Going to Russia!

Reads 1891 • Replies 21 • Started Friday, June 21, 2013 3:06:06 AM CT

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Message Sevenlee beers 1845 º places 82 º 03:06 Fri 6/21/2013 I’m fulfilling my dream of going to Russia this year and I have a question on the beer there. With all that cyrillic, how will I know what I’m drinking??? Any tips? I plan to hit up some bars and bottle shops in Moscow and St Petersburg so I’m wondering if anyone has any recommendations on places to go and beers to try. Any help would be great, cheers!
Message evilempire beers 162 º places 110 º 03:38 Fri 6/21/2013 Originally posted by Sevenlee With all that cyrillic, how will I know what I’m drinking??? Any tips? without wanting to sound too facetious, learn the cyrillic alphabet! it’s only 20 letters... I learnt it quickly out of necessity when I went to Serbia, once you get the hang of it you can easily transliterate to English letters - so you might not know what it means but you’ll at least know what it’s called. Anything you’re stuck with, take a photo and work it out later once you’ve got the hang of transliteration, avoid anything called ’mocne’, means strong and is basically an alcohol delivery system - 7%+ but usually very thin and tastes of paint stripper
Message Nightfall beers 1313 º places 45 º 04:56 Fri 6/21/2013 Print this : http://www.ancientscripts.com/images/cyrillic.gif , and/or keep photos of the labels and the barcodes and there are people here to help you out with the ones you can’t identify.
Message MacBoost beers 2074 º places 37 º 06:28 Fri 6/21/2013 Krepkoe means "strong" in Russian, so yeah. Probably best to avoid those.

Message Marko P admin beers 17703 º places 866 º 07:39 Fri 6/21/2013 Originally posted by Nightfall Print this : http://www.ancientscripts.com/images/cyrillic.gif , and/or keep photos of the labels and the barcodes and there are people here to help you out with the ones you can’t identify. This. Photos of the part where the producer might be written would be nice too.
Message Alen places 1 º 07:57 Fri 6/21/2013 In mother Russia, you don’t drink beer, beer drinks you.
Message spartakbarnsley beers 67 º 12:13 Fri 6/21/2013 Originally posted by Sevenlee I’m fulfilling my dream of going to Russia this year and I have a question on the beer there. With all that cyrillic, how will I know what I’m drinking??? Any tips? I plan to hit up some bars and bottle shops in Moscow and St Petersburg so I’m wondering if anyone has any recommendations on places to go and beers to try. Any help would be great, cheers! Most Russian beers are absolutely best avoided. However, there are a few decent ones, you just need to seek them out. The Vasileostrovskoe craft brewery in St Petersburg is starting to make some cracking brews. Their new First IPA and Coffee Stout are superb. Find them in glass bottles in upmarket supermarkets such as Stockman. Their stock beers Temnoe (dark) and Krasnoe (red) and reasonably widespread on tap, plus some supermarkets sell them in plastic bottles, poured from kegs in the shop. Also widely available from kegs in supermarkets are Pyatii Okean Svetnoe (light) and Temnoe. They are live, unfiltered beers and are also very decent. Also widely available are Bile and Bila Nich, (White and White Night), an unfiltered light and dark beer respectively from Ukraine. Very interesting. Apart from these, the rest of what you are likely to find here is utter garbage and should be avoided at all costs. Do not under any circumstances attempt to drink - Baltika, Nevskoe, Bochkarev, Zolotoe Bochkam Old Bobby, and Zhigulovskoe. Or any of the Russian-brewed commercial beers. Unbelievably, Russian made Carlsberg is even worse than the Danish version. Oh, and yes, learning the cyrillic alphabet is definitely useful if you want to know what you are drinking!
Message spartakbarnsley beers 67 º 12:16 Fri 6/21/2013 Oh, forgot to mention, there are a couple of decent brewpubs. The two Paulainer ones (on Ploschad Pobedi and Nevsky Prospekt in the Park Inn hotels), and Baltika Brew, which also serves Indian food are both well worth checking.

Message GT P beers 10001 º places 672 º 13:00 Fri 6/21/2013 Learn Cyrillic because it is so easy, then photograph labels and barcodes of the bottles you drink. At the very least, if you are stuck you can ask the forums again for identification.
Message Sevenlee beers 1845 º places 82 º 03:14 Mon 6/24/2013 Cheers for the advice everyone. I was planning on looking into the alphabet anyway so it seems the best way to go. "Do not under any circumstances attempt to drink - Baltika..." Really? A lot of it is rubbish but I thought the porter was pretty good.
Message lihaiqing 04:02 Mon 6/24/2013 good for you