Helsinki for hopsters

HELSINKI - In recent years craft beer breweries shoot up like mushrooms. Worldwide over 10,000 craft beer breweries can be counted of which over 85% are located in North-America and Europe. The United States are taking the lead with over 5,000 breweries but in Western-Europe countries like the United Kingdom, France and Italy are following closely. In the Netherlands we count about 400 breweries and also in this country the beer consumption is still increasing. However, we see a decline of the traditional lager beer consumption (85.5% share in 2015 versus 84.5% in 2016) in favour of the craft beers (8.4% towards 9.2% over the same year) and alcohol-free variants (2.9% versus 3.3%).

There are several definitions of craft beer. The American Brewers Association defines 3 criteria: 1 ‘small size’, this means that maximum about 700 million liters is brewed yearly; 2 ‘independent’, this means that the craft brewery can be owned by a non-craft brewery for maximum 25%; 3 ‘traditional and innovative’ which of course is a source of wide interpretation. And this is what you see when you travel and visit microbreweries in different countries.

For example in Finland where many craft breweries can easily be discovered by visitors. The Suomenlinna Brewery for example, situated at the Unesco World Heritage protected island with the same name just outside Helsinki. It is the oldest microbrewery, founded in 1995 as soon as craft brewing was permitted in Finland. The location is perfect for the best storytelling, because the first Finnish breweries were also built on this same island to quench the thirst of Swedish soldiers building the fortress in the 18^th century. In the meantime, the current brewery has grown that much that part of the – still handcraft – production has moved to the mainland.  

Another hip brewery is Fat Lizard Brewery in Espoo. Here ‘fresh’ is the key word. Ceo and main brewer Heikki Ylinen believes that the nicest IPA’s can best be served fresh ‘like freshly baked bread’. The beer is delivered with the guarantee that it is younger than 30 days, with all the aroma’s intact. Fat Lizard pretends to be the only one in the world who can offer this.

In Bryggery Helsinki, in the heart of Helsinki’s historic centre the craft beer is brewed the way the brewers like it best themselves: pure and honest without all kinds of fancy tricks like using wild yeast or berries. The brewery also owns a restaurant where they offer the beers in combination with (local) dishes. But also here they are doing experiments, the newest creation is a 8.8% rosé & wine beer hybrid spiced with hibiscus tea. It tastes like a German Riesling, but with ‘a nice kick of hops at the back of your tongue’. And that’s what they call ‘not fancy’..?

TEN advises and supports food & beverage companies that are aiming to broaden their horizons. We co-ordinate food export activities, encourage business development projects, and create new international links. We also help improve the standard of existing export activities, and we operate as SIB advisor (Starters International Business, an initiative of the Dutch government) to SMEs. For more information www.theexportnetwork.nl or contact us for a first meeting without any obligations: http://www.theexportnetwork.nl/contact/.

Sources: Blue Wings magazine Finnair, september 2017; Bierconsumptiecijfers 2016 - Nederlandse Brouwers 2017; Craft Breweries Statistics 2015 - Statista 2016