Finnish beer
Finnish beer is more than lager: the country has a centuries-old farmhouse brewing tradition with sahti and a small, ambitious craft scene. At Hoptimaal you'll find Finnish beer from Factory Brewing, with IPA as the style. Per brewery and beer you can see what's currently available.
- In stock now9 beers
- Breweries1
Breweries from Finland 1
All beers in stock 9
A brewing tradition older than Finnish as a written language
Beer has probably been brewed in Finland since farming reached the south coast around 2000–1500 BC. The Finnish word olut is of Germanic origin, like many other brewing words, even though Finnish itself is not a Germanic language. In the epic Kalevala, the narrator spends 200 lines on the creation of the world and 400 lines on that of beer.
In the Middle Ages, merchants from the south of the Baltic Sea brought their own way of brewing. Hops began to push out the herbs, such as wild bog myrtle, juniper and spruce cones. Laws from 1347 and 1442 required every farm to keep a hop field, on pain of a hefty fine. A separate professional class of brewers did not emerge: most people brewed for their own household. Sinebrychoff, the oldest brewery still in existence, opened in Helsinki in 1819.
Sahti, porter and a late craft revolution
Finland is best known for sahti. That style took shape between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, when farmhouse brewers adapted the methods of the town brewers to their own old tradition. Sahti should have at least 6% alcohol, is rarely exported and does not keep well. So you mostly find it on the spot. Another exception is the Sinebrychoff porter from 1957, a world-class stout in a country that otherwise mostly drank pale lagers.
That was partly due to legislation. There was a prohibition between 1919 and 1931, after which the state took a strict monopoly on alcohol. Since Finland joined the EU in 1995, that monopoly is no longer all-encompassing, but in shops the state remains the only seller of drinks above 4.7%. The first commercial microbreweries were sahti brewers with a licence from 1987. In the 1990s their number grew to well over forty, until a recession hit.
Finnish beer at Hoptimaal
From Finland we supply Factory Brewing, and the style you'll find from us in Finnish beer is IPA. Highly rated on Untappd are, among others, Factory Tipping Point, Factory The Executioner 2026, Factory Moonchild 2026, Factory Double Reveries Of... Motueka 2026, Factory Baby Executioner 2026 and Factory Mind Games.
We don't currently have sahti or porter from Finnish soil in our range. Every brewery has its own page with us, with all the beers we supply from it. The range changes, so check here for what's in stock right now.
Frequently asked questions
What is typical Finnish beer?
Sahti is the best-known Finnish style: a traditional farmhouse beer of at least 6% alcohol, which is rarely exported. For decades, the licensed beer was mostly pale lager.
Which Finnish breweries are well known?
The big names are Sinebrychoff, Hartwall and Olvi, which together held most of the domestic market. Lammin Sahti Oy is a traditional sahti brewery. At Hoptimaal you'll find Factory Brewing.
How is alcohol regulated in Finland?
Since 1995 the state monopoly is no longer all-encompassing, but in shops the state is still the only seller of drinks above 4.7%. In 2010 Finland also had the highest beer excise duty of all EU countries.
Beer from other countries
- Dutch beer 175
- American beer 71
- Belgian beer 68
- Canadian beer 54
- German beer 37
- English beer 37
- Spanish beer 21
- Romanian beer 17
- French beer 16
- Swedish beer 15
- Norwegian beer 14
- Estonian beer 17
- Polish beer 11
- Irish beer 8
- Hungarian beer 7
- Latvian beer 8
- Croatian beer 8
- Danish beer 8
- Portuguese beer 4
- Welsh beer 5
- Scottish beer 4
- Brazilian beer 3
- Ukrainian beer 2
- Greek beer 3
- Slovenian beer 3
- Czech beer 3
