Tanker
Tanker
Tanker Brewery is one of the best-known craft breweries in Estonia and grew out of the shared hobby of three homebrewers that got out of hand. The team met in 2014 at a homebrewers' meeting in Tallinn: Ants already had a brand called Tanker, under which he brewed the first beers at other breweries as a so-called gypsy brewer, and together with two other homebrewers the idea arose of building their own brewery, big enough to quench the thirst of friends and their friends. The brewery was founded at the end of 2014, and in April 2015 it received the long-awaited approval for its excise warehouse and began production. The goal from the very beginning was to bring more distinctive and flavourful beers to Estonia and to establish in their own country the experience and sense of community of the American craft beer revolution.
In the following years Tanker grew into one of the largest and best-known craft breweries in the country, gaining market share with high quality, bold flavours and innovation. In 2019 the brewery opened a new production site almost twice the size in Jüri, south of Tallinn, which made it possible to switch from glass bottles to filling cans. Tanker was thus the first brewery in Estonia to package its beers in cans, which preserves freshness and reduces transport effort. The brewery is also regarded as a pioneer of sour beer production with wild fermentation in Estonia and was the first Estonian brewery to be invited to the Mikkeller Beer Celebration in Copenhagen, one of the most renowned beer festivals in the world. In 2021 Tanker was acquired by a Danish brewing group, and it also handles the distribution of various international brands in Estonia.
The Tanker Brewery range extends from fruity sour beers and hazy IPAs to experimental specialities, and the brand is ubiquitous in Estonian supermarkets, restaurants and craft beer bars. The best-selling product is Sauna Session, a beer flavoured with birch whisks that brings Estonian sauna culture into the glass, while the fruit sour Tanker Sur Kolm at 5.2% ABV is among the flagships. Supply focuses mainly on Estonia and Finland, where the beers can be found in a broad network of supermarkets and specialist shops. Under the motto «Beer, Kraft, Man, Ship», the brewery with around 30 employees stands today for accessible, fresh and bold craft beer from the Baltics.