Lapin Kulta (in English, Lapland Gold) is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

beer brand. Lapin Kulta was also the name of the

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of bee ...

in the Lapland town of

Tornio Tornio (; sv, Torneå; sme, Duortnus ; smn, Tuárnus) is a city and municipality in Lapland, Finland. The city forms a cross-border twin city together with Haparanda on the Swedish side. The municipality covers an area of , of which is ...

, where the beer was originally brewed. The brewery was founded in 1873 under the name Torneå Bryggeri Aktiebolag (i.e., Tornio Brewery Limited Company). The brand is now owned by

Hartwall Hartwall Ltd is a beverage company based in Helsinki, Finland. It was founded in 1836. Its drinks range includes Jaffa, Pommac and Novelle waters. The company also owns the licence for manufacturing and selling PepsiCo's Pepsi, 7 Up and Mounta ...

, which is in turn owned by

Royal Unibrew Royal Unibrew is a brewing and beverage company headquartered in Faxe, Denmark. Its brands include Ceres, Faxe, Albani, Thor, Karlens and Royal. Royal Unibrew also has a strong presence in the Baltic region, where it owns Vilniaus Tauras, Ka ...

. The brand name ''Lapin Kulta'' is used for a variety of lagers of varying strengths. In 2009 the Lapland brewery was closed and since then Lapin Kulta has been brewed in the southern Finnish town of

Lahti Lahti (; sv, Lahtis) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is the capital of the region of Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme) and its growing region is one of the main economic hubs of Finland. Lahti is situated on a bay at the southern e ...

History

The brewery was founded in 1873, but the name Lapin Kulta was not adopted until 1963. The brewery had to acquire a gold

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

company with an identical name in order to rightfully use the name. The company's articles of association still state the line of business to be "prospecting for gold and the manufacture and sales of beer". Lapin Kulta's focus is on high-quality ingredients (malt barley, clear water, and the company's own

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constit ...

strain). This, coupled with successful marketing, made it the most popular beer brand in Finland for a long period. In the 21st C., the competitors Karhu and

Olvi Olvi plc ( fi, Olvi Oyj, ) is a Finnish brewery and soft drinks company founded in 1878. It currently holds 18.7% of Finland's market share in beverages, making it the largest Finnish-owned business in its sector. Among its subsidiaries, A. Le C ...

have overtaken it, leaving Lapin Kulta in 4th place. After a merger with the

beverage company in 1980, the brand name entered the export market and eventually became available in most

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

an countries. In October 2009 Hartwall announced the closure of the Lapin Kulta brewery in Tornio,
/ref> and moved production to its

brewery.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official siteDutch siteRateBeerHartwall
Beer in Finland Food and drink companies established in 1873 1873 establishments in Finland Finnish brands