Tall-inn Tales in Estonia Part 1

It wasn’t too easy identifying a country to visit where lockdown, quarantine, and risk of cancellation weren’t likely to compromise the whole venture. But it seemed a reasonable gamble to book £56 flights from Edinburgh to Tallinn. Apart from the lack of tourists things felt very normalised there, no one wore masks and there seemed more risk of the plague than Covid in the gorgeous Estonian capital.

The build up proved a little tense. Visitors from countries where the rate of infection was below 16 per 100k were permitted entry without having to self-isolate. I became a frequent visitor on the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs website as the UK’s rate rose steadily. D-day was the preceding Friday of our trip when it hit 15.7. So Colin and I scraped in and, thanks to our 5 day travel card (€11), checked in early and were soon holed up in Hell Hunt.

Hell Hunt had some Germanic looking house brews but we dived in, perhaps unwisely at such an early hour, to the 7.2% Mango Tango DIPA. If this set a decent benchmark it was to be exceeded many times in the coming days. We strolled through the magnificent but deserted main square – it would be packed in a normal summer.

Our destination was Humalakoda, a very large brewpub and restaurant, also home to Mango Tango, though we diverted to a place called Brewery on the way. It isn’t.

A balcony seat in the sun drinking a 5% Pale at Humalakoda, seemed like a rather fine way to spend half an hour or so.

Murk you say….

Just a guess but think it’s gay friendly

There followed a 25 minute train ride to Saku for €2.15.

On your marks

4,675 residents make Saku Estonia’s biggest small town or maybe the smallest big town, as the total population is 1.3m. The purpose of this was to see a ‘Small Cup’ tie that ended Saku Sporting 7 FC Helios 0 in front of 102, making it a long drive back to Tartu for the youthful visitors.

The blonde striker scored five

Saku is home to the Saku Brewery, a major operation with an adjacent bar. Brewed since 1820 but now owned by Carlsberg, the draught beers were heavily carbonated and not to our taste but a bottled cherry beer was serviceable and was drank from another balcony.

Bet you can’t believe The Hu are only at number ten- that’s a real snub to Mongolia’s leading heavy metal band. As Wiki says “not to be confused with The Who”.

Back in the capital after the game we headed to Rotermanni, a fashionable block of streets a little out of the centre.

Here we went to Tap Tap, an off sales and cosy bar with a limited but classy international beer menu.

Here we were introduced to Pohjala brewery. It was love at first sight, a relationship that was passionately consummated at their taproom the following day and indeed the day after. Prices at Tap Tap pretty much reflected those throughout central Tallinn, a far cry from my only previous visit over 15 years ago, when it was very cheap and there was a solitary brewpub if my memory is correct, which is admittedly unlikely.

Eagle eyed readers will have spotted the Brewdog sign next door. This opened for an hour longer and was no anticlimax. Their usual range was supplemented by some interesting guests which we worked our way through methodically. There are now Brewdogs in about 70 cities; Brisbane may be a costly tick.

The next day we would go to jail.