Whisky on tap?
Yes.

The Crafters Bar in Hyvinkää is a must-visit for every beer and whisky enthusiast.
The bar has around 240 different whiskies and almost 150 beers from microbreweries around the world – and two whisky taps.
Crafters Bar was born when friends Lasse Nyman, Anssi Hänninen and Janne Eskola thought about what kind of bar they would like to visit.
It would have good music, quality and rare beers on tap, a great drinks list and a wide range of whiskies.
In its five years of operation, the bar has been voted Beer Bar of the Year, and the entrepreneurs have been named Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year.
From the very beginning, Crafters Bar’s guiding principle has been to offer only the best to its customers.
Lasse Nyman has been in charge of the beers from the start and Anssi Hänninen has been in charge of the whiskies and cocktails.
– The number of whiskies was much smaller in the beginning.
We have gradually increased the range and now we have about 240 whiskies.
A couple of years ago, the whisky selection was increased by a whisky tap.
We decided to put Edrington’s Maker’s Mark Bourbon on the first whisky tap.
At the beginning of this year, a second tap for Highland Park smoky whisky was installed on the counter.
– 90% of customers do not know what they want to order when they come to the counter.
We are able to guide the customer’s buying decision quite a lot and of course it is easier to sell tap products that are prominently displayed on the counter than bottles on the shelf behind the bar,” says Hänninen, noting that sales of tap whiskies have increased by an estimated one and a half times since they were moved from the shelf to the tap.

Whisky keeps better than beer

The whisky comes to the bar in bottles, from which it is poured into an airtight 20-litre tank.
From there it is pumped by a special pump to the tap and through to the customer’s glass.
Janne Ahola, marketing manager at Edrington, says the whisky is a grateful product to have on tap.
As a strong alcohol, it keeps better than beer in a steel container and remains enjoyable even after a short contact with the air.
Still, whisky on tap should be chosen carefully to ensure a quick enough rotation.
Both whiskies on tap at Crafters are also widely used in bar cocktails.
– We thought long and hard about which whiskies would suit Crafters.
Bourbon is trendy and Maker´s Mark has a good rotation rate.
The smoky Highland Park was a great match.
Crafters is the only bar in Finland where you can try a quality Scottish Highland Park whisky on tap.
Crafters’ whisky on tap is served at room temperature, but with the option of chilling.
The drink is then served chilled (+5°C) or ice cold (-15°C).
In addition to whisky, Barfix taps can be filled with any strong alcoholic drink, such as gin or vodka.
Or even ready-made drinks.
The tap can also be fitted with a precise measuring device, which always accurately dispenses 2 or 4 cl of schnapps into the glass.
The tap reduces wastage, increases margins and, of course, speeds up service.
The drink is delivered to the customer’s glass within seconds, making the bartender’s job much easier, especially during busy periods.
The steel container can also be fitted with a lock to prevent tampering.

Rare beers

For Hännis and Nyman, it was important to have a beer tap system in the Crafters that could be connected to any beer tank, regardless of the brewery.
Now, a Barfix copper 12-tap beer tower sits on the counter, with a weekly change of beers.
Between taps, beer tastings and tap-takeovers.
Then the whole tap tap fills up with one brewery’s speciality beers.
– We have a stronger focus on Nordic breweries than traditional German and Czech breweries.
We have a range of beers that cannot be found elsewhere in Finland.
For example, we receive rare beers from the Yankees by airfreight.