Tallinn Trip – Pohjala Brewery Taproom
I didn’t bother with my usual three choices for everyone to pick from for this evening’s food, as I wanted to go to Pohjala Brewery’s Taproom and so that’s where we were going. I can be quite demanding like that, but my friends generally like my beer-fuelled odysseys even if they’re not the most hardcore of beer drinkers.
Anticipation increasing…..
Views over the taproom. Pohjala are the largest craft brewery in the Baltics and they’ve been trading since 2011, known (well, known by me at least) for their range of dark beers.
I was excited and delighted to see that were flights for €15 which included 100ml of five different beers, just look at the almost sacred text of the craft beer board. I noticed that there were some exceptions and I expected to be told that the high ABV beers were excluded. Fortunately, the only beer that was excluded was the Brewdog they had imported, the only beer that I didn’t really need to try in Estonia. It did mean that I could go for the beers that were over 10%, some true behemoths of craft excellence that I just knew would be the decadent treat I needed.
I was surprised and delighted by the breadth of the choices and it soon became evident to me that I was going to need two flights. The bar was busy, with what looked and sounded like plenty of British ex-pats, the lingua franca was very much English.
The first flight. The second one from the left is the Tallinn at Dawn, rich tasting with chocolate, coffee, roasty flavour and delicious, with an alcoholic kick at the end although that was unsurprising as it was 11%. The one at the far right is the Dark Engineering from the Cellar Series, flavours of whisky, oatmeal, cherry, vanilla, chocolate and coffee, all making for a proper warming beer which was my standout of the evening.
I was pleased with this, although we were all bemused as to why the chips were quite a small portion for the price, whilst other elements seemed generous. The chicken was tender and I liked that the skin was crispy, I can’t be doing with the soggy disappointment of flabby chicken skin, the culinary equivalent of a wet blanket.
The second flight. The one on the right is Cosy Nights, smooth, sweet and chocolately, a suitable way to end the evening.
Bev and Susanna were excited by this lovely beer visit. They were a bit excited by the lagers, as was Ross, and at least it wasn’t mass-produced rubbish even if they didn’t veer into the more liquid symphony of flavours of beers that Steve and I were enjoying.
And walking back to the tram. A marvellous evening and Pohjala have gone up a notch in my list of favourite breweries, there was a little bit of magic to the surroundings and I could leave with a warm glow. We might have had a slight wobble in our step when leaving, but that to me was just testament to the quality of the beer and potency of those Estonian hops.
