the sale of beers up to 8ABV in milkstores. A few favourite bars have sunk, some have risen and the times are not kind on breweries either.
However, I’m not going to delve too deep in the archæology of the early twenties beyond ultrabrief annual highlights as followups to this montage.
Some of the topics above might be revisited, but only when it makes sense in the context of something acute.
My tastes have not changed in the intervening times – still keen on hoppy pale ales, bold imperial stouts and smoky beers of all kinds.
FI: Uudestaan.
Best beers of of third quarter of 2022
When trying in vain to catch up with reality, month-granularity is your friend.
The mostly pleasant summer season was dominated by hoppy IPAs.
Top honours go to Omnipollo’s I’m With Stupid, which provided exquisite liquid relief after a ragingly hot day in Stockholm.
And the domestic center podium is occupied by Salama and Track collaboration Monopods R Us, which was the highlight of the brewery visit (and stupidly enough I bought only one can on the occasion).
FI: Loppukesän kärjessä tiukasti humaloidut oluet.
Põrgu is down
Porgu, the legendary craft beer bar behind the Old Town in Tallinn is no more, having closed its door for the last time at the end of October.
Porgu was the first Estonian craft beer bar I visited (in 2009 or 2011, I dimly recall), and will cherish the memories of a properly medieval cellar location and horizons-expanding selection.
FI: Porgu on poistunut keskuudestamme.
Tallinn
Had a very pleasant autumn holiday in Tallinn in late October.
Non-busy transits with the ferry (with a cabin to stay off the crowds on the way back).
Two nights at the traditional accommodations in Telegraaf in the old town.
Had the first dinner at Manna La Roosa, an impressively designed fusion-italian. Sadly, the beer list was short and thus no match for the food.
Had the first encounter with Koht – whose arrival instructions are nothing short of a legend:
Once you hit the puppet theatre, the bar is behind you in a courtyard.
It indeed was. And after some ten minutes waiting, there was a barmaid, too.
The beer selection was announced with printed out labels on a wall. By far the highlight of the visit, and one of the best beers of the whole year was Browar’s 7th Anniversary Imperial Stout. The attached beer shop was closed (on account of it being Wednesday), and attempts to peek through windows did not reveal much.
On the second day made it to the Koht-adjacent bottleshop. Very cramped, very packed. First Lost Abbey in ages! Multiple Silver series entries (though some of the rarest entries priced through the ceiling). Forgot to take photos.
Also was impressed by the beer selection in Kaubamaja food section – multiple Silver and Cellar series clocking in at less than ten euros.
Accidentally participated in the Collabfest in the Brewdog in Rotermanni. Somewhat eclectic selection, sampled a few without stumbling into disasters or jackpots.
Neighboring Taptap boasted a nice selection of domestics.
Had dinner at Pull. The best steak in years was – once again – accompanied by a very lackluster beer menu.
FI: Tallinna vakuutti olutosaamisellaan jälleen kerran, bonuskertoimena yllätys-collabfest Brewdogissa.
Time flew
What a busy fourth quarter. Missed the blog almost completely (a few token posts in the early October do not count for much).
FI: Lipesi taas kirjoittamattomuuden puolelle.
Fight the mørk
The dark season is upon us, and until there’s permanent snowcover, reflectors are an easy way to stay visible on the roads.
Fat Lizard’s take is obviously a big-bellied reptile.
FI: Läskin liskon heijastimesta turvaa pimeille poluille.
Ultralocally hopped
The annual release of Fat Lizard Glims is done and gone.
The hops are harvested from the Espoo City Museum’s tracts.
Managed to pick up a bottle back in 2019. Very fresh, nicely balanced, but ultimately nothing special, a solid 3/5 APA.
FI: Kahdessa minuutissa loppuunmyyty Glims Wet Hop Ale jäi tänäkin vuonna maistamatta.
The Mutants Are Revolting
The miraculous rise and fall of Pyynikin Brewing
Pyynikin Brewing, one of the big domestic microbreweries declared bankruptcy in mid-September.
Following quite a bit of bad press and accusations of being just a front for beer brewed in Estonia, this was not a big surprise.
The brewery had been very active in courting more and more stockholders, but the final figure over 10000 was quite thoroughly eyebrow-raising.
However, the news that a consortium of interested parties had purchased the company was even more surprising. Especially considering that the brewery was over 3M€ in the red.
Let’s see what comes out of this, the hill sure is steep to climb.
FI: Pyynikin panimo kaatui kuin Mats Sundin, saman tien ponnahtaen uudelleen pystyyn.
Best beers of the first half of 2022
Moving closer to timely content in the blog.
The best beer of the first six months was Cloudwater’s take on a Trillium-original: Insert Hip Hop Reference There, a massively heavy New England Triple IPA that skirts both booziness and hop burn neatly and remains just omnipleasantly juicy throughout.
Domestically the top dog is Salama’s Choco Loco Maca, which neatly combines two of my favorites: macadamia nuts and chocolate. Soft, sweet and dark.
FI: Yllätyksettömästi alkuvuoden valiokisi valikoitui hedelmäistä IPAa ja makeaa stouttia.
Visit to Salama Brewing
Spent a very enjoyable evening at Salama Brewing two weeks back on a three-man brewery tour.
Started off with an unnamed pilsner off the staff tank. Probably the last beer enjoyed in an outdoor setting during 2022.
The tour was physically short, due to the confined location, but informative and very interactive. Topics covered state of the brewery, state of Espoo as a brewing city (plenty of collaboration between the companies), international agenda and collaborations as a channel to even deeper waters outside the borders.
Had half a dozen beers throughhout the tour, ranging from mild IPAs to wild sours and finishing off with a stroopwafel imperial stout. With a personal highlight of finally getting to taste the Green Goozer direct off a tank. Green Goozer is a beer infused with a very traditional and essence-ridden domestic marmelade candy (yeah, color me impressed on account of the page in english wikipedia preaching the gospel of the green spheres).
FI: Salama tarjosi oikein viihteellisen ja informatiivisen illan.
brewnardo 