bar – brewnardo

7.8.201921.8.2022

STHLM, day 2

Stockholm - Kungsholmen — Stockholm – Kungsholmen

The second day in Stockholm was rather less beer-influenced than the first.

Took a long shopping detour in Gamla Stan to the almighty Science Fiction Bokhandeln. The selection is awesome, this is how spontaneous purchases are achieved, not by creating massive piles of top sellers as the domestic book stores seem to be playing the game.

Pizza menu at Omnipollo's Hatt — Pizza menu

After a massive breakfast served by the Radisson guys, had no lunch, only dinner at Omnipollo’s Hatt. The pizza selection was great (ranging from truly conventional to “casus belli for Italians”), and the beer list as well. On account of the smallish bar being crowded we sat at the bar. Which was a great place to sit, since it allowed us to chat with the bartender during slower times – we learned of the existence of the “secret third drawer” where unadvertised beers were available. Sampled a few, ranging from a chili-packed imperial stout to the new Empress of the Rubæus Throne (i.e. the greatest raspberry beer known to man) via liquified rocky road ice cream.

Had spotted from the Systembolaget website that the Folkungagatan store had new Fjäderholmarnas Bryggeri brews available. Quite liked the initial batch back in 2017, and picked up the recent arrivals (imperial stout and barley wine).

Fotografiska logo

The walk from Södermalm to Fotografiska museet on Slussen was much longer than presumed (big intervening sheer cliffs tend to have that effect), but the museum is worth a visit. The exhibitions ranged from seriously disturbing to characteristic celebrity snapshots. The upstaits restaurant was booked solid for the rest of the week, but the cafeteria offered a splendid view on the bay below. Had no inclination to try the new waste-bread beer, mineral water hit the spot far more sweetly.

FI: Omnipollon Hattu tarjosi taas oivaa pizzaa, ja parasta hedelmäolutta toistaiseksi.

6.8.201921.8.2022

STHLM, day 1

Spent three days in no longer so summery Stockholm last week.

Flew in on Wednesday morning, and departed early Friday afternoon. Moved the lodgings slightly – from Radisson Viking to Waterfront. Still conveniently close to Arlanda Express, but a definitely less weary hotel.

As per tradition, the first port of call was Lisa Elmqvist at Östermalmhallen. The seafood was plain exquisite, and the beer menu same as every year – short, but not at all without merit. St Erik’s IPA was an appropriately fruity accompaniment to a magnificent plate of perch fillets. Took a slight detour at the nearest Systembolaget, and picked up a couple of mainly domestic cans. Ad Libris offered plenty of reasonably priced recent books (including a stealthily published new Jo Nesbø novel), and thus muled a stack of hardbacks back to the hotel.

List of tanks at Nya Carnegiebrygget — Tanks at Nya Carnegie

After acquiring access to the room at the hotel there was not much time before the next leg: a tour at the Nya Carnegiebryggeriet. The trip across the bay on Emelie was pleasantly breezy and quick. The tour was in Swedish, and I must have missed quite a few of the inside jokes – but understood most of the presentation. No surprises (apart from the fact that Carnegie Porter is one of the oldest surviving trademarks in Sweden), brewing is brewing – no matter what the scale is, and at fifteenish tanks the brewery was definitely on the craft side of things. The attached tasting consisted of four very different beers. Kellerbier was immature, straight off a chilling tank. FrIPA and Passion Glow showcased the brewery’s range. The final beer was an unnamed and commercially unlaunched barley wine – easily the best in show: awash in brown sugar, plums and malts, this was a very worthy beer indeed.

A detour on the way back to the hotel took us to Omnipollo’s popup reastaurant in Humlegården. Omnipollos Flora served beer, soft ice cream and food. Opted for a good-sized octopus chunk and lobster rolls for a late dinner. The eight taps served mainly Omnipollo’s own, and quite a few of them were new: vanilla french toast version of Aon was expectedly sweet and dark, but Elsa (accompanied with a slushied cap) was a very fine example of a neither too sour, nor too sweet fruit beer.

FI: Tukholman ensimmäisen päivän anti koostui merenelävistä, kävelystä ja shoppailusta.

1.7.201921.8.2022

Sticker Shock at Mikkeller

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.

Mikkeller logo

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.

21.10.201711.2.2019

Brewdog goes all-in

No guest taps, only Brewdog’s own, as the big board proves:

The trick of the trade is to buy two beers in one go – something dark to warm up while sipping the paler one.

This tactic worked wonders in letting Dog F reach close to room temperature: the habanero and chocolate work wonders alongside the very stiff imperial stout base.

Abstrakts 22 and 23 were both powerful and heavy dark beers were just the thing to close off the evening.

These three on tap would have been enough to attract from a long way away, but there was plenty more to experiment with, including three prototypes and a very crisp 0 ABV saison.

Hopefully this “no guests” gets to be an regular/annual thing – it was good to see Brewdog reaching beyond a few token extra choices on top of the common mainstream selection.

FI: 24 hanaa Brewdogin omaa tuotantoa, mukana aidosti harvinaisempiakin herkkuja.

20.10.201710.2.2019

Ohrana

Visited Ohrana between an unimpressive neapolitan pizza and a very impressive load of Brewdog’s own.

Took a flight of beers and a bonus cinnamon bun-beer.

And came away surprised, as the Nyt Otti Ohranaleipä, a nondescript pale ale, was the best of the bunch. But as the name lets on, this is not a traditional pale ale – as it uses bread made of the barley mash of a previous batch. Very malty, with just the appropriate amount of hopping in the mix.

Bun Intended, he cinnamon bun beer was good too, but not as good. And while it was a nice dry stout – there was just a hint of cinnamon, and no apple jam whatsoever.

FI: Korvapuustiportteri jäi kakkoseksi olutmallasleipäoluelle.

9.6.20175.7.2017

Dog down?

Brewdog logo sketch

Brewdog Turku seems to have disappeared, as it’s no longer listed on the brewery’s listing and the bar’s facebook page states that “suboptimal location” was the reason why the bar is looking for a new address.

Visited it last year, and I didn’t think the 250 odd meters from downtown were too much (the Helsinki location is far further from zero point than this), but maybe Turku is just built differently.

Anyway, this closure means that we’re back to a single Brewdog in Finland.

FI: Turun panokoira on poistunut keskuudestamme.

2.8.201525.8.2015

Monocervisiastism and exploration of the new craft beer quarter

Had a very pleasant dinner in Muru. This being a hot day, I wasn’t in the mood for wine at all, and especially the main course, roasted whitefish, just screamed for a good pils as accompaniment. And that’s what they had. And that’s all they had. Despite a wine list longer than a basketballer’s arm, Muru delivers a grand total of one beer. Fortunately the choice is decent. Kukko Pils works wonders with many dishes, but it’s far from omnipotent. Being able to get a hefty brown ale for the veal tartare appetizer and an imperial stout for the chocolate fondant would have made a great meal even better. Though a well-chilled Moscata was quite an adequate replacement for the latter as a companion for the dessert.

Clearly, the beer quota was far from filled out, and we took a long detour home. A detour that crossed no less than three of the craft beer invasion-heralding bar in southern Helsinki.

Brewdog was its trusty self, had my first encounter with Pōhjala (as far as I can recall), the very fruity and hoppy IPA was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Tommyknocker was smaller than I expected, but had an impressive fridge and a wide set of taps. Unfortunately the beer we’d looked up as being available there (Wasteland: Oasis) had ran dry, but the first samplings of the housewares were not bad either.

Finished the evening at Bier-bier on Erottaja. In comparison to the previous it was a far roomier affair, and the beer selection was not as US-centric.

Next up: Stadin Panimo in Suvilahti.

FI: Vallan hyviä pienpanimo-olueen keskittyneitä baareja parin korttelin säteellä. Lähempänä asuminen voisi johtaa jumitteluun.

21.7.20157.9.2015

Brewdog Bottle Tasting 21.7.2015

Snagged tickets to the first ever bottle tasting event organized by the local Brewdog entity.

There were twenty-ish people attending the event, and we fit quite nicely into a curtain-separated section of the bar.

There were altogether seven rounds of tasting, and pretty much all of the beers were from the darker side of the spectrum.

The kickstarter was Brewdog’s own Mixtape 8, a mixture of two rather separate genres stored in old whiskey barrels. The taste was predominantly fruity, and at close to 15% ABV a hefty start to the proceedings.

The second entry was the only one I had sampled before, Brewdog’s Black Jacques, which I had become acquainted with in last year’s tasting in Kitty O’Shea’s. The taste was the same, leaning heavily towards red wine. The official classification, “black saison”, felt a bit tacked on, since the grainy saison-ness wasn’t really noticeable.

The third bottle was Brewdog’s Abstrakt:14. This was my second Abstrakt, and I had high hopes for the experience (AB:16 had been an awesomely tasty beer). The strong weizenbock mixed flavors of hops and traditional wheaty elements (banana, too, for those scoring the game at home). Not as good as AB:16, but the best beer of the evening so far.

Old Viscosity from Port Brewing went even deeper in taste and colour. The imperial stout was a sturdy and mostly liquid exemplar of its genre. The roasty taste deepened as the glass warmed, presenting a sweet undertone. The first non-Brewdog beer grabbed a hold of the best-in-show prize, though it was rather heavily at odds at the still well-lit summer evening outside.

Mikkeller’s George! continued in the imperial stout-groove with an even sweeter, more spicy flavour. This was as close to a liquid chocolate-covered gingerbreadhouse I’ve tasted thus far. Another hefty beer that caused the audience to consume even more water (which was conveniently shuttled in at a very decent clip).

Thornbridge Hall’s Whiskey Barrel Aged Double Scotch Ale was a bit more light in color, but not much of a lighter taste. Though pleasantly enough this strong scotch ale had a single digits ABV for a change.

The last beer of the tasting turned out to be the greatest. The Lost Abbey’s Judgment Day was the most complex and tasty of the evening’s portfolio. The classification of a belgian quad underplays the vast selection of elements in the taste, this is not an average beer by any means. While my initial impression was an awed one, the taste kept on evolving as the liquid warmed up. Definitely the best beer I’ve tasted in a long while, and one that I will definitely seek out again, probably when the bleakness of November descends on Helsinki.

All in all the event was well-organized, and I’ll certainly keep an eye out on followups. After all, for the reasonable price of 30€ we got to sample seven great beers. A minor negative on the dark overall tone that was at odds with the bright summer day, but a wider set of flavours might have turned tastebuds even more berserk than this portfolio did.

FI: Vallan maukkaita oluita, joskin yleistunnelma oli epäilyttävän epäkesäisen tumma. Ei Tuomiopäivän voittanutta.

16.7.20157.9.2015

Il Birrificio

One of the new arrivals of the Helsinki craft beer revolution is Il Birrificio, which, despite its italian name is a traditionalish gastropub, with a brewing facility on the side.

It had taken a while before the house beers were available, but there was two on tap. Their own Fyrkka wasn’t a bad APA by any means, but Ruosniemi’s Willi was a very appropriately fruity witbier on a nice summer day.

The beer list wasn’t extensively long, but there were quite a few intriguing entries on it.

Sadly, schdeduling pressures prevented further experimentation and after single glasses of beer and a meal we had to move on.

Food was decent, the beer selection deserves a second visit – too bad the service was lacklustre: I definitely expect more than “pick your own utensils and a water pitcher” at these prices.

FI: Yksi stadin uusista olutbaareista tarjoili oivaa olutta, maistuvaa ruokaa ja sangen puutteellista palvelua.

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