It's been a long time coming - Finland Pt. 3

For anyone who hasn't forgotten and may have some interest; here's the final instalment of my Finnish story.

Pt. 1 here
Pt. 2 here

Part 2 (here) Finnished (gedit?) with our intrepid hero and friends turned away from the microbrewery. On our wanderings we had noticed what looked like a promising pub, despite the Guinness sign outside - I've always been suspicious of pubs that aren't bogged down by a culture of draught, notro, cold Guinness drinking that nonetheless choose to serve it and make a feature of it.

This pub was called Olutravintola Sillansuu. (Details here - in Finnish.) Upon entering, the first sight to hit me was some high up shelves directly across from the door proudly displaying, maybe, about thirty world bottled beers with labels clearly stating their origin, price, style and strength. Oh, the unexpected joy! Beer, lovely, varied, visible beer. And what's this? Could it be a barman with interest in and knowledge of beer? Yes it seems to be.

Now it may seem like an obvious thing to do to clearly display your beer selection and some basic information about them but it is a practice sadly lacking in many beer bars in Ireland. I've spent so much time peering over the counter of Irish bars, I fear my body will permanently take on that stooped shape. A large, clearly visible, well written blackboard is also a good way of getting the information across.

This bar had an admirable selection; there was a strong emphasis on Belgian - and not just the usual suspects (Gulden Carolus Classic caught my attention), British and German beers with a smattering of Finnish and other world beers. Alas, I didn't make a list and the webpage doesn't appear to have one either - anyway I don't like making lists on my blog, it doesn't make for good reading. I also suspect that the selection changes on an ongoing basis.

The quiet downstairs bar looked inviting. Overwhelming, more like!! I was, for once, left speechless by the amount of beers displayed in floor to ceiling, glass cabinets lining every wall. I've never seen so many beers in one place - and mostly full. They have a thing that if you bring a beer that they don't have, you get a free beer. Maybe a gimmick but it kept me somewhat distracted for the night. An amazing collection of contemporary and historic bottles.

So, being in Finland, first up was Kukko Dark Lager (4.3%) for me and Kukko Porter (6.5%) for my willing tasting partner. Damn, should have taken the porter which did all that a coffee, chocolate, strong imperial porter should - the dark(ish) lager being rather unremarkable.

Oh oh, this is turning into a list/beer review. Mmmm. Okay very quickly....Weltenburger Kloster Barock Dunkel (4.7%) was had, so was Lia Fail (4.7%) Scottish dark(ish) ale - all very nice but not too memorable. But what did stand out in a big way for me was Ivanhoe Very English Pale Ale (5.2%). Wow! a complex, fruity, big, balanced pale ale which I believe to be English brewed for the Scandinavian market. Lucky Scandys!!

This pub had an odd pricing policy on 75cl bottles. Although just a little over twice the size of a 33cl, they charged a little over three times as much as for a similar strength and quality 33cl bottle. Strange. Their speciality beers were priced much the same or maybe a little less than an Irish beer bar.

When it came to chucking out time, these guys politely do not mess around. Two minutes after the light flash, beer was not to be had. And three minutes after we were informed that the bar must be cleared in three minutes, we were outside, slightly bemused. They stuck to their habit of having the bar cleared on time and we stuck to our habit of staying until the very last minute. All quite agreeable really.

Oh, and they served food too but as we had been driven to a dodgy kebab by the microbrewery (see Finland pt 2), I never thought to check out what it was they were serving

My time there saw me in two other bars. What's the general story? A lot of generic lager. A lot of Lapin Kulta. A lot of Czech lager and some Estonian lager. But what pleased me was that every bar seemed to have some Czech dark lager - mostly Kozel. If every bar in Ireland had such a thing, I'd be a little happier.

They also, like their Scandinavian neigbours, drink lots of fruit "cider", Koppaberg and Rekorderlig being omnipresent as well as some English made, Scandinavian market cider. Oh and sweet, salty, strangely nice, black, vodka shots! Salmiakki!! And they also have what may be the original alcopop - a grapefruit and gin based drink called 'Gin' which was developed for the 1952 Olympics and stayed around getting Finns inadvertently smashed and giving them terrible hangovers ever since.

To finally wrap up this much longer than intended Finnish entry, I must tell you about a new use for beer that I learned. Now, this might sound horrible but trust me on this - it works. While having a leisurely afternoon after sauna, our host suddenly get excited about something (no, not in that way!). A can of beer is produced, a little is mixed with water and the mix thrown on the hot coals. We were gently enveloped in a steamy, malty, bready, beery cloud. Honest, it was really nice. My non beer drinking wife even liked it! It's not unlike the smell you get from breweries when they're boiling the wort.

The Sauna


Now, I'm off to find some more uses for beer.

My last drink was; Schneiderweiss/Brooklyner Hopfenweiss, 50cl, 8.2%abv

Finland Pt 2. How Not to Run a Microbrewery!

First instalment of my Finish experience is here.

So there I was, a little worse for wear on a dull, drizzly Finnish Summer's day, resigned to the probability that this trip would not turn up much in the way of interesting beer. I was quite accepting of this fact - I'd just had a wonderful day at a friend's wedding and was in a small town in the lakes of Finland looking forward to spending more time by the lake with my new Finnish friends and my old Irish ones.

Having missed breakfast, my wife and I went wandering the town in search of food. A little off the beaten path, my interest was stirred by the spotting of a sign. Restaurant and...were my tired eyes and fuddled brain tricking me?....no, it said Microbrewery. I wasn't even looking and we'd stumbled across a microbrewery!

Now, while consuming beer was not on my agenda in my slightly fragile state, this had to be checked out. The sign also said 'Restaurant'. No argument was had. Off we went.

No doubt because of the weather this sizeable bar and restaurant with huge veranda had a somewhat deserted air about it. Nonetheless we bravely entered Huvila Microbrewery and Restaurant. A friendly, fluent English speaking (like most Finns we met) waiter showed us into a formal dining room with tables set for dinner. Water for me, a glass of wine for herself and menus were proffered.

Oops. This wasn't beer snack food. It wasn't café lunch food. All I wanted a bowl of nice chicken broth and some bread but here I was faced with a modern, stylish dinner menu. A quick discussion decided that we would make our excuses, pay for the wine and arrange to return that evening for dinner and beer (for me). The beer menu looked promising with a pale ale and some darker offerings too. After declining to take a booking, the waiter informed us that the kitchen was open until 21.30 and that the place remained open until midnight.

I won't go into our adventures finding soup in Savonlinna. This is, after all, not a food blog. Fast forward to about half eight that evening when four of us walk hungrily to Huvila looking forward to a aperitif beer and dinner. Oh dear. The kitchen was closed and did so at 19.30 every Sunday.
Having assured the staff that we had not misunderstood the waiter it was accepted that maybe he had made a mistake as he was new to the job. So, some snacks? No. No food what so ever! What kind of fool eats food with beer? Surely, everyone knows people only eat gourmet meals with beer but not after half seven on a Sunday!

The need for food, at this point, far surpassed the need for beer so, having ascertained that the bar was open until midnight we left. One desperation driven kebab later, we are again trodding the, now well beaten, path back to the strange Brewery/Restaurant. The seagulls with chicks by the lake are now really starting to wonder are we just there to torment them by passing their unguarded nest six times a day. Onward we plough for beer! Finnish Microbrewery beer!

Hu? No. Can't be. It is. Ha, ha. No? Yes. It's ten 'o clock and the place is closed! Really closed. I won't quote my rantings or what I threatened to do. This is a clean blog. They had shut up early. It was a miserable day a little before the Summer season really gets going and, I guess, due to no customers, they closed early. Surely not a good way to encourage custom.

The thing is, we had arranged to meet up with about eight others of our group there and at this stage we had all recovered enough to drink several good, outrageously expensive, microbrews. Instead we ended up elsewhere but that, I'll save for the final instalment of the Finnish entry.

It's great to see a small out of the way town with a microbrewery. And it's great to see beer being associated with good food but Huvila seem to have a very strange view of what a microbrewery should be. By all means, have an attached fine dining restaurant, but should not a beer specialist bar with a kitchen have some other food available throughout the evening for beer drinkers. Some cheese, salamis, breads, pickles, chicken, chips? But not a sausage, literally. Should a bar not stay open for its advertised hours? And should a microbrewery's beer not be priced somewhere close to other local bar's beer. Maybe a little more expensive but not almost double.

Huvila seems to want to make quality beer exclusive - the exact opposite to what The Beer Revolution wants. Or maybe they're confused as to what they want. It's as if they want to run a fine dining restaurant but got lumbered with a brewery. The really strange part of this story is that due to a complete lack of good restaurants in Savolinna, we actually went there for dinner the following night. It was good. Very good, albeit with tiny portions, but not bad value by Irish standards (or Finnish for that matter). Many of their beers were out of stock but I did try their pale ale and that was very good too.

They have a very good restaurant with an interesting wine list and they have a brewery that makes good beer ( I tasted my friends cider which also had a sense of quality) but they seem to have absolutely no idea of how to run a bar or of customer service.

Despite making good beer, Huvila don't seem to be interested in serving it to the locals or visitors to Savonlinna. Hulvia could be a great bar in a beautiful location serving well made house beer and snacks with an attached restaurant. But it's not.

The Beer Revolution does not take its hat off to Huvila Microbrewery and Restaurant, despite its fine food and beer.

The beer saving grace of Savonlinna will be the topic of my next entry and then it will be back to hassling the providers of beer in Ireland.

My last drink was; Weihenstephaner Vitus. 7.5%abv 50cl.

A Valuable Lesson from the Finns

Right, I’m back from Finland and sufficiently recovered to write about my experiences – the lack of darkness there at this time of year does tend to encourage late nights without epic lie ins.

On my very first day there, The Beer Revolution learned a valuable lesson. I guess that this lesson could have been learned anywhere but it took a wonderful visit to Finland to bring it home to me.

Believe it or not, the lesson learned was; there are far more important things in life than beer. That statement may seem obvious, even to me but I learned that, even in the context of social celebrations, beer and wine are really secondary elements.

To explain; I was at a close friend’s wedding in Finland. After the ceremony, we all gathered at a rural equestrian centre where a Finish buffet was laid on, complete with barn dancing and musical recitals (the family in question are, without exception, ridiculously musically talented – even the in laws). We ate, made new friends, danced, listened to music, petted goats and horses and drank wine from wine boxes and generic Finish lager from cans. Not the kind of drinking one might associate with The Beer Revolution (who’s also rather particular about what kind of wine he drinks) but did I care? I was far too busy enjoying the occasion and appreciating the people around me to give one flying toss about what I was drinking. You know, sometimes it really just doesn’t matter!

I always knew that people are far more important than beer but I would have thought that at something like a wedding, the alcohol served was of paramount importance. It’s not. This was one of the most enjoyable social events I’ve been at and the unpretentiousness of the beer and wine became a part of that.

For our wedding, my wife and I put great thought and effort into what alcohol was served and we had a wonderful day. I’m glad we did but that’s our thing. I now realise that our guests would have enjoyed the day just as much had we not done so. Oh, but we had some nice beer and wine, all the same!

I guess, what I’m saying is that if beer and wine is your thing, then go for it – source fine beer and wine for your celebrations. If it’s not, don’t. Either way your guests won’t judge you, good or bad. If they’re real friends, that is.

So, after my first, long day, bright into the morning, I had no great expectations for beer in Finland. At this stage, I was so in love with the place and so enamoured with the people we’d met that I didn’t really care. It wasn’t, after all, a beer trip.

But did the Beer Revolution find any beer to tickle his fancy, any bars to stimulate the senses? Well, children, that is a story for another day!

My Last Drink Was; Herencia Remondo La Montessa Rioja Crizanza 2004, 13.5%, Glass