Brewery and restaurant under one roof

Espoo’s first restaurant-bar opened a year ago in Tapiola.
The sophisticated tap technology, roof-mounted dispensing tanks and the technology needed to store real ale beers were implemented in collaboration with Barfix Oy.
Established in Niittykumpu in the 1990s, The Gallows Bird was one of the first beer restaurants in Finland to offer more than just domestic pale lager on tap.
So it was only natural that when the legendary beer restaurant moved from Niittykumpu to Tapiola, it moved its own brewery, expanded its selection with real ale beers and ciders from its own brewery and set a minimum number of taps at 24.
The first thing that catches your eye when you enter The Gallows Bird is the brewery behind the glass walls and the huge beer fermentation tanks.
Next, attention shifts to the four 500 litre dispensing tanks above the bar. Restaurant manager Mael Bavard explains that once the beer is poured, some of the brewery’s own products are pushed from the fermentation tanks directly into the tanks.
– We don’t have a separate cold room, so the beer is stored in the dispensing tanks.
The cold lining around the tanks keeps the beer consistently cold and fresh.
Ceiling mounted dispensing tanks are a great way to store beer in a small space.
They are also a stylish addition to your interior.
– If the tank runs out at a busy time or on a weekend, for example, the dispensing tanks can be quickly replaced by a normal keg,” says Bavard.

Fresh beers gaining popularity

Another speciality of the restaurant is the real ale cabinet.
Real ale is a surface-dry beer that continues to mature in the restaurant’s tank.
While the optimum temperature for normal beers is between 4-8 degrees Celsius, the lower-acid fresh beer is served and stored at less than 10 degrees Celsius.
At The Gallows Bird, the real ale tanks are housed in a separate refrigerator, which ensures that the beer remains at a constant temperature throughout.
From there, the beer is pumped to the brewhouse by hand pump without propellant.
The hose between the Barfix-built storage cabinet and the beer taps is also cooled.
This ensures that the beer is always served to the customer at the right temperature.
Real ale is a fresh product and should not take long to get from England to Finland.
Fears of a hard Brexit led The Gallows Bird’s entrepreneurs to expand the range of beers brewed at the brewery to include fresh beers.
Now one of the real ale taps on the counter always comes with its own beer.
Bavard says this has boosted real ale sales considerably.