Finland's twisted, sick, ill conceived, malicious project to hike alcohol taxation in EU has been torpedoed by the land locked Czech Republic. Finland, who currently holds the EU presidency, attempted to affect a rise in the minimum alcohol excise duty rates. However, their effort was vetoed by the Czech Republic, which opposed any raise in rates levied on beer. The Czech position is that as wine is not taxed at all in the EU, therefore beer should be tax-free. I'll drink to that!

Incidentally, it seems that the Fins and the rest of the Scandinavian world decided some time ago that hiking taxes was a great way to get people to cut down on boozing. Personally, we haven't seen any effect. From the stool we're sitting on, our neighbors to the North seem to be just as ready to tip one back as anybody we've met. Keep up the good work!

Someone has taken a survey. Here it is: The list of European countries with the most breweries per capita.

In reverse order:
10. Italy with 3.64m inhabitants per brewery
9. Ireland with 528,571
8. Finland with 333,333
7. Norway with 184,800
6. Sweden with 180,000
5. Belgium with 148,272
4. Czech Republic with 90,557
3. Germany with 77,000
2. Denmark with 62,400
1. Austria, with 56,860