Gourmet beer comes (back) to Estonia.

Right, after much complaining to Viru that they are ignoring their home market, they have done a u-turn and decided to make the beers available in Estonia. I got some samples last week from the sales rep. As far as  I am aware, they will be on general release from May. The price he quoted me was under a Euro a bottle. Alarm bells.

For those who don't know, Viru Olu recently revealed that they are brewing "gourmet beer" for the Danish market, and the Danish market only. They said that Estonians don't like ale and aren't ready for gourmet beers. I chuckled at this quote, because at that time of writing, I had just struck a deal with Mikkeller of Denmark, to bring their "gourmet" beers to Estonia for ale thirsty Estonians.

Doing a bit of research shows that the brewery where this is made is the Gourmetbryggeriet in Roskilde, some 60 or so km West of Copenhagen. This brewery produces quite a few beers, and has even been used by Mikkeller to brew their Christmas beer "Santa's little helper" in 2006.

I have to admit, I am still a bit confused where Viru come in. Do GB brew it under licence for them?

They are planning to release 4 different beers. 3 under the GB name, and 1 other under the Puls brand.

Here they are:



Puls "ale" (and in very small print "pale ale"). 5.2% abv

It's the same packaging as the other Puls beers - which I kind of like in an Art Deco way. I have to admit that my concerns were immediately alerted when I read that the word ale, was in inverted commas. On the back, (in Estonian) while saying that it is top fermented, it goes on to say that it's an ale style beer. The fact that it's top fermented means that it uses ale yeast, so that means that it's an ale. Ale is not a style, pale ale is a style, brown ale is a style, lambic, stout, scotch and Burton are all styles.

And a pale ale it is not. It's actually quite a deep, caramel red. A reasonable sized head, sits proudly on the liquid. And this caramel carries onto the nose. There is no smell of hops, but quite a nice sweet, toffee aroma. Not the sort of smells you'd associate with a pale ale - modern or traditional. It's almost like smelling the beer from Sillamae "Munchen". Which incidentally, is a lager. I find that this sweetness soon becomes quite irritating. If I am smelling a pale ale, I want to smell fresh hops - spicy one if its a classic pale ale, or more floral tropical fruit ones if it's a more modern style.

By the time I am ready to taste it, the head has rapidly disappeared. Another sign that there is little hops used. The taste is similar to the smell - pretty sweet, with lots of caramel flavours. Perhaps this is where the colour is from - caramel or candy sugar? Very little bitterness, and overall pretty one dimensional because of the sweetness. It's very very similar to Saku Manchester.  Mouth feel is slightly cloying and chewy. I served this at about 12c. I don't think serving it any warmer or colder would have any difference on the taste.

I'd just taken a second sip, when the wife called me from upstairs to tell me it was time to put the kids to bed, starting with changing the littlest ones nappy. I went upstairs without a second thought.  Came back downstairs half an hour later, saw the beer and poured it away.  Kind of sums it up.

Verdict: Drainpour.



Next up is "Piney".5.2% abv.

This is part of their "GB" range. Someone said that it sounds like a toilet cleaner brand. On the label it explains that Cascade and Amarillo hops are used. Brilliant! The same hops that are used in Brewdogs 5AM Saint. So it was with some excitement that I opened the bottle.

Not much aroma comes from the bottle, but it does pour a decent straw golden colour with a pretty strong head. A big sniff into the glass to get all those lovely American hops aromas (some of which should be pine - hence the name of the beer I guess), leaves you disappointed. Its that same sweet caramel aroma again. The beer is the same abv, and a pretty similar colour - is it the same as the Puls beer?

Once again the head has gone. The taste does have a little fragrance, but is lost amongst the caramel which dominates the beer. There is a suggestion of a finish, but that, like the head on the beer quickly disappears.

If you are going to do an American style beer, you have to be able to a) smell the hops and b) taste the hops. Two things that are missing in this beer. They also recommend to serve it at 6c. Odd.

Verdict: It's not bad, but those who know what Amarillo and Cascade taste and smell like will immediately disregard this beer as being not true to the style. Those who don't, will wonder what the difference between this and the Puls beer is, and also might think that American hops used in this beer are probably used in Bud too.

It's a lager next. "Bock" . 7% abv.

Gourmet strong beer on the label. Pours very thin (even in my specialist bock glass). Struggled to keep a head even for the picture. A nice amber colour. (uh oh - please, not more caramel).

Aroma is almost non existent. The taste is ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME as the previous two! The only difference is that there is more fizz on the tongue. I'm getting bored of saying it now: caramel sweetness, toffee and very little hops.  Here's the weird thing. Recommended serving temperature 7c. Higher than the ale?

Here's a picture, 4 minutes after I poured it.

Bock beer is traditionally served on special occasions. I suggest that April fools might be a good time to drink this. Or my funeral wake.

Verdict: You think I was going to continue drinking it when it looked like that after 4 mins? Woudn't raise an eyebrow if someone told me that this came from a 2L plastic bottle.  Drainpour.

And last, and hopefully not least is FinAle. Is that a play on words. Finale, meaning last? Or is this an ale for Fins? Lets find out. 6.5%

Pours a deep burnt orange, amber colour. Decent size head. Looks pretty nice in the glass.

Serve at 7c it says on the label, so I did. The result is no aroma at all. Despite being promised as described on the label, as having West Coast flavours from the Cascade hops.

I don't even need to say what it tastes like. Except this is the worst of the lot. Apart from the sickly sweet caramel flavours, there is a metallic finish. It's actually diffiicult to drink because it's so heavy and chewy. It's a sort of beer where you struggle to finish the whole glass. Again, as you can see below, intital good looks quickly disapear. GB should supply free beer goggles for all of these beers.

Verdict: What's the difference between this and the others? The name. Which actually is quite apt. It's the FinAle nail in the coffin for this particular group of beers. Felt guilty about pouring YET ANOTHER beer down the sink. So I left it on the worktop unfinished, for the Mrs to pour it down the sink in the morning. Wife drainpour.


As much as I totally commend what they are doing, I just wished that they had done their research a bit more fuller. I completely buy in to the fact that 99% of Estonia is a lager market, and that means that many of  the people drinking this beer will be trying ale for the first time. I am sure most will enjoy it - because this type of ale is more amber lager, than pale ale. Saku Tume and Sillamae Munchen drinkers will probably like this. Ale geeks like me won't like it. My main fear are those people who have seen these funny named brands on the shelf "Punk IPA, Trashy Blonde, Bishops Finger etc etc" and have wanted to try them, but have been put off by the price, name of style, so decide to try a GB beer instead. After drinking one of them, they are bound to wonder what the fuss is all about over Brewdog and Mikkeller, and go back to drinking lager instead.

If you are only aiming at a small segment of the market who like quality ales - then make one for them. Spend a bit of  money. We don't mind if the beer is more than 4€ a bottle if it's worth it. If that means using hops by the bagful instead of sprinkling them on like saffron, then so be it. If it means adding some aromatic American hops towards the end of the boil, or dry hopping for aroma - then do it. It's only going to be 1% of Estonians who don't like it, but if done properly - you never know how many new craft beer converts you might get.

But of course for every craft beer drinker who dislikes this, there is a lager drinker who will like it. And this in turn will hopefully make them feel more confident about ale, and will give them the courage to try some of the more "out there" beers currently available in Estonia. We all have to start somewhere I guess.

Still, it's early days and things can only improve. Lets hope they forgot to add the hops or something. Or that the head brewer decides to leave.

Ah well, lets all sit back and wait for A Le Coq and Saku to release their version of "ales". At least it makes the beers in Drink Bar and Shop taste even better.

EDIT: After sleeping on it (and I think I've found the cure for a hangover - drink bad beer! The more you pour down the sink, the less chance of a headache in the morning), I decided that I'd been a little harsh and possibly cruel. I don't want to be seen as the Englishman living in Estonia who shoots down Estonian beer because its....Estonian. Maybe Estonian ale is different from British ale and this is how it's meant to taste. Not everyone enjoys the uber hoppy beers such as Punk IPA, Hardcore IPA or the new style American/NZ hops which are currently en vogue. But then I thought, they've got "West Coast" and lists of American hops used in the brew in their marketing on the bottles. So I'm not being harsh. These beers are not a true reflection of the style that they are supposed to represent.  


So I'm still sticking to my original reviews. I will however look out for further reviews with an open mind. As I mentioned in a previous tweet, You are bound to think Ferrari's are great cars if you've only ever driven Fords before. I suspect that these beers will receive much acclaim from the local press, simply because they will be comparing it to the generic lagers and "ale types" that are currently on their radar. In this case, they probably think Fords are Ferraris too.

Hoppy Easter!

It's not just the Easter Bunny that hops.


Lots of talk in the brewing world at the moment seems to be centering on hop varieties. The focus (in craft beer) is moving away from the traditional English, Czech and German hops, and towards the "new world" plants from America, Australia and New Zealand.


What is a hop, what is it used for and what does it do?

Humulus lupulus is a species of Humulus in the Canabaceae family. In other words, it's the female climbing plant that is related to Cannabis plant. I wouldn't advise smoking it though, it's much better used in beer.They can be used in tea and soft drinks, and can also be used medicinally to send you to sleep, but of the approx 150,000 metric tonnes of hops that are produced worldwide each year, nearly all of it ends up as the vital ingredient in providing bitterness and aroma in beer.


Hops first started being cultivated in the Hallertau region of Germany. Their hops are still used to this day - even in our very own local beer Saku (sharp intakes of breath as people actually realise that Saku contains a) something so historic and b) hops). It wasn't til a couple of hundred years later that hops were used in brewing. Beer before that was flavoured with herbs and spices to give it a bit of bite. This combination of herbs was called gruit and contained various ingredients with fantastically silly Harry Potteresque names like mugwort, yarrow, horehound and my own personal favourite; henbane. Quite why the hens didn't like this particular plant I don't know. One interesting fact about actual hops, is that it is extremely toxic to dogs, causing them to get hypothermia which in nearly all cases results in death. I bet Brewdog didn't know about that.

It was these mildly narcotic ingredients, along with various other theories, that led to the decline in the use of gruit and the switch over to hops. Some beers still use herbs and spices instead of hops, most notably the unhopped beer Sahti from our neighbours in Finland, and others have used traditional recipes to create new beers. Gruut Brewery based in Ghent, Belgium produce some fantastic tasting beers. These are available to buy from Drink Shop. http://www.gruut.be/En_Beginpagina.aspx

Hops are used in brewing because of their many benefits. They balance the sweetness of the malt with bitterness, they give off lots of different flavours and aromas, and they also act as a preservative. It's this last one that finally made brewers switch from gruit to hops - they found that their beers lasted longer using the latter.


Which incidentally is how IPA was invented. In the early 1800's beers were generally sweet and dark without much hops (read porter, stout etc). When the British troops based in India called out to the brewers back home for some beer, they waited in anticipation for it to arrive two or so month later (no Easy Jet back then). It arrived off the boat, and with mouths drooling with anticipation, was immediately racked, tapped and poured into eager glasses. They weren't very happy with the result. Due to the boat getting knocked about over the high seas, the beer getting blasted by high and then low temperatures, shook up, rolled about and generally not treated with the full care it deserved, when it did finally arrive in India, it was pretty much undrinkable. Although I BET they still drunk it. The brewers scratched their heads, and came up with the notion that hops, as a preservative could keep the beer fresh if there was enough in it. They also decided to brew the beer paler, and in a less conditioned state than the previous brews. This meant that along with the increased amount of hops, it would also be preserved by the amount of yeast in the barrel that would condition the beer along the way. The beer arrived in perfect order, and although it was much dryer than the usual brews, everyone loved it. Huzzah!! India Pale Ale, or IPA for short, was born.

Look at a glass of beer which is high in hops. Then look at the head. It's going to have a big creamy one. 

 Bumper sticker for my car. #1 "IPA drinkers like good head".

The idea is that you use two different types of hops, I won't go into it fully (if you want to know more - read my blog "leaves a bitter taste in your mouth"), one type of hops you add at the beginning of the boil and keep them in there for a couple of hours. These give the beer bitterness. The other type of hops is used for aroma and taste only - and that is added literally right at the end of the boiling process, or "dry hopped" where whole hop cones or pellets are added to the container and don't get boiled at all. Think of it as a soup. If you added parsley or coriander at the beginning with all the vegetables, you'd get very little flavour. If you added the chopped herbs towards the end, or actually in your soup bowl, then you'll get the benefit of these flavours and aromas without them all disappearing out of the window in a cloud of steam.


So what flavours do hops give off? Traditionally, hops from the UK give off earthy, spicy tastes and aromas. Those from Germany, Czech Republic and other Eastern European countries, give off spiced citrus and grassy aromas and flavours. The new wave of American and Southern Hemisphere hops are now bringing tropical fruits and very fresh grapefruit/mango like aromas with a soft but long lasting bitterness.


Who grows hops? The market is mostly dominated by the Germans and the US in terms of hectares, but look at Ethiopia and China in there. There is a school of thought that the Ethiopian hops "Gesho" in not in actual fact a hop at all, but more related to the buckthorn family. This is a chart from 2009. The figures have now changed, with Germany leading the market in 2011, and the US in second place. The "rest of the world" segment has increased too. There has been a huge demand for New Zealand and Australian hops - so much so, that one of the new "en vogue" hops, "Nelson Sauvin" has been totally sold out.

Here's what hop production in the USA looks like.

Over supply is affecting the industry due to a shift in varieties sought by brewers. Average prices are falling as growers near the end of long term contracts written at the start of the acreage run up. With the rise of craft brewing calling for different types of hops (hops that don't demand as much space due to the fact that the beer volumes aren't in the same league as the multinational brewers), these depleted acres should in time begin to fill up. Just over 10 years ago it was predicted that craft brewing would never gain more than 2% of the market, now it's predicted that it will reach 10% in a couple of years.


Know your hops: what are the names of some of the hops that are used in the top producing countries?


USA: Amarillo, Bravo, Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Citra, Comet, Liberty, Magnum, Nugget, Simcoe,, Tomahawk.
Warrior, Willamette, Zeus
England: Bramling, Challenger, First Gold, Fuggles, Goldings, Northdown, Styrian,Target.
Germany: Hallertauer, Merkur, Opal, Perle, Saphir, Tradition.
Australia: Galaxy, Pride of Ringwood, Stella, 
New Zealand: Green Bullet, Motueka, Nelson Sauvin, Wai-iti


There are also four hops known as noble hops. These are hops which are low in bitterness and high in aroma. They are:
Germany: Hallertau, Spalt, Tettnang
Czech: Saaz,

As mentioned, different hops give off different tastes aromas. Here are some beers with the hops used explained:




USA: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Uses two hops - Magnum and Cascade. You'll get all the aromas of the hop in this beer - pine, cedar, citrus, plus some tropical fruits in the flavour. And lots of bitterness. Think of a forest in Oregon where this hop was first developed. Lots of Mikkeller use American hops too.
ENGLAND: Meantime IPA. Uses Fuggles and Goldings. Lots of English hops give this spicy orange peel flavours.
GERMANY: Hacker Pschorr Munich Gold: Hallertau Magnum. Soft herbal hops flavours with a spiced finish. Saku Originaal also use this hops.
AUSTRALIA: Little Creatures Pale Ale. Uses Galaxy and Cascade. Lots of flavours from both of the hops - grapefruit from the Australian Galaxy, coupled with tropical fruit and resin from the American Cascade. 
NEW ZEALAND: Punk IPA. Chinook, Simcoe, Nelson Sauvin, Ahtanum. Uses American and New Zealand hops, and it's the Nelson Sauvin that really shines through, with tastes of mango and passion fruit.
NOBLE: Pilsner Urquell. Classic Czech Pilsner hops Saaz are used to give the beer a citrus and spicy taste.

Many people, when they try some of the beers using American or New Zealand hops for the first time are simply blown away from the aroma which hits them on opening, and the flavour when first tasted. People are generally used to very little hops in beer, or bittering hops in beer. America is top of the charts, but in actual fact, it's the alpha hops which impart bitterness, not the aroma hops that make up most of their hop production. Although it's not always apparent, Bud and the other big boys use hops too. German hops are very soft and blend well into lagers - so they don't really taste huge either. So that's almost 80% of the market gone just with these two. In actual fact, unless you actively seek out craft beer, you're not really going to stumble upon a beer that uses Galaxy, Bravo or Nelson Sauvin. And when you do - you'll certainly know about it!  I absolutely love it when I am introducing a person or group to a heavily hopped aromatic beer for the first time. The look of shear confusion turning into delight as the tropical fruits and mango aromas hit their nose is wonderful. 


A friend of mine, and fellow beer geek also has similar feelings. He is slowly working through his friends converting them into craft beer hop heads. He told me a story about one of his friends who is now a Punk IPA fan. His friend said that no matter how bad a day he is having, all he has to do is put his nose into a glass of Punk IPA and he can't help smiling. I thought it was a great story, and to my suprise, the very next day when I was selling Mikkeller American Dream into a customer, they said the exact same thing. They said that each time you put your face to the glass, it was difficult to drink because of the huge smile on your face. If only you could bottle that feeling....oh wait.  

Bumper sticker for my car #2: "Craft beer drinkers do it with a smile on their face".

Here's a great example of what I am talking about. It's a beer that could be just like any other beer. If it wasn't for the hops.


It's a beer that when you open the bottle, you are immediately hit with the aroma of tropical fruits, grassy sweetness, and sharp malts. It's a beer that when you taste it, a multitude of flavours wash over your tongue. Sugary caramel at first, passion fruit at second, tangy hops third, and then finally the bitter dryness of pine cones at the finish. And of course this is a beer you spill all down your shirt because you are smiling too much.


I'll whisper it very very quietly. This beer is a Lager. That's right - a Lager as in, not an ale. To be more precise, it's a Pilsner. But what makes it a different from your regular Pilsner, is that the hops used are American. Simcoe, Centennial and Amarillo are the magic ingredients in transforming a classic Pilsner into a wonderful beer. So good in fact, that Ratebeer.com rate it as the worlds best premium lager.


What is it? What is it? I can hear you ask. The answer is what we've all been striving for:
The American Dream.


Mikkeller "The American Dream". Denmark (although brewed at the De Proefbrouwerij, Belgium). 4.6% ABV. Ratebeer rating: 96

It hits you as soon as you open the bottle - the aroma of fresh hops. It's as if someone has opened a mango factory in the middle of a pine forest. Mikkeller have been very careful to not call this a lager in huge flashing lights. It's described in Danish, as a Pilsner brewed with water, hops, barley and yeast. Interestingly, unlike many of their other beers, it doesn't list which hops they use. Maybe it's because they don't want to scare any lager drinkers. To be honest, when they first offered it to me, I said I wasn't interested. Estonia is full of lager, and I want to bring more ale here. Trust me, Tore from Mikkeller said. I took a punt, and when I had my first sip, I was literally speechless. I also had beer all down the front of my shirt.  When I'm describing it, or selling it in to a few of the places in Tallinn I think are worthy enough, I don't call it a lager. I just describe it as a wonderful refreshing beer made with American hops. 

You can tell by the colour that this is not an ordinary Pilsner. Its a murky, hazy apricot gold with a very large thick head. It's also got very little carbonation. Certainly not the fizz you'd get with a commercial lager.

When you taste it, you also realise it's not an ordinary Pilsner. I've already described the tastes you get from this beer in the opening description - but really, you just don't expect this beer to taste like this. Especially at 4.6%. I'd describe it as a sort of easy drinking Punk IPA. Of course for your regular lager drinker, this would be as challenging as it comes, but for a seasoned hop drinker, it's a very good, very well balanced beer.

Mouthfeel is great - how can it not be with that massive head? The head stays all the way to the end of the glass too. Interestingly, Mikkeller describe this as an "easy drinking summer beer to be drunk straight from the bottle". Call me old fashioned, but I prefer to drink from a glass. BUT, if I was hanging out on the beach, or someones lawn at a bbq, and they brought a chill bag full of this stuff, I wouldn't object. Even if it was ice cold.  

So as Brewdog say "Think about everything you know about lager, and then forget it in an instant" (ironically, this was their tagline for 77Lager, which they've now forgotten about because they think it's too boring). This is a truly lovely drink, and a champion of what can be done with hops if you choose the correct varieties. 

We've got some cases of Brewdogs "IPA is dead" arriving next month. These are 4 packs of 4 beers each containing just one single hop. It was Mikkeller who first came up with the single hop series, and I really believe its the way forward. Wine does it, and it really does help the customer. Imagine, just as you do when looking for a wine, that you can browse the beer section and decide which beer to choose on it's hop variety. Same with a bar. Walk in and ask the bartender "I'd like a glass of Nelson Sauvin please". Actually - come do drink bar and do just that, I'd like to think that my staff know a thing or two about beer. Even if they don't, it might be amusing to see what they give you :)

As Easter is upon us, I feel it's only right that you crack open a few beers and raise a toast to the man who gave his life so we can enjoy ours. I can't help but think that if he had turned water into IPA instead of wine, those nasty Romans might have put him on a pedestal instead of a cross.

Bumper sticker for my car #3 "Jesus should have made beer".

Hoppy Easter!