NATO Beer With ‘Taste Of Security’: New Brew Marks Finland’s Bid To Join Military Alliance

Launch of OTAN lager beer comes at a time Finland has submitted an application to NATO seeking to join the military alliance amid Russia-Ukraine conflict. Finland shares a 1,340-km border with Russia.

OTAN beer cans on display in a fridge in the brewery shop of Olaf Brewing in Savonlinna, Finland.

New Delhi: With Finland seeking to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a small brewery in the country has launched a NATO-themed beer to mark the "independent decision". Olaf Brewing’s new product is named OTAN, which is read NATO if read backwards. OTAN is also the French abbreviation for NATO, which has two official languages, English and French.

“Independent Finland is about to make an independent decision. We celebrate this by brewing a new beer,” the company posted on Twitter. 

Itsenäinen kansakuntamme Suomi on tekemässä itsenäisen päätöksen. Juhlistamme sitä tuomalla myyntiin OTAN Olutta. Threadi jatkuu alla. / Independent Finland is about to make an independent decision. We celebrate this by brewing a new beer. Thread 1/7. pic.twitter.com/iE68xPlqRQ

— Olaf Brewing (@olafbrewing) May 16, 2022

The can of OTAN lager beer features a blue label, and has a beer-drinking medieval knight with NATO’s compass symbol emblazoned on his metal armor.

The brand name of the beer is said to be a play on “Otan olutta”, a Finnish expression meaning “I’ll have a beer”.

Speaking to The Associated Press, Olaf Brewing CEO Petteri Vanttinen described the new lager beer as having “a taste of security, with a hint of freedom”.

He said the company took an ad hoc decision last weekend to start producing the beer, and that it was motivated by “worries over the war in Ukraine” and its consequences for the Nordic country.

Finland, along with Sweden, Wednesday submitted an application at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, seeking to join NATO.

In its Twitter thread, Olaf Brewing also spoke about the eastern Finnish town of Savonlinna, which is the brewery’s base and is located not far from Finland’s border with Russia. Finland shares a 1,340-km border with Russia, the longest among the European Union members.

“Our small hometown Savonlinna has always lied in the borderlands between East and West. Many battles have been fought in the town area and at St. Olafs Castle,” read one of the Twitter posts by Olaf Brewing.

St. Olaf’s Castle in Savonlinna is a 1475 structure that plays host to an international opera festival that takes place every year.