OMH Helsinki Tour, part 1

The following day we met up with a www-friend, exchanged some Swedish bottles for some sahti and recieved some good advice on how to find good beer in Helsinki. Thank's Esa!! During two days we visited three different pubs:

Vanha Kellari: A pub with a great assortment of beers, and with a peculiar look to it, almost like a Russian restaurant or something. When we first were there they played Finnish tango. Here we tried amongst others the great thick and fullbodied Fuller's London Porter, the strong and fruity Augustijn and Bush Beer 12%, and the thin and unintersting dark Spanish lager Bock-Damm

The brewpub Kappeli: One of presumably two brewpubs in Helsinki. Unfortunately they only had one of their own beers at the moment: Kappeli Tumma, a dark complex, but rather thin lager. They also hada good assortment of bottled beers. We tried Berliner Kindl Weissbier, our first Berliner weisse, a really challenging experienced. It is sour and at the first sips it reminds you of wild fermentation, but once you get used to it it's rather refreshing. We also had Cantillon Rosé de Gambrinus a raspberry flavoured very authentic lambic, which was a bit too sour for me to fully enjoy.

Punavuorin Ahven: Here we spent the most time (and a smaller fortune...). It's a Belgian style beer café, with an excellent assortment of mainly Belgian beers, nice atmosphere and very friendly and knowledge staff. Here we tried the winner of the tour: The IMO perfectly balanced cherry flavoured lambic Frank Boon Kriek, the nice and very complex draught Con Domus, two great beers from Klosterbrauerei Ettal, Gambrinus Bilé (our first Czechish wheat beer) and many, many more.

On all these places we were very friendly treated, the very knowledged staff spoke English and/or Swedish and almost all beer was served in their proper glass. We had a great time. Thanks!

We also tried some low alcoholic Finnish beers which wasn't more exciting than their Swedish counterparts.