Russian beers

Russian beer (Russian пиво – Pivo): in Russia, beer is the second most popular alcoholic drink after Vodka, but is seen by many as a healthier almost non-alcoholic alternative (such that it is the number one alcoholic drink in the always more westward leaning St.Petersburg, consumption 95 l. per capita, 2005).

Unlike the Germanic language speaking peoples (i.e. English, Dutch and German Speakers), Russians (like Spanish speakers) categorize beer by color, and not by fermentation process: Light, Red or Semi-Dark, and Dark. Light is a more or less equivalent to Lager and the

last two are close to Ales. There are also strong beers (6-10% of alcohol) which are very popular in Russia. There are a lot of brands of Russian beer. The most prominent are Baltika and Stary Melnik, however almost every region of Russia is proud to have its own brewery.

There are a few microbreweries and brewpubs to be found, in major cities like St. Petersburg,Moscow and Kazan.

Production

In 2008 Russian beer production fell by 1% to 112.9 mln hl. But in money terms Russian beer market grew by 17.6% to $18,455 mln. During 5 months 2009 general output of the six federal brewing companies decreased by nearly 8%, but regional businesses which do not belong to any international groups in aggregate increased beer production