BACK to "Beer Reports"

Trans-Siberian Beer

Traveling on the world's longest railroad is not very exciting -- 9,000km of very similar scenery day after day. Our journey started out well enough, the city of Vladivostok is actually a pleasant seaside town. It was here that we learned that Russians drink beer everywhere. I mean all Russians, even the young girls. We spent much of our time on the promenade along the beach where a series of kiosks and restaurants sold varieties of food and, of course, beer, both domestic and imports, in sizes from 500ml (aluminum cans and glass bottles) all the way up to 5 liters (plastic bottles). I would try to list all of the brands, but since most are spelled in Cyrillic I can't type them and you probably couldn't pronounce them. I just know that I once asked for a "bolshoi" to describe a large plastic bottle of probably 3 liters (it is a long train trip) and I received a Bolshoi Beer. The largest brewer is Baltika run by Scottish and Newcastle with Carlsberg. Thinking back to my experience with Russian beer in 1993, they've since made a big improvement. This includes 12 different brands or strengths up to 16.5%. You can buy beer almost everywhere and no one seems to mind if you walk down the street having a swig. Two American war ships were in port and I was surprised to see American sailors doing the same.
Once on the train we had to depend on train station kiosks for our brews. The train only stopped a few times a day and then for only a few minutes. All of the other passengers depended on them also, so you might be pressed for time. Not speaking Russian added to the difficulty. Finally after three days we arrived in Irkutsk, which thankfully had a brew pub. Cheshkaya Pivovarnaya (don't forget beer in Russian is pivo). The motif was strictly Pilsner Urquell but besides a pilsner they did a dark lager and an unfiltered light. A great change from our mobile beer tour.
Two more days brought us to Yekaterinburg, where the Bolshoviks killed the Czar and his family in 1917. It is also the home of Tinkoff's, the fanciest, over-priced brewpub we've ever been in. The staff all wore elegant costumes like in a five-star restaurant; they even made us check our coats. A half-liter of pretty decent lager, one of seven available, was only $6.00 (at that price we had only one). Tinkoff's is a microbrewery chain and, like everywhere else, the closer you get to the capital, Moscow, the more expensive it gets.
Finally in Moscow, we were ready to head home. There is a Tinkoff's in town, but we figured we'd been there, done that. The best part of our journey was the side trip to Mongolia. Take this link for more on that.