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.
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.
Visited Panimo Himo last month and was quite thoroughly impressed. So impressed that I failed to take any photographs on site.
Himo is located in the Pirkkala Citymarket überstore in Tampere. The location pretty much necessitates using a car, as it is firmly located in the big box store neighbourhood.
The brewery itself is within the store, whilst a subset of the offering (anything over 5.5 ABV) is sold in a separate location within the building. A location that is not at all signposted in the main store, likely leading to missed sales.
Himo is a real and serious brewery-in-shop, and first of its kind – its sole predecessor, Tammisto failed to impress with its offers of bland beers regularly sold out, and not one of them going above the milkstore limit. Himo, on the other hand ranges from odd sours to quadruple IPAs, not catering solely for the everyday shoppers.
Pirkkala shop’s beer selection is the biggest I’ve seen in Finland, and very nicely laid out, with most of the wares cold-stored.
According to wikipedia, a growler is “a glass, ceramic, or stainless steel bottle (or jug) used to transport draft beer.”
And happily enough, under the updated brewing-related domestic legislation, breweries are able to sell their beers to customers in such vessels. Quite a few of the capital area breweries have embraced the opportunity to maximize freshness, and the size (a liter) is just about right for two people.
Oddly, no finnish term has been invented yet, so these are known by a hopelessly anglistic “growleri”.
FI: Growleroimalla noin tuoreinta mahdollista olutta kotiin asti.
Visited Kråkö Bryggeri on Kråkö, an island in the outskirts of Porvoo.
Kråkö Bryggeri logo
Had tasted a couple of their early beers last summer when they started with pale ales.
Now the selection was wider, ranging from lagers to an imperial stout, via a handful of customer-branded beers.
Unfortunately they had sold out of the trendiest product – a hazy IPA.
Brought home a boxful of singles and a couple of each of the stouts. Both the imperial and regular variety were of the same tree: dry, roasty and pleasant, with the stronger one carrying a hint of salted licorice in the taste.
Hops growing in Kråkö
The brewery is located in an old school, and serves food and has an art gallery as well. The gardens contain both meadows and hops (forgot to ask whether their curreny wares held any of the homegrown).
Opted for dinner at the next stop, Bosgård farm, and lucked out to sample the other “not-available-at-the-brewery” brewed for the farm. Bosgård Ale turned out to be an old school bitter one, and good accompaniment for the sirloin steak.
FI: Porvoon maalaiskunnan panimo oli laajentunut ja laajentanut valikoimaansa oikein muikeasti.
One of the many surprising things in Stockholm was the renaming of two classic Omnipollo beers: Leon is now Levon and Noa is Aon.
Noa / Aon logo
Found an explanation only for the latter, and it is unsurprisingly a legalistic one:
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT: PLEASE DON’T DRINK IMPERIAL STOUT FOR EXTRA ENERGY. Being copied everyday but receiving “cease and desist letters” weekly from trademark lawyers demanding we change the name of our beers. This one is far fetched but @drinknoa thinks you might mistakably purchase a bottle of our 11% pecan mud cake imperial stout instead of their energy drink Noa Potions we are therefore changing the name of OMNIPOLLO®️ NOA PECAN MUD CAKE®️ to OMNIPOLLO®️ AON®️ PECAN MUD CAKE®️”
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.
Perch @ Lisa Elmqvist
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.
Nya Carnegiebrygget building
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.
Omnipollos FloraElsa and slushie cap
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.
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).
Coolhead yard
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.
Ohrana menuVisited 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.
Their beers are named after suburbs of Espoo. Nöykkiö was not part of the initial trio, and probably there’s quite a few more famous parts of the sprawling city to cover before my neighborhood gets the nod.
The first one tasted was Keilaniemi, and it turned out to be an all right American pale ale by the numbers, just enough hopping – no distinguishing features, no faults either.
brewnardo 