The Ultimate Journey
Michael Jackson on Finland, seagulls’ eggs, Imperial Stout and a brush with death
This was farther than I had ever been. It was my longest and strangest journey yet.
It was farther than the Land of the Midnight Sun, where, deep inside the Arctic Circle, I ate seagulls’ eggs, and seal meat, washed down by the local beer from the world’s northernmost brewery: Mack, of Tromsø, Norway.
The seal tasted like black pudding, the eggs strong, faintly fishy and nutty; and the beer, a golden lager, had a malt character that seemed slightly grainy and grassy. It was the month of May and, yes, the sun was bright and warm on a café terrace at midnight.
The Arctic Circle seemed to have me in its grip for several years. In the forests of Sweden, I met a brewer who crossed the unmarked border daily to his job in Finland. We lunched on reindeer meat then went to see Santa Claus, who maintains an office in Lapland. He sat me on his knee and informed me that his favourite beer was the Christmas brew from Lapin Kulta.
Mysterious Finland’s force has been even more powerful. Once caught in its beam, I cannot resist the urge to embrace and explore a country. Estonia, both in Communist and capitalist eras, captivated me.
Had I not visited the old Tivoli brewery, in Tartu, Livonia, would Russian Imperial Stout have been so widely revived? The example bearing the name A. le Coq commemorates the Belgian shipper who bought Tivoli to produce such a stout within the Tsarist Empire. It is the best Imperial Stout I have tasted recently, and one of the most complex British beers of an.....
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By Michael Jackson
Section : The Beer Hunter
Page number : 7
