For years, Finnish beer fans drowned their sorrows with cans of watery lager while the craze for small, boutique micro-breweries swept first across the US, and then around the world. Long after every city in Europe was expected to soon be turning out high quality and innovative beers, the trend has started to show signs of taking root in Helsinki.

While those used to cheap lagers might find the huge waves of flavours found in ales and porters a bit of a shock to the system, the transition is a bit like that from canned to fresh pineapple – once you’ve recovered from the shock of discovering that this thing can actually have quite a strong taste, you will never again be satisfied with one that doesn’t.

DAVID BROWN
HT