Olutkellari Helsinki

No Longer In Business

Another stop on our "Good Beers" pub crawl during the ISHA conference. They told us that this used to be a metal pub pub with black walls and ceilings and all. That’s been changed but it’s still a relatively dark place. Very good location near the Senate Square. Quite big too. A good list of draught beers and a solid list of taps... Schlenkerla Rauchbier Urbock, Laitilan Mämmi IV, Cottage Jack’s Spring Ale (an English ale I’ve never seen anywhere else and that I’ve had to add to the site), some Crowmoor cider, Suomenlinnan Kellari IPA. The quality varies but hey, Schlenkerla Urbock on tap was worth going there by itself, let alone some rare ticks. Expensive, yeah, but what isn’t expensive in Finland (other than apples and quite likely onions judging by the amount of them they fed us). Ok atmosphere, ok service.

Located in the old coal cellar near the Senate Square. Good selection of Finnish and foreign beers but quite pricy. Staff is competent and there’s always a real ale on the tap (usually a Finnish one). Food consists of toasts.

Dark old cellar. Probably even a bit too dark. Good variety of brews and friendly staff. Even though is wasn’t quite crowded when I visited. Worth visiting.

Nice bar in what looks like a old wine cellar. It’s located about 100m from Senate Square, and is very easy to find. They got an okay selection of beers, nothing extraordinary or rare, but a lot of decent ones. Drop by if you are in the neighborhood.

One real ale available. Some local beers draught. Also foreign draught beer. A nominated beer for the place from nearby brewery. Good selection of bottled beers. Maybe too dark place. Need a lamp to see beer colour. A room for smokers. Live program once a week wed. at 9 p.m.

An excellent bar with a fairly good location. An excellent range of beer with the strength being the range of Finnish and Swedish beers on draught. A good bottled selection too but be prepared to pay for it! The only negative aspect is the fact that it is rather dark and not good for appreciating the appearance of certain beers.

Not the place it used to be (a metal bar, which had decent live music), but I won’t complain too loudly if you promise to buy me a beer. Lovely cellar bar - large, but mostly of smallish alcoves. Good selection of nordic brews, and still the Stadin brews by name (and the current brewmaster is doing an excellent job). Knowledgeable staff, friendly, and they speak good English. Quite easy to find as long as you can find Senate Square on Aleksanterinkatu - head 200m to the right at the far right corner of the square.

A quite nice and cozy pub, though a bit dark as it is in a cellar, and the lights aren’t the best. Selection was nice with micros from both Finland and Sweden on tap, as well as a nice selection of Danish and Norwegian micros bottled. Good thing is that there is a lot of space, so needs to be really lots of people to get it feeling crowded. Also carries real ale. The staff knew the beers they served and the ones sold out, they gave good recommendations on very similar beers.

A promising new cellar pub close to the Senate square. The staff have been working at Delifox before, so they should know their stuff. In addition to the regular importers, they also have beers from Pikkulintu and Ultimator. Since this is the only real beerpub in the chain (the owners have a couple of regular pubs in the vicinity), the selection should be more open to suggestions than in other beerpubs near the city center - excluding One Pint, of course. There are plenty of rooms, a separate room for smoking, and a cabinet with a video projector, that you can rent for free (I suppose they expect you to spend on beers, though :). In all, a very welcome addition, and hopefully a lasting one!

New private beer pub in Helsinki. It is located in a big cellar in an old goverment house near the old downtown of Helsinki. The selection is nice, with beers on tap from micro breweries from Helsinki such as Stadin Panimo and Suomenlinnan Panimo. The beer list also contains some Danish micro-breweries + beers from Sweden, Belgium, Germany, England and Czech Republic. They also have one real ale tap.