Blogi paremas ülanurgas on vormilt kohmakas, kuid sisult võimalikult täpne küsimus. Kui peaksid valima ainult kodumaiste tehaste hulgast, siis mida valid? Nimekirja on pandud ainult need tehased, mida saab liigitada nö tööstuslike tegijate hulka.Väiketootjad, keda me ilmselt kõik tahaks eelistada, on hetkel välja jäetud. See, et osa Eesti tootja õllest tehakse füüsiliselt nt Leedus, pole arvesse võetud. Panna nt Saku ja Karksi ühele "suurtootja" pulgale näib veider. Jne, jne, jne.
Gambrinus teab, et see pole aus küsimus, aga ikkagi - millist Eesti õlletehast eelistad?
Ma asun väljakutsuvale seisukohale ja eelistan sellise ülesandepüstituse juures Sakut. (Ja see on ühtlasi viimane kord, mil mind nähakse nii ütlemas.)
ReplyDeleteA Le Coq'i vastu tunnen lõunast pärit olevana suurt "kodukandisümpaatiat". Samas isegi suurtele peavoolu õlletehastele omast pseudoinnovatsiooni brändingus pole nad suutnud veenvalt teha. Rocki vastu astunud Diesel on tänaseks 2 liitri kaupa müüdav odav viis purju jääda ja Special tundub olevat läbimüügilt unustatuna Kulla varjus.
Seega Saku ja A Le Coq ei ole kumbki põnevad uuenduslikud tehased ja nende häda on selles, et nad ei püüa teha parimat õlut vaid kaklevad üksteise vastu ja see kohalikus konnatiigis toimuv madin jätab hää õlle huvilise külmaks.
Karksi ja Viru on hea näide sellest, et väiksus üksi ei tee sind iseenesest veel põnevaks. Nad võiks olla paindlikud ja uuenduslikud, aga tegelikult on mõttesuund sama, mis suurtel - lihtsalt kaliiber väiksem. Natuke kahju, aga jällegi - pisar jääb ükskõiksuse tõttu poetamata.
Sillamäe on natuke teine ooper. Müncheni vaskne on oluliselt parem õlu, aga turustusjõudu pole. Kui metsas puu kukub ja keegi ei näe, kas see siis ikkagi kukkus?
Kui Sillamäe end samuti mõnele suurkorporatsioonile maha müüks, küll saadaks siis ka piisavalt turustusjõudu. Ent kas nad siis enam on Sillamäe?
Deleteväga hea mõttekäik!
ReplyDeleteKui Saku kuulub Carlsbergile, Karksi A le Coqile, A Le Coq omakorda Olvile ja Viru Harboele, siis kas see pole veidike enese meelitamine kutsudes neid tehaseid Eesti õlletehasteks? Jah nad asuvad eestis, kuid kas nad kannavad edasi ka meie endi õllepruulimise traditsioone on juba väga suure küsimärgi all. Just sellise mõttega oleks pidanud küsitlusse panema suuremad FIEd, eraettevõtjad, kes julgevad teha eesti õlut. Aga ei taha küsijaga pragada, sest algne mõte on aus ja hea.
ReplyDeletevaat nende väiksemate osas plaanin teha hiljem omaette küsitluse, sest tegu on hoopis teise kaalukategooriaga ning kontseptsiooniga õlletootmises.
Deletemuuseas, oleks maru vahva, kui nimetaksite noid väiketootjaid, et nimekiri saaks täielikum!
BeerHouse- Tallinn
DeleteKaido Lõppe- Hiiumaa
Oü Taako (ehk Pihtla)- Saaremaa
Ja 2 kelles ma pole eriti kindlad.
Pekero- kas nad veel tegutsevad? Vanasti müüsid laatadel kalja mis oli väga hea.
Kochi aidad- Tallinn. Neil on küll oma õlleretsept(id) ja ka õlleköök olemas, kuid reaalselt pruulitakse õlut Virus.
Karksi, kuna Eesti õlled ei oma nagunii erilisi maitseomadusi, siis pole ka pointi välismaa korporatsioone nuumata ning lasta rahal riigist välja voolata. Muidugi ei olnud A Le coqi osaluse ostmine Karmes eriline rõõmuuudis.
ReplyDeleteselles mõttes on Sillamäe ainuke kohaliku kapitaliga ettevõte ... ehkki ka siin pole päris selge, et mis päritolu see siiski on :(
DeleteAusalt öeldes ei näinud mina küll mingeid valikuid, ainult üks Sillamäe plinkis kutsuvalt. Õnneks on nad suutnud lahendada neid viimasel paaril aastal painanud kõikuva kvaliteedi probleemi.
ReplyDeleteMuide, siit küsimus suurele ringile: kust saab soetada õllekraani ja mis hinnaklassis need on?
paraku pole nad suutnud (või pigem tahtnud) lahendada kättesaadavuse probleemi. ma tahaks teada, kuidas ma saaks seda Sillamäe õlut endale poodi?
DeleteMina eelistan ikka Kolme Kuninga Pruulikoda... oma ja hää.
ReplyDeleteMuidu selliseid Wiru Palmse tüüpi õllesid ja üldse häid omasid Eesti tumedaid võiks rohkem olla... https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kolme-Kuninga-%C3%95lleklubi/375744409165857
ja millal Gambrinus neid maitsta saab?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteKüsitlusest on välja jäänud aga üks täitsa huvitav õlletootja, Puls nimelt. Julgen väita, et kui peaksin sellele küsitlusele vastama, valiksingi justnimelt Pulsi. Mulle meeldib nende juures see, et tehase õllevalik on meeldivalt mitmekesine, tavaliste üheülbaliste pilsnerite asemel toodavad nad ju nisuõlut, tumedat lagerit, ale'i, kirsiõlut jne, mida suuremad tootjad pole kahjuks siiani julgenud teha.
ReplyDeletePuls pole kahjuks enam ammu iseseisev tootja, vaid lihtsalt kaubamärk. Puls ehk endine Pärnu õlletehas osteti üles Viru õlle poolt ning viidi koos kogu sisseseadega minema. Nii et kui soovid Pulsi kraami kiita, hääleta Viru poolt :)
ReplyDeleteI guess it's how you define "best". Statistically, it's Saku because of their market share. Coming in second would of course be A Le Coq.
ReplyDelete"Best" in terms of awards? I don't know the full honour list over the years, but I do know that Saku recently won "Worlds Best Stong Porter" in a competition last week (one that I haven't heard of). A Le Coq won accolades for having the first certified organic beer in Estonia.
But of course if you mean "best" as in tasting, then that opens up a much more open debate based not on stats and awards, but on personal preference.
My personal preference is displayed on the beer tower at Drink Bar. Sillamae Munchen in my opinion, is the best of the "mainstream"(and I mean that by readily available) Estonian beers out there. I serve the Vaskne on tap, and in the past have had the dark one on draught for two weeks as a special(it sold out after one) and have tasted the hele at Porgu and at Ollesummer. I like it because they are a small brewer from a unpopular end of the country, producing good tasting, "live" beer. But of course they have their problems too.
When I first discovered their beer (vaskne)about five years ago, it was in quite a few places. Unfortunately, my first experiences weren't great - as it wasn't in good condition. Often the brewer will say that it's not his fault, as the beer left the brewery in perfect condition, but my response to that, is that the brewer should be speaking to his sales people, because a live beer is just not suitable in every outlet. If the place is a Saku stronghold, then I doubt very much that the Sillamae beer will sell 30L in 3-4 days. Because if it doesn't, then the quality will go downhill very fast. And then someone like me comes in on the 5th day, orders the beer for the very first time, and then doesn't order it ever again.
Nowadays, few places sell it. Not because Sillamae are being selective, but probably because the place selling it is losing money. Drink Bar doesn't make much money by selling this beer, becaause we serve it at 2.20 euro on happy hour everyday. I do this to ensure that we have the volumes and that the beer is always within 3 days. I've switched to 15L kegs to also help this problem. The result is that we're now recognised as serving the best Sillamae Vaskne beer in the town.
I've often wondered, if the brewery are not so much into educating people about their beer by way of trainings and explanation of what "live" beer is, then why do they bother at all? Just keg it and pasteurise it - it may affect the flavour, but they'd be able to control the quality issues, plus increase their distribution. Sort of doing a Saku Kuld in reverse(and the result of Saku's new unfiltered beer in my opinion - is that it now smells much worse).
But then again, maybe they don't want to do this - and want to keep true to their craft. Seems to me that the company are as mysterious as the city that they operate from. Anyone ever met their brewers? Recently they created a facebook page which lists their beers. Vaskne and Hele are there, but Tume has gone and a Rice beer has appeared. That's definitely a strange one!
thanks for comment.
Deleteas you see "the expert opinion" and "sales statistics" are two different things. and therefor big producers do not bother to educate their customers (they have biggest share anyway) neither do small ones (in their mind this will not increase their share on beer market).
even vice verca - biggest producer thinks it good idea to make laugh over those ones who want to find something more than just a liquid in beer ... perhaps you do remember this commercial from Saku http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKwY1jIpO5o
this weird deterministic attitude of both small and big producers is amazing.
I worked for Bass in the UK. This company had a huge history, and was one of the founding fathers of beer as we know today. It was then taken over by the American brewers Coors. I moved up to the head office in Burton on Trent - the spiritual home of brewing, and again, the town that literally created modern beer, and I was amazed that the people who worked in the Coors offices didn't know about the history, and looked upon ale as an "old mans drink". I was laughed at when I went out and they were all drinking Coors Fine Light from the bottle, and I was sipping my cask ale from a glass. I was in charge of the Worthingtons ale brand, and I saw my team reduced from 12 down to three, because all the focus was on lager. Coors even closed down the Burton Museum of Brewing.
DeleteThis was 8 years ago, and I said to them that they are being short sighted. People will be more interested in what they put in their mouths in the future, and in my opinion, drinking mass produced lager, is like eating a McDonalds burger, and drinking a cask ale, is like eating a hand made burger produced from organically reared steak. Of course they thought I was talking rubbish.
Fast forward to today, and the UK's beer market is still in decline as a whole, but the only category within that market which is in growth is ale. Drilling down even further, and you'll find that it's cask ale driving that growth, and this year for the first time in over 20 years, there are more pubs selling cask ale than keg ale.
You also won't be suprised to hear that Coors have now opened up a small microbrewery, relaunched Worthingtons and have re-opened the museum!
Quality will always have a consumer!
there will always be crucial question - is demand creating supply or vice verca?
Deletein my opinion mainly producers bend and deformate demand ... big companies with their massive commercials affect youngsters and thereby create demand what is comfortable for producers.
very few ask themselves - why should i buy this and that? it demands cojones to stand against habits and commercials.
you are right - quality will always have consumer. but it will never be mainstream.
anyway - we should try and try and try again to educate ourselves and our friends. one can not change the world (at least no at once). but it does not mean that one should give up :)
there are lot of revolutions going on around - food revolution, beer revolution etc. revolutionaries usually never became popular. but they are mostly happy persons :)
And if we're discussing good taste, we must mention bad taste too. Apart from the mainstream Saku/Le Coq beers, I've also had "drainpours" from Puls Jaagri and Wiru Kadaka. I once had a terrible, soapy Saku Porter in 2010, and I think whoever brews Karksi Porter should be shot :)
ReplyDeleteJames, "whoever brews Karksi Porter should be shot" - I totally agree with you. It was one of the best local brews when it came out, but after a month it was totally spoiled.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAs for me, recently I lost my faith in Saku Hele, A. Le Coq Alexander, Karksi Hele and Kochi Ait Hele (Viru Õlu). I still can drink Tõmmu Hiid and Saku Kuld (new one), and Pihtla is also good - long story short - they are all drinkable.
ReplyDeleteI was a huge fan of Karksi - it got undrinkable, Puls - realy depends from brew to brew - I do not dare to buy that anymore. GB series - I once got really bad poisoning from sour GB Piney.
I would say that there is no point in selecting the best one - they are all mediocre and, unfortunately, mass oriented breweries.
At this point, I would go for Oü Taako (for being most interesting one at the moment)and for A.Le Coq (just because of Tõmmu Hiid).
P.S. I hope that Saku will requisition its groove back.