Although there are whiskey distilleries in the capitals of the world, barley grown almost within sight is not used as a raw material elsewhere.
“It’s great that barley is still cultivated in Helsinki and that we are able to refine the traditional grain grown in the city to its noblest form”, Kai Kilpinen and Mikko Mykkänen of Helsinki Distilling are happy about their hyperlocal whiskey batch. Helsinki distilling company
A craft distillery located in the capital is not a rarity in the world, but growing the raw material in the metropolis is.
Master Distiller who founded The Helsinki Distilling Company Mikko Mykkänen and master Blender Kai Kilpinen make whiskey from Helsinki barley.
The distillery intends to produce whiskey’s main raw material, i.e. whiskey distillate, from barley grown in Helsinki, according to the release.
The barley has been purchased from the Viikki research farm of the University of Helsinki, where the malt barley variety is grown on twenty hectares. The barley crop was harvested at the beginning of September and it was Viikki’s senior technician Karri Kauppinen better than last year both in terms of size and quality.
Due to its southern location, Helsinki is a favorable growing environment for grain. Viikki’s research farm is Finland’s most urban farm. Helsinki distilling company
In addition to barley, Helsinki Distilling also extends its locality to whiskey barrels. It started a pilot project in the fall of 2022, where whiskey is matured for the first time in barrels made of Finnish, more specifically Helsinki oak.
– Helsinki is a unique capital city, all dimensions of which are not yet understood by the world. In addition to the urban pulse, we have not only a world-class archipelago, but also wonderful forests and fields that are still in agricultural use. Barley is a demanding species in terms of where it grows, and it is good to grow it in Viiki. The field also has a direct view of the Sörnäinen wholesale market and our distillery, says distillery master Mykkänen in the press release.
Mikko Mykkänen and Kai Kilpinen, the founders of The Helsinki Distilling, and Karri Kauppinen, senior technician at the Viikki research facility, can be seen in the background of the towers of Kalasatama and the distillery’s chimney at Teurastamo. Helsinki distilling company
Helsinki University’s Viikki research farm has 150 hectares of farmland. Although the vast majority of grain grown in Viikki is used on the university’s livestock farm, there is enough malted barley for the production of local whiskey as well. The first batch to be malted for Helsinki whiskey is 5,000 kilos, and 20,000 kilos of malted barley have already been reserved for whiskey from next year’s harvest.
After drying, the raw grain is analyzed at the University of Helsinki, after which it is malted at Savo Malt’s small malt house in Iisalmi.