Beer for middle management

Finns have probably always liked beer, but in the past 10 years the small individual microbreweries have started to raise their head. And they surely are warmly welcomed to boost the flat offering of Lapin Kulta, Karjala, Olvi and Koff. The latest newcomer in the Finnish microbrewery scene is Ruosniemen Panimo, Ruosniemi Brewery. The past couple of weeks have been historic for Ruosniemi guys, since their debut beer has just become available in couple of pubs in Helsinki and Pori.

Pikkupomo. As you can see from the receipt, I paid the beer myself, 

so this is not one of those "blogger-gets-goodies" sponsorships.

The first publicly available beer of Ruosniemi Brewery is called Pikkupomo - the name refers to a boss working in the lower middle management. I ordered a glass of Pikkupomo at Pub Black Door in Helsinki city center. And boy oh boy, that Pikkupomo was my kind of boss: brownish, somewhat bittersweet and chunky on the body. A very tasty summer ale. I could take assignments from this kind of Pikkupomo.

The guys behind the brewery have their background mostly in chemistry. They have academic degrees in chemical engineering, process technology, foam formation and all kind of master stuff in the field of chemistry. The brewery thing is not exactly a profession or main job for any of the Ruosniemi guys, even though the brewery itself is very professional - they have even purchased old professional dairy equipment and pimped the hardware to meet the needs of their brewing process.

Ok, so it's not a full-time profession, but then how do you categorize or describe this kind of microbrewery activity? For sure you can't call it amateur activity - amateurs would never get a reliable process in place. Even though the brewery is not the main job of the Ruosniemi guys, I feel 'hobby' is a misleading term too: making miniature aeroplanes or knitting socks can be a hobby, but entering the beer market with a commercial product is totally above the hobby level. 'Brewery as a lifestyle' sounds like it's directly from a shiny design magazine. Maybe 'a lifeline for real-life pikkupomos' would be describing enough?