After Stockholm, I headed north, visiting a few towns before reaching Umeå, where I took a ferry across the Baltic Sea to Vaasa, Finland. Went straight to the visitor info office to find out about rooms, restaurants, and breweries, and the women working there were very helpful. So, after walking around town and having a good dinner, I headed to the recently opened Bock’s Corner Brewery, which was about a 15-20 minute walk from my room. They’re in an astonishingly beautiful old building that used to house Bock’s Brewery, which closed in the 80’s. The new owners have sunk a lot of money (or so it looked) into renovating the space and buying a shiny new brewhouse. Lots of old stone, wood, and brick. There’s a pizza oven, too, but they still seemed to be testing out recipes when I was there. They even roast their own coffee.

Amazing ambiance at Bock’s Corner — Vaasa, Finland

Rob’s Picks
• Pils – 5% – Grassy, sweet aroma. Grassy, bready, honey, touch of lemon flavor mix. Hint of bitterness on finish.
• Dunkel – 4.9% – Caramel, biscuit, and toast maltiness, with very light coffee. Also hint of bitterness on finish.
• Weissbier – 5.3% – Clove, light banana, to a spicy finish. Light underlying breadiness – not as much as I expected, but works well.

The Rest
• Pale Ale – 4.7% – Almost tea-like aroma. Caramel, light biscuit, and herbal flavors with an odd, underlying almost-sweetness.

The full names of the beers were all of the format Bock’s Pils, Bock’s Dunkel, etc. Made me wonder if they’d come out with a Bock’s Bock. So right after typing that, I checked Untappd, and yes, they do now have a Bock’s Bock. That makes me happy.