Our Story

01The Origin

Some craft beer stories begin in a big-city garage. Ours begins in the countryside, in rural southwestern Finland, in a small town called Laitila — famous for its chicken farms and, since 1998, for a rather self-assured rooster on its coat of arms. "Kukko" simply means "rooster" in Finnish, and that very bird has been crowing for our beer ever since: loud, proud, and never ashamed of its rural roots.

It all began at Laitilan Wirvoitusjuomatehdas, a small soft-drink factory that actually made lemonade — until someone got the idea to try their hand at beer as well. That's how the first brew, Höyryolut ("Steam Beer"), came about in 1998, brewed from pure Finnish water, barley malt, and a healthy dose of stubbornness. What started as an experiment quickly grew into something bigger: a craft beer that didn't taste like a compromise, but like character — malty, noticeably hopped, and honest to the very last sip.

In 2001, the rooster officially took charge, and with it came a promise that still holds true today: every Kukko beer is brewed exclusively using electricity from wind and solar power. While other breweries were still debating sustainability, our wind turbines were already turning — one reason we're still considered one of Finland's greenest breweries today. A year later, we became one of the first craft breweries in the world to can our beer instead of bottling it. Practical, fresh, uncomplicated — just like the rooster himself.

Perhaps the proudest moment came in 2005: Kukko Pils was officially certified as the world's first gluten-free full-malt beer. No trick, no additive — just pure brewing craft with carefully processed barley malt, so that people with celiac disease could join the celebration without worry. For us, gluten-free beer was never a marketing label, but an attitude: good beer shouldn't exclude anyone. That conviction lives on in every can of Kukko to this day.

What began as a small steam beer has since grown into an entire family — from classic lager to spicy craft beer specialties to alcohol-free beer with just as much flavor as the original. What has never changed is its origin: Finnish spring water, select hops, regional barley malt, and the belief that beer is allowed to carry itself with a bit of rustic pride instead of putting on airs. So every Kukko beer remains what it was meant to be from the start: naturally brewed, gluten-free without compromise, and with a hop character that stands out.

So the next time you crack open a can of Kukko, you might not hear an actual rooster crow — but you'll taste a bit of Finnish stubbornness, decades of brewing craft, and the conviction that good, gluten-free, and sustainably brewed beer doesn't have to be a contradiction. Welcome to the henhouse of brewing craft. Welcome to Kukko.

02The Master Brewer

Behind every good Kukko beer is a mind that knows exactly why it tastes the way it does: brewmaster Ville Vilen. He's been at the brew kettle in Laitila since April 5, 2004 — though he'd actually studied food technology and worked in a juice factory, until an elective called brewing technology completely turned his world upside down. "Brewing beer? Sounds exciting — and it's definitely better than apple juice," he says himself. In 2007 he took over management of the brewery, and his first own beer was the Kukko Portteri — when beer legend Michael Jackson personally praised him, that felt to Ville like being knighted.

In 2019, he spent six months at the renowned VLB Institute in Berlin to deepen his craft once more, right from the fundamentals. Ever since, brewing in Laitila has been done not just with passion, but with German precision too — you can taste it in every can of Kukko beer, whether classic lager, spicy craft beer, or alcohol-free beer.

The trophy cabinet speaks for itself: awards from the Helsinki Beer Festival, gold at the World Beer Cup, and multiple wins as Finland's best beer. And, fittingly, we now export our beer to Germany, the very country where Ville once studied — brewed according to the German Purity Law (Reinheitsgebot) while still being gluten-free or alcohol-free, a real rarity in that category. Ville sums it up: "In the end, what matters is that our beers consistently deliver high quality." That's exactly his recipe for success — a pinch of curiosity, a good dose of expertise, and a whole lot of love for beer.

03The Awards

A rooster likes to crow, as everyone knows — at Kukko, he's earned the right to: we're Finland's most awarded brewery. But instead of resting on our laurels, what matters most to us is where these awards come from — and that's where things get really interesting. At the World Beer Awards, we've taken home gold multiple times, along with silver and bronze in various years. At the European Beer Star, one of the continent's most respected beer competitions, we even achieved double gold in 2019. And at the Meininger's International Craft Beer Awards — one of the most prestigious accolades in the international craft beer scene — a Kukko beer was awarded Platinum, the highest level given.

The Frankfurt International Trophy has also awarded a Kukko beer silver — fittingly in the alcohol-free category, where good aroma is notoriously harder to achieve than with classic lager. Over the years, this has added up to dozens of medals: from the Helsinki Beer Festival to Frankfurt to international expert juries who rarely take an interest in Finnish beer — but regularly make an exception for Kukko.

What pleases us most about these awards? They're spread across very different beer styles and categories — from classic lager to spicy craft beer to alcohol-free beer that can compete internationally. So this is no fluke, but the result of more than two decades of brewing craft with character, judged by juries who really know their stuff. The trophy cabinet in Laitila keeps filling up — and honestly, we're already looking forward to the next medal.

04Gluten-free

Sometimes the best things happen by accident. In 2001, our then-managing director Rami Aarikka gave the instruction to "brew a proper, robustly hopped pilsner, the way Aura used to be back when it was still brewed in Turku." Our brewmaster took the task seriously — and sensed, from the very first taste of the wort, that something special was taking shape. At the time, Finnish pilsners had almost completely vanished from the market. Whether there were even any drinkers left for one was entirely up in the air.

The Turun Oluen Ystäväin Seura, an association of experienced beer drinkers with expertly trained palates, was the first to try it — and loved it. Belief in the new Kukko Pils grew.

The real "aha" moment came two years later. In 2003, Alko, on behalf of the Finnish Keliakialiitto (Celiac Association), began investigating the gluten content of domestic and foreign beers — Kukko Pils among them. After two years of research, the results were announced, and our then-managing director was specifically invited to attend. The reason: Kukko Pils had the lowest and most consistent gluten levels of the entire test field — well below the association's recommended thresholds.

"At first I didn't believe it myself. Our beer is brewed from pure barley, completely differently from the big breweries. There's no way that could possibly be gluten-free!" Aarikka recalls. And yet that's exactly what it was: the world's first gluten-free full-malt beer. Up to that point, gluten-free beer had only been made from millet or buckwheat — and it tasted accordingly little like real beer.

After the results were published, we spent a year and a half figuring out exactly why this was the case — because chance alone isn't enough when you want to reliably reproduce quality. The results of that work still pay off today: our beers are brewed from the finest Finnish barley malt, and barley is officially listed right there in the ingredients. So they aren't naturally gluten-free. But our brewing process reliably breaks down the gluten chains, so that the final gluten content ends up far below the threshold for gluten-free products.

A product only receives the official Tähkämerkki, the gluten-free symbol of the Finnish Keliakialiitto, once three separate production batches have each been tested and found gluten-free — and compliance with the AOECS standard is confirmed annually. On top of that, our brewery is subject to the strict BRC food safety standard and the ISO 14001 environmental management system. Even after certification, the monitoring doesn't stop: every year, further batches of each labeled Kukko beer are tested, with additional analyses carried out as needed.

Kukko Pils has since swept numerous beer competitions — turning out to genuinely be "damn good" beer. That it's also gluten-free was, then as now, simply the icing on the cake for us.

05The Conquest of Germany

Some brands enter a new market cautiously. Kukko made its entrance with a loud crow—and a partner who knew exactly where the journey was headed.

This partner has been around longer than one might expect: Teamblue GmbH was founded back in 2005 as a Finnish-German family business just outside Berlin. Today, nine employees and two external supporters make up the small but well-coordinated team that paved the way for the Finnish rooster to enter Germany.

The actual launch was as dignified as befits a proud rooster: In the summer of 2019, Kukko Beer was a guest at the Federal President’s Citizens’ Festival at Bellevue Palace in Berlin—a first, highly prestigious appearance on German soil. The following year, in 2020, Teamblue strengthened its ties with the brewery Laitilan Wirvoitusjuomatehdas Oy, the source of all Kukko Beer. The foundation for a true partnership was laid.

The actual launch followed in 2021: Kukko Pils and non-alcoholic Pils went on sale online via Amazon. It didn’t take long for the lineup to expand—Lager, non-alcoholic Lager, Helles, and the robust Tuima (a Finnish strong beer) were added. In 2022, Teamblue even invested in its own beer truck equipped with tap systems to serve Kukko wherever people gather. Since 2023, Kukko has also been available on the shelves at Getränke Hoffmann grocery stores in Berlin and Brandenburg— What started as an online hidden gem had become a beer everyone could enjoy.

But Teamblue was thinking beyond Germany: Since 2025, non-alcoholic Kukko Beer has also been sold in Italy, and starting in 2026, Spain will be added as another market. The rooster has long since stopped crowing only in Germany—it’s now crowing across Europe.

Just as important as distribution has always been Teamblue’s connection to people. Since 2021, the company has supported numerous events organized by the Finnish Embassy in Berlin, and with non-alcoholic Kukko Beer, it is a sponsor of the F.A.S.S. Berlin ice hockey club. In August 2026, Kukko will even be featured at the Musikfest Berlin—alongside the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Helsinki Chamber Choir—when the finest Finnish brewing art meets the finest Finnish music.

In addition, there’s a packed schedule of trade shows and festivals both in Germany and abroad: annual participation in Berlin’s International Green Week, Gluten-Free Day in Scheidegg, the Gluten-Free Oktoberfest in Aschheim, “Harz & Heide” in Braunschweig, events with the German Celiac Society in Lübeck, the Barbecue Fair in Brescia (Italy), and “Gluten-Free Fall” in Weil der Stadt. There’s hardly a place where gluten-free beer is celebrated that Kukko isn’t there.

What began as a single community festival in Berlin has, step by step, become a fixture in the German—and now also European—beer market. Kukko provided the flavor—Finnish, gluten-free, full of character. Teamblue paved the way: patiently built up, growing since 2005, and nurtured with the same care to this day.

And somewhere between Bellevue Palace, the Musikfest Berlin, and the nearest beer cart, the rooster crows louder today than ever before.