5 weird ways Finland polices drinking

It's really tough in here. There's a ton of rules and districtions about everything regarding to alcohol. Biggest issue with craft beer scene is nationwide alcohol monopoly Alko which is only store allowed to sell over 5,5% beers to go. Only exception to that are independent breweries which can sell beers up to 12% to go if they are producing less than 500 000 litres of beer annually. Over 12% beers has to be drank in bars/restaurants, bought from Alko(selection is awful and beers are not stored in cold) or ordering from abroad.

Another big issue is that alcohol can't be shipped so if you want to buy beer straight from Finnish brewery you need to travel there. Shipping restriction includes all alcohol drinks over 0,5% I think. Only way to get beer delivered to home is to order from abroad which it is allowed. Absolutely awesome competition for domestic breweries against foreign ones...

Events are hard to organize since every portion of alcohol needs to be exchanged for money etc. Festival ticket should include x amount of tokens or something similar which people can change for portions of alcohol. We are going to have some festivals since they can kinda be compared to bars or restaurants which can sell any % of alcohol inside. Of course there are a lot of and applications and permissions organizer needs to do and get when planning on organizing festival.

Alcohol can be advertised on breweries own social medias and in bar areas but nowhere else pretty much.

 

Glad I found this thread concerning my own little place on earth. Todd, hope you can make it here one day! Who knows, maybe me cutting out the alcohol altogether may have to do with all the difficulties regarding it?

 

That was true in the U.S. after the alcoholic beverage regulations were written after Repeal in the mid-1930's, up until last year with the TTB's
Modernization of the Labeling and Advertising Regulations for Wine, Distilled Spirits, and Malt Beverages-04/02/2020

 

So, if I understand correctly: the beer tourist in Finland should go to the source, i.e. the breweries themselves, right?
What breweries/beers in Finland (say, Helsinki and Karelia) would you recommend?
As a Belgian, I have plans to make a beer trip to Finland next year. If anyone is interested, I can bring some Belgian goodies.

 

In fact you find a lot of different beer everywhere. Beer pubs, supermarkets, and so on. And the Alko 'monopoly' for beer above 5.5% abv, quite many of those shops too. I'd say beer culture has landed here. In spite of the regulations.

 

I remember not finding any good beers in the 4-5 days we spent there. Although it was a family trip to Sant Claus Village so all we had access to was the gas station across the road. But this is all interesting nonetheless.

 

Beer scene is heavily regional. Rovaniemi doesn't really have anything interesting to offer despite having one decently sized craft brewery. There aren't any good craft bars and only a few supermarkets have a decent selection. Few markets have Pien fridges which is nice, Pien is a craft beer distributor and they have their own beer fridges in many supermarkets around the country.

Where in Karelia? Lappeenranta is the home of Tuju, I would say they are in the top 5 of Finnish breweries. Helsinki surprisingly doesn't have many breweries, pretty much all of them are located in Espoo which is easily accessible from Helsinki. Salama Brewing and Olari are in Espoo, they are considered top breweries also, Olari is has perhaps the best IPA's and Salama is known for pastry stouts. Coolhead, which is probably the best sour beer brewery in Finland, is currently located in Tuusula but they have an awesome tap room in Helsinki. They are going to move their brewery there soon as well. Then there's also Pien Brewing, they make fantastic IPA's as well, some say better than Olari but I haven't had a chance to try them yet since I live quite far away from Helsinki and they haven't canned anything yet. There's also Pien Shop which is also a bar, great beers around the world. Probably the best selection in Finland.

If you want to drink beer from other parts of Finland in Helsinki, Juova is probably the best option. I believe it's kinda co-owned by multiple Finnish breweries.

Also, bloggers and influencers are absolutely promoting alcohol and people are writing positive comments in social media. I haven't heard anyone get in a trouble for a long time. So point number 4 is exaggerated.

And having a beer fest here is not a problem. There are multiple festivals arranged every year without any problems at all. And yes, they can be promoted.