Category: domestic

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Meeting Muddis

Muddis logo
Muddis logo
On account of rather severe overloading of last weekend, skipped the Helsinki Beer Expo, and spent an afternoon in the book/food/wine-expo instead.

Didn’t expect anything beer-related in Pasila, but Estonian Muddis Brewery served three beers on their stand.

Their golden ale was a decent, but very much basic example of the genre, but the IPA and Saison fared better. The IPA was low in bitterness, but had decent hopping nonetheless, and the saison benefited from a higer than usual ABV.

The beers were served in about a deciliter glass, and both the ale and the saison do merit further investigation. Hadn’t encountered the brewery previously, but according to the representatives the beers should be “easily available” south of the bay.

And yeah, I’m now 0-for-3 in the beer expo, a sad state of affairs that needs to be taken care of with better planning next year.

FI: Vallan OK uusi virolaispanimo, maistiaiset Viinimessuilla säälittävän pieniä, joten pitää tutustua uudemman kerran.

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Herkkujen Suomi / Syystober

Herkkujen Suomi
Herkkujen Suomi

Herkkujen Suomi, the annual end-of-the-summer occasion of hawking domestic food has recently attached a conspicuous beer-appendix to itself.

Sadly the show itself has gone downhill, as the small producers get crowded out by food stalls. This year big chunks of the nation went unrepresented. The gravest loss was Kainuu, as the mighty tar bread produced by Pekka Heikkinen’s bakery was shockingly not available. Also missing in action: rönttöset, proper rieska and non-industrial cinnamon buns.

Sampled a pair of beers over a warm Thursday lunch alongside pulled pork burgers (which seems to be the sushi of the latter half of decade, so rapid has its ascent in popularity been). Pyynikki’s Vanilla Stout was the better of the two, even if its hefty dark warmth was quite out of place on a sunny day. Laitila’s Wasaborg, a smoked wheat beer, was more appropriate but as the common complaint goes “not smoky enough”. The former reinvigorated my interest in Papabeers (which I’d happily forgotten about) and I’ll keep an eye out for the latter as well for a more autumny second encounter.

FI: Makujen Suomi heikkenee vuosi vuodelta kun muikkukauppiaat vievät tilan. Lounasoluet turhan tummia hienoon myöhäiskesän päivään.

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Best beers of Finland

Suomen Paras Olut
Suomen Paras Olut
The jury has spoken, and Plevna’s Siperia won the annual “best beer of Finland”-title.

Siperia is a fine beer indeed. Sadly its availability in Alko was restricted to a couple of days when it was available in the annual Christmas beers-campaign a few years back. But fortunately it is steadily available in many of the downtown bars, especially conveniently in Bruuveri – almost next door to the bus heading homewards out west.

While the ultimate #1 is an appropriate choice, some of the lesser awards are questionable: Karjala III is far from being the third best lager and whoever got the idea of mixing stouts and ales in the same category deserves a pint of microwave-warmed Coors Light as a just reward.

FI: Siperia takaisin, tuoppi kerrallaan. Kun ei enää pullossa saa.

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Beers of the World

Beers of the World
Beers of the World

Beers of the World is a new, impressively named Finnish company with a bright new idea. They sell the rights to purchase beers from Alko’s “by special order only” -selection.

The site didn’t have the world’s greatest start as the first few days of orders were tossed into /dev/null by an over-eager spam assassin.

Took the shop out for a spin and ordered EVERY beer that they had. Which obviously sounds way more imposing than what the truth is: I ordered three beers.

Three Thornbridge beers, one of which I had had before.

The shop took its time fulfilling the order, and the delivery was far from optimized – the sales in Arkadia’s shop ground to a halt as the cashier was forced to go deep into the vaults to locate the wares.

Happily enough, all three were indeed found.

Despite the somewhat rusty cogs and unexpected delays, the shopping experience was a pleasant one, and I definitely look forward to sampling the expanding selection in the future.

FI: Vähän tökki, mutta hyvin kauppa kävi. Laajempaa valikoimaa vaan!

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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.

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Suuret Oluet Pienet Panimot 2015

The Finnish craft beer scene gets its biggest exposure on the multi-stop Suuret Oluet Pienet Panimot exhibition tour.

Spent a good chunk of the Thursday afternoon in the festival when it reached Helsinki.

Our three-strong entourage sampled a total of seventeen beers. Seventeen as a group, not per person. Even with 2dl pours, such a set of high voltage beers on a moderately warm day would have been interesting.

My best-in-show award goes to Radbrew’s Wasteland Oasis – a fresh and fruity hefeweizen that just worked wonders.

Suuret Oluet Pienet Panimot 2015
Suuret Oluet Pienet Panimot 2015

The whole list is obviously easily available on Untappd, but I’m appending it here as well for maximal accessibility:

    • Bryggeri’s Supernova, 2nd edition: not as good as the original (the hopping felt somehow off-kilter), but a good IPA nonetheless.
    • Maku’s Diana: of which I made no notes whatsoever, but do recall that it was another decent IPA without any remarkable features.
    • Närke Kulturbryggeri’s Anders Göranssons Bästa Rököl: probably the finest rauchbier not from Bamberg. Very dark, very smoky – impressively tasty, but I was happy that I took a short pull, this could have murdered tastebuds in larger quantities.
    • Nynäshamns Ångbryggeri’s Brännskär Brown Ale: another beer with no real notes, mostly bland in comparison to the preceding.
    • Bryggeri’s Spezial: another rauchbier, though one with a far more moderate taste than the swedish colleague’s. Missed out on this when it was on Bryggeri’s tap last year so it was nice to catch up.
    • Närke Kulturbryggeri’s Tallskott: sadly this had far less of a piney taste than the barkeep let on. FIrst “braggot” that I’ve tasted so far.
    • Hopping Brewsters’ Warthog IPA: unpleasantly one-dimensional, the hopping steamrolled any other flavours. They were temporarily out of “Double Warthog”, whose 200IBU would have been a leap into an even more extreme direction.
    • Hopping Brewsters’ Resistance: a soothing mild ale in the middle of hoppy beers was a welcome break.
    • Ruosniemi’s Diplomi-insinööri: takes the original Insinööri and improves on it with a stronger flavour (as double IPAs tend to do).
    • Ruosniemi’s Lomittaja: a good take on saison, pleasant but without any extra edge.
    • Ruosniemi’s Konttorirutto: a barley wine is out of season in the high summer, but I’m definitely looking forward to a second encounter when the autumn descends upon us.
    • Hiisi’s Kaksi Kotia: Granaattiomena: my first pomegranate beer, tasted genuine (not essency) and was non-bubbly as a bonus as well. Expected a tad more as a card-carrying member of the pomegranate fan club, but this could have been so easily so much worse.
    • Hiisi’s Jyväskylän Kesä: moderately bitter APA that didn’t leave a lasting impression (beyond one of liking the taste).

As the list proves, we didn’t reach the bars of a lot of the breweries (like Plevna or Lapin Voima), there was plenty to sample in the beginning of the circuit.

The experience was a pleasant one once again, though during a bout of heavy rain the crowding under the canopies was kind of excessive.

FI: Eipä pettänyt SOPP tänäkään vuonna, kokeiltavaa olisi ollut useammaksikin päiväksi, nyt tuli bongattua vain muutaman panimon antimia.

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Hunt for the Rekola beers

Traditionally (meaning for the second year in a row) spent the first summer vacation day in the western reaches of the neighbourhood, in Fiskars and its neighbours.

Beer-wise the biggest attraction of the area is Rekolan Panimo. However, the as the craft breweries are not allowed to sell their wares that exceed 4.7% ABV, the most interesting beers in their portfolio are not available in the brewshop. And to add insult to injury, the lone bar in Fiskars, Laundry, is closed on Mondays.

Katajan Kuiske, their juniper-flavored rye beer is not uniformly available in the domestic monopoly stores. However, the store in Tammisaari was conveniently along the way to Fiskars. Picked up a triplet of Kuiske, and headed onwards to Fiskars.

Luomu IPA in Kuparipannu, Fiskars
Luomu IPA in Kuparipannu, Fiskars

We ate lunch in Kuparipannu, and were very pleasantly surprised by the unexpected availability of an unknown Rekola product. Luomu IPA worked well with the fish-heavy appetizers, but less so with the bland main courses. Compared to the other restaurant in Fiskars, Värdshuset, Kuparipannu gets seriously outshone. Luomu IPA didn’t leave a very deep impression, decent, but by no means the brewery’s flagship nor a good exemplar of the genre.

Checked whether the newly discovered Luomu IPA was available anywhere close, and scored a hit in the Karjaa Alko with a search. Sadly the product was sold out for the time being.

FI: Yhtä Rekolan olutta jahdattiin. Ja löytyikin. Toista päästiin maistamaan vahingossa. Kuparipannun ruoka nyt ei varsinaisesti vakuuttanut.