Actually, Nils Oscar is a brewery I’m very fond of. Their beers generally emphasize drinkability and balance, but, perhaps because they grow and malt their own grain, they all have wonderful malt notes that I really enjoy.

One thing I enjoy about the name Lapin Kulta is that “Kulta”, gold, is not a native Finnish word, but a loanword from Swedish. The Swedish word is “guld” (gold), but the Finns won’t have any truck with soft sounds like “g” and “d”, and so replace them with harder alternatives (“k” and “t” in this case; same thing with “b” which always becomes “p”, etc). Like the Italians, the Finns don’t like ending with a consonant, so they stick the “a” on the end. Hence “guld” -> “kulta”.

I always read the name as “Sami Gold”, but looking at Wikipedia I realize that you’re actually right.

Scandinavian snacks sounds ominous. I hope they skipped the dried fish.