Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #547

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
By Jari Tanner
HELSINKI (AP) — A small brew- ery in Finland has launched a NATO-themed beer to mark the Nordic
country’s bid to join the Western military alliance.
Olaf Brewing’s OTAN lager fea- tures a blue label with a cartoon version of a beer- drinking medieval knight in metal armor embla- zoned with NATO’s compass symbol.
The beer’s name is a play on the Finnish expres- sion “Otan olutta,” which means “I’ll have a beer,” and the French abbre- viation for NATO,
which
is “OTAN.” The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has two official lan- guages, English and French.
CEO Petteri Vanttinen told The Associated Press on Thursday that
the
craft brewery’s ad hoc decision last weekend to start producing the beer was motivat- ed by “worries over the war in Ukraine” and its consequences for Finland.
He described the
new
lager as having “a taste of security, with a hint of free- dom.”
Finland and Sweden on Wednesday sub- mitted an applica- tion to join NATO at the alliance’s headquarters in
Brussels.
Olaf Brewing said its new beer also honors the east- ern Finnish town of Savonlinna, the brewery’s base located a few dozen kilometers from Finland’s border with Russia.
Savonlinna is known for St. Olaf’s Castle, a medieval struc- ture from 1475 that serves as a venue for an annual interna- tional opera festi- val.
“Our small home- town Savonlinna has always lied in the borderlands between East and West. Many bat- tles have been fought in the town area and at St. Olafs Castle” the brewery said in a Twitter post.
Finland shares a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia, the longest of any European Union member.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Finland Brewery Launches NATO Beer With ‘Taste of Security’