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.