90 years anniversary of the Finnish Master Brewers’ Association

Brewmasters and brewing experts of all ages and generations gathered to celebrate the 90 years anniversary of the Finnish Master Brewers’ Association.

The program covered 90 years of Finnish brewing history in a few hours. Beer Journalist Anikó Lehtinen Lehtinen shared with us highlights of Finnish alcohol policies and culture from the last 90 years.

Tuula Loikkanen from the Finnish Grocery Trade Association talked about trends in beverage sales. We learned that the overall alcohol consumption in Finland has declined 13% since 2017 and the share of non-alcoholic beverages continues to grow.

The history of PBL Brewing laboratory was presented by Pia Hortling, Kirsti Pietilä, Silja Home and Esko Pajunen who shared stories from the early days of Finnish brewing research.

As it all starts from barley, no surprise that the quality and availability of local malting barley was one of the first development topics from the 60’s.

The history of Finnish microbrewing was nicely covered by Mika Tuhkanen and the meeting ended with the traditional barley crop lecture, this year delivered by our Sourcing Manager Anu El-Ghaoui.