Craft Beer in Northern Europe Part 1: Finland & Estonia

I recently had the chance to travel around Northern Europe and was able to check out the state of the craft beer scene. I am happy to report that it is healthy & growing in all countries I visited though some are doing better than others.

Finland

Alko Helsinki Arkadia

Westie XII is cheaper than Alesmith!

I started off my trip in Helsinki. Right next to the station is the main Alko(above photos) which is the government run alcohol shop. This is a common feature in most Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway & Finland) with Denmark being the notable exception. The way it works is that beers under a certain ABV can be sold in supermarkets (usually around 5%) but anything higher in alcohol content must be sold through the government shops. Some supermarkets did have quite extensive selections of under 5% beers though.

Anyways, I just visited Helsinki & found the selection in most Alkos to be quite decent compared to places in Japan and the prices were average to high(Alesmith 20+ euros!) but they also had some local stuff that was good & reasonably priced. The Schinebrychoff Porter is very nice & only 2.30 euros so it tends to sell out fast. The service was also fairly good with staff coming to chat with me & making some recommendations on several of my visits.

 Helsinki also has a few famous bars a bit outside the city center: One Pint Pub (rare Cantillon, dive bar feel) and Olutravintola Pikkulintu (rare Cantillons, suburban strip mall local bar but great tap list). These are worth checking out but more for beer geeks than the average beer lovers. The city center has plenty for those with Oluthuone Kaisla being right near the main station (22 taps, tons of Belgians).

That was something I noticed in Helsinki, they had a very high turnover at the main Alko with beers changing quite quickly. Some of the supermarkets in town also had quite good selections of under 5% beers which was nice but generally speaking no one sells anything but mass-market crappy beers cold so for someone traveling around & staying in hotel rooms without fridges it is a bit tough.

Helsinki also has a few brewpubs as well as a bunch of beer bars. Most of the beer bars are still focusing on Belgian beers but have started to expand to northern European craft beers & even some US craft (though usually in bottles). The brewpubs in this town were quite good the one on Suomelinna was great with friendly staff while the one near the port was quite good & very stylish.


 K-Supermarket Kamppi

 Suomenlinnan Panimo

great tasting set

Bryggeri Helsinki (Helsinki Brewery)

Helsinki Brewery Taster

the outside terrace

 

Sahti is Finland's traditional beer. It is served flat but very sweet & spicy. It was most similar to a Christmas beer to me.

Verdict: Good & growing, prices in bars tend to be a bit high (Tokyo or Japan equivilant) though they have lots of belgians & good bottle lists. Service is usually good & knowledgeable about beer.

Some of the beers I picked up in Helsinki. Mamgard beers rock!

Estonia

I only made it to Tallinn but the striking thing here is that as soon as you are off the boat you get assaulted with tons of liquor shops everywhere near the port catering to Finns coming to get cheap beer by the trolley(10 cases stacked up on a luggage trolley!). Unfortunately, most of these places just sell junk but you can try tons of beers from all over the Baltic region and most just cost 1 euro!

 You'll also see Finns buying stacks of cheap beer on the ferries to avoid the steep taxes in Finland.


The best of the local brews were again the baltic porters(though there they are just porters) as well as their version of Finland's sahti which has a similar taste but is carbonated.

a local porter & Kodu Olu (Estonian sahti)

When I was there Estonia's first microbrewery had just released their first beer a Rye Ale but alas it disappeared as fast as it went on tap so I couldn't track any down anywhere. Annoying for me but it is a good sign of the healthy demand for good beer.

There are a handful of craft beer places in town these days. Well actually more than a handful. Drink Shop is a tiny but quite good bottle shop focusing on British beers as well as craft from around Europe with very reasonable prices. Bonus they have a small fridge with beers cooled to drinking temperature! They have a bar around the corner called Drink Bar with a similar selection but the owner James has continued to expand his craft beer empire with Pudel a bar close to the train station(kind of far from the old city) with the best selection of beer in Estonia in a stylish environment.

Drink Shop

Drink Baar

Pudel

I also enjoyed Hell Hunt a huge bar with some contract brewed beers as well as a varied tap/bottle list. This place was a 2 minute walk from my hotel and seemed quite popular with locals & tourists alike.

Hell Hunt

I had the same issue as in Finland with most shops selling the local beer at room temperature & hotel rooms having no fridges making it hard to try stuff out. The service in beer specific establishments was friendly & knowledgeable but in regular supermarkets or liquor shops it was non-existent.

Verdict: The beer scene here  holds a lot of promise. They favor large bottles running about 1 euro. Plus for beer tourists you can try lots of stuff at low prices, admittedly much of it isn't very good at the moment but the dark beers tend to be very nice.


 Here are some of those 1 euro beers...