Russian beers

As our friend Josh Oakes returned to Stockholm from Russia on his Son of Iron Liver" tour, we were lucky enough to get to sample some of the Russian beers he'd brough back. These beers were mostly brewed in St Petersburg, and varied in quality from "good" to "oh, my god!". The brewery Stepana Razina had several reasonably good beers, but also makes te worst beer of all time - the totally undrinkable Stepan Razin Studentskoe. Even weeks after i tried it I still feel sick about the thought of drinking it.

Arsenal'noe Temnoe, a flawless ruby lager from Tolskoe Pivo in Tula were deemd the winner of the Russian beers, but were well beaten by some of the other beerswe added. Wellington Iron Duke Strong Ale was a nice fullbodied and flavourful beer from Ontario, which managed to score the highest rating of the night from everybody present.

Well, thank's Josh for bringing us these beers!!

Beers rated October 2000
RANKBEERCOUNTRYSCOREJZPSLSCGFHABVSTYLE
142Wellington Iron Duke Strong AleCanada4,0444+444-6,5%Ale, British style
820Ash Vine Hop & GloryEngland3,284-4-3335,0%Ale, British style
1024La Cheval Blanc RescousseCanada3,122+4-3+33+5,0%Wheat beer
1189Samuel Smith's Pure Brewed LagerEngland3,003+33+3-3-5,0%Lager, Light
1378Arsenal'noe TemnoeRussia2,863-33+32+5,7%Lager, Dark
1456Stepan Razin ZolotoeRussia2,80334-22+5,6%Lager, Light
1613Otchakovo Pivo SpecialnoeRussia2,663-3+3-23-4,5%Lager, Light
1614Stepan Razin AdmiralteyskoeRussia2,6623+3324,5%Lager, Light
1807Kloster 3,5%Czech Republic2,4934-2-2+2-3,5%Lager, Light
1920Stepan Razin Zenit 1984 TemnoeRussia2,3823+3-2-2+5,2%Lager, Dark
2212Bavariya TemnoeRussia2,061+232+25,0%Lager, Dark
2477Zastol'ny KvassRussia1,642-2+21-  Special
2627Botchkarev Bele NochiRussia1,231+1+1+1-24,7%Special
2726Stepan Razin StudentskoeRussia-0,070+000-0+3,5%Lager, Light
Rated by: Johan Zetterlund, Per Samuelsson, Lars Samuelsson, Cecilia Gårdebäck and Fredrik Huldt

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Updated 2000-10-17 Per Samuelsson