Wednesday 17th July 2013

Bob Thompson

This watering hole is one of just five in a small family-owned pub chain. It's taken me a long time to work out what the connection is between the Teerenpeli name and their logo of the happy Black Grouse that is seen everywhere in the pubs.

The first translation was a flirtation or dalliance, without being more specific. I have now discovered it is, more correctly, the name given to the strutting and the courtship dance performed by the bird in the spring. They, apparently, gather in groups and the male does his bit of Teerenpeli and if it works he ends up with a nice female. It is entirely possible that some of this also occurs in their pubs, especially on Friday and Saturday nights, but not by the Black Grouse, and not necessarily in the spring.

The first Teerenpeli pub was established in Lahti in May 1995. It had its own brewery and I had a few beers there in July of 2001. As the number of pubs increased the in-house brewery there closed in 2002 and moved to the Restaurant Taivaanranta in the town. This is an up-market establishment owned by the company; a distillery was also installed.

This eventually proved to be too small and a new brewery was built on an out of town site at Lotila. This enabled the company to introduce bottled beers and these are now distributed nationally. The distillery remained in situ. As said before, there are five pubs and I've mentioned two. The others are in Turku, Lappeenranta and Helsinki. The latter has the small original brewery once at Lahti and it brews an occasional special but otherwise all the beers come from Lahti.

There were seven beers on offer and they are detailed below with an explanation of the type:

Onnenpekka - Vaalea Pils (4.5%) Light Pils
Laiskajaakko - Tumma Lagerolut (4.5%) Dark Lager Beer
Luomuleevi - Vaalea Luomulager (4.7%) Organic Light Lager
Hippaheikki - Maineikas Bitterimme (4.7%) Bitter
Vauhtiveillo - Suodattamaton Vehnäolut (5.3%) Unfiltered Wheat Beer
Sauhusanttu - Puolitumma Savuolet (5.0%) Semi-Dark Smoke Beer
Rentoreino - Ruisolut (4.7%) Rye Beer

When I entered the pub I noticed the curved bar to the left with seating at high tables. There was a huge display of spirit bottles on illuminated shelves. On the right side of the door there was more conventional bar seating. The decor is very modernist and I can imagine that a lot of cocktails are consumed here. There is a further lounge area downstairs although I thought it rather claustrophobic.

The pub is very close to the entertainment area of the city and is worth a visit for the well-crafted beer.

Important Information:

Teerenpeli, Hämeenkatu 25, Tampere 33200. Tel: 0424 925 210

Open: Sunday-Thursday 12.00-02.00; Friday-Saturday 12.00-03.00

The pub in the city centre and there are many bus routes close by.
It is around 15 minutes walk from the Railway Station.