Category: travel

Spent a chunk of the schools’ fall holiday in Tallinn.

As expected the ferry, Viking XPRS, was packed with families. That meant eating lunch standing up as the restaurants were overrun. Sampled two new Saku products: while Rock was a limp and featureless eurolager, Cream of Dublin was an unexpectedly tasty stout (proving that the mainstream brewery can reach out if it wants).

The Spa/Hotel Telegraaf was quite pleasantly stuffy, the multiple saunas in the downstairs pools were much appreciated. Happily had the entire section to ourselves, since we dined when others bathed and vice versa. The dinner at Spot was good too, though not in the lofty heights of Rataskaevu 16.

Visited Telliskivi for the first time, and while the burgers at F-Hoone were as good as the tales told of them, it turned out that I’d already tasted their house beer, as it had been available at Stone’s a while back.

Skipped Uba ja Humal on this trip and opted for SIP as an alternative instead. Their selection of beers was quite a bit more limited (and quite much Estonia-focused), but it was complemented with a non-trivial wine section and a bar where any of the products could be sampled.

FI: Ei ollut SIPistä ihan Uba ja Humalin haastajaksi vielä.

Spent a couple of days in Stockholm.

The beer aficionados’ very own Systembolaget on Regeringsgatan is no more, and the “replacement” sadly had a diminished beer selection. Nonetheless, picked up a few previously unseen american beers and quite a few domestics.

Visited Akkurat for lunch, and was impressed by both their taps and the bottle selection. The burger wasn’t bad either, but the highlight of the visit was the pairing of Nils Oskar’s Rökporter with Moules Islay appetizer.

Prinsen offered very traditional swedish food, and as a bonus had their own beer as well. Underdog, a rather basic lager, worked well with my very first authentic Biff Rydberg.

FI: Systembolagetin valikoima ei enää yhtä eeppinen kuin aiemmin, mutta huikean laaja silti. Paikallinen pyttipannu ja tuoreet äyriäiset syytä pitää muistissa tuleviakin reissuja varten.

Spent a day in Tallinn, with pretty much the same plan as on the chilly January cruise: eat well, and buy beer on the way back to the ferry.

Ate well in Rataskaevu 16. The food and service are easily worth the fortnight-long waiting list. The beer list was shortish, but both selections (Virmalised and Padrun) worked well with the food. Definitely a place to return to, since there were plenty of intriguing items on the menu.

Bought plenty of beer from Uba ja Humal (yes, it’s a Facebook link, the shop does not have a conventional web page at all). Though sadly this time there was way less in the way of american imports (the likes of Jai Alai were sorely missed). But this time I actually remembered to take a couple of photos instead of just shopping fanboyishly.

FI: Rataskaevu 16:sta ruokaa / Uba ja Humalista olutta.

Spent the first cold day of the winter on a day trip to Tallinn.

Took the morning ferry, whose trip towards the steaming sea (quickly freezing up at -16C) was on the surreal side.

Spent most of the day walking and shopping, stopping for a quick lunch at Clayhills in the Old Town. Sadly their house beers were probably the weakest links on the menu, and the food was heavy on the batter.

The last stop of the day was Uba ja Humal, a beer shop I’d heard plenty of good things about. The grapevine did not do justice to the place, the selection was wide and reasonably priced, the location out of the downtown hustle. In my best “kid in a candy store”-impression managed to buy no less than 38 beers, and take no pictures whatsoever. Concentrated on Estonian beers and picked up a couple of others along the side as well.

Tallink had expanded their range of beers in the ship’s tax free store to cover domestic craft breweries as well, picked up two sixpacks worth of them.

A cabin on the backswing was a very useful purchase, and fortunately the car hadn’t suffered in the freezing weather in the harbour either.

A very nice shop indeed, and one where I aim to return in the spring. It’ll be a while before this stash runs dry.

FI: Tallinnan olut-tarjonta yllätti talvimatkailijan.

Arlanda Airport was again a disappointment export-wise. The tax free shop had no beer available for purchase. And on account of some drawn-out swedish monopoly exemption no travelleres departing to destinations within the EU are allowed to purchase any alcohol.

There seemed to be a decentish pub on the premises but that was quickly passed on the way to pick up massive quantities of soap from an unexpectedly present Bed, Bath & Beyond.

FI: Saippuaa, ei olutta, sitä Arlanda tarjoaa.

Calvin famously says: “verbing weirds language”. Hence using sommelier as a verb is no linguistic felony, but yet another link in proving that english is the most malleable of languages.

Anyway, Speceriet, a bistro-style outcrop of neighboring Gastrologik (whose 140+ € menu was downright scary) offered both great food and a very inspired list of domestic microbreweries’ products. The restaurant is smallish, and the long tables are shared. The food was uncomplicated and served plainly, but most dishes packed an extra twist (like pike perch wrapped in a homemade flatbread and spiked with anchovy).

As the menu shows, Speceriet is a place that offers a single wine per color and plenty of different beers. Had my first encounter with Sthlm Brewing, and was impressed by the wares – Hop Hound was on the edge of being inappropriately bitter for the food, but never crossed the threshold.

A very pleasant evening indeed, worth a second visit, as well.

FI: Mainio ravintola, jossa on yksi jokaisesta erivärisestä viinistä ja useampia paikallisia oluita.

The Swedish beer scene is commonly thought as a folköl-nightmare, a Pripps Blå-fuelled realm of mediocrity.

But like so many things in life, things are very much deceiving.

It’s true that the beer in stores is kept low in ABV, but the selection is wide nonetheless. The eight million inhabitants with quite large purchasing power do attract foreign breweries to experiment with lower voltage products.

But where the Swedish selection really shines is their take on the domestic alcohol monopoly. Systembolaget introduces more beers in good months than the finnish equivalent achieves in a year. And the choice is indeed massive – small breweries and small batches are well represented.

We spent a good half an hour in the swedish flagship store, the Systembolaget on Regeringsgatan. Where the “spoilt for choice” was not an exaggeration. It really took some time to fill up a shopping basket with a good cross-section of the wares. The image above is just a glimpse into the beer section, I was too awed and forgot to utilize the panorama-feature of the iPhone camera.

I had purchased five Jetbags from Amazon for safe transport in a suitcase, and a bagful of bubblewrap to take care of a couple of additional bottles. Ended up with eleven bottles and nine cans (whose survival in the hands of luggage handlers did not worry much).

Turns out the bags and wraps worked wonders, and the Norwegian handlers were gentle enough with the suitcases so that all of them arrived home safely.

FI: Ruotsissa kaikki on isompaa. Myös olutvalikoima. Kuplamuovin voimalla uskaltaa ruumaan meneviin laukkuihin punkea litrakaupalla pulloja.