Explorations in beer
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.
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.
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.
This month’s special selection in the monopoly features “abbey-styled beers”.
Four belgians, featuring a single genuine trappist: Chimay Première / Red.
Two germans.
Very much on the boring side. Presumably next month’s selection will be devoted to even more boring group: Oktoberfest.
Have the Carcassonne graphics been spruced up between editions, this does not look like a classic cloister at all.
FI: Tylsänpuoleinen luostariolutvalikoima.
This year’s best beer brewed in Finland is Takatalo & Tompuri‘s Kaski Savubock.
Unfortunately it is a very limited release, available at the brewery in Virolahti and the nearby monopoly stores. Will keep an eye out, but I bet it’ll be a while before it lands in the capital area.
While some of the annual selections have been questionable (like blandly boring Valo a couple of years back), the 2021 choice was spot-on: Olari’s Runaway was and is an impeccable take on NEIPA.
As expected the wikipedia page on the subject provides a mighty lowdown on the prospects and winners. But only up to 2020, so there’s two years of statistics waiting for somebody to act on.
FI: Harmittavaisen vaikeasti haalittavaan raati päätyi.
Had completely missed that Alko is running a program of limited selections. No idea how long it has been running on beers, but this discovery of a triplet of Mikkellers was pleasant – two big imperial stouts and one interesting / scary cherry wild ale is a fine combination.
FI: Ainakin ensimmäinen bongattu pienerä näyttää sopivan vaikuttavalta.
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.
Will be back. With a camera.
FI: Himo yllätti erinomaisen positiivisesti, oluita monesta tyylistä.m
For a few years Alko, the domestic supplier, has provided monthly “special batches” – divided to beer, wine and harder liquors, which are released on the first Thursday of the month.
The selection themes have been rather variable, ranging from severely unnecessary (milkstore-ABV’d beers) to really interesting (european IPAs from odd countries). The special batches have also replaced the annual “craft beer months”.
August theme is on the limp side, opaquely termed “low alcohol choices” has two beers that are easily available in any well-equipped stores, a sour that I wasn’t that fond of, a low-voltage gin’n’tonic and fortunately also two actually worthwhile entries – both previously unsighted session IPAs.
On account of an aluminum shortage Fat Lizard has reverted back to conventional cans.
FI: Ei enää aukene koko kansi Läskiliskon tölkeissä.
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.
Spent an enjoyable late summer evening in Korkeasaari, the venerable zoo of Helsinki.
Unlike the neighboring Suomenlinna, there’s no brewery in Korkeasaari. Probably the goal is to keep the island as family-friendly as possible, and that precludes craft beer as well.
However, considering that Coco, the oldest resident, is an aging lady sloth, and the Los Angeles Zoo just announced sloth-curated beer, it would not be too much of a stretch to actually come up with a selection of animal-corresponding beer. The likes of spectacularly labeled Otter Gose, Poison Arrow Frog Sour and juniper-flavoured Bobcat Pils would probably rise above the news’ event horizon in the slow summer months, and the to-be-founded brewery would obviously be able to directly sell their wares all the way to the mighty Siberian Tiger Triple IPA clocking in just below the maximal 12 volts.
FI: Riikinkukko Berliner Weissea odotellessa.
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.
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.
brewnardo 