Beer Guide Latvia

beer guide latviasummer 2011

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I love good beer,but a few years ago I noticed a complete absence of a detailed and up-to-date source of information regarding Latvian beers and breweries in English. I feel disappointed when I see tourists buying beers with the most colourful labels and presumably thinking that these would be the best representatives of the Latvian brewing tradition. I can well im-agine their disappointment afterwards.

This guide has been intended as quick help for those who are short on time, but would like try the best Latvian breweries have to offer. In this second edition I have corrected some of the errors of the first and second edition, added pictures and expanded on more interesting subjects.

And on a side note, there is no paid advertising in any form here, I have written all of this as a part of the rather time consuming hobby. I hope you will enjoy it.

Cheers!

Atis

Latvijā, tāpat kā visur pasaulē, pastāv dažādi ceļveži. Domāju, ka visai loģiski būtu, ja tāds taptu arī attiecībā uz alu, turklāt redzot, ka ārzemju tūristi dzer gaišas krāsas ūdeni ar alus garšu, visuresošās reklāmas un pietiekoši pievilcīgās etiķetes iespaidā uzskatot to par Latvijas aldaru domas augstāko lidojumu, man galvā rosās visai nelabas domas.

Jāpiebilst, ka viss te aprakstītais ir manas personīgāss un subjektīvās domas. Vienam garšo viens alus, citam - cits, tas ir tikai normāli. Pieļauju, ka manam viedoklim bieži pietrūkst nacionālpatriotisms, bet akls patriotisms lielās devās, pilnīgi bez jebkādas kritikas, nekad nav bijis veselīgs.

Šādam pasākumam latviešu valodā neredzu jēgu, Latvijā ir maz alus darītavu, turklāt lielākā daļa Latvijas iedzīvotāju tās pazīst tāpat un katram jau sen ir savs iecīnītais alus. Diskusijas par šo tēmu būtu pārāk neproduktīvas, sanāktu kas līdzīgs mobilo telefonu modeļu vai automašīnu marku salīdzināšanai. Vairāk informācijas latviešu valodā par alu var lasīt manā blogā labsalus.lv

Atis (twitter - @dzerualu)

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Control panel of malt mills in Aldaris

Aldaris is the largest Latvian brewery and its malt is grinded using six Czechoslovak mills installed in 1984

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General Information “Latvian” beer style.................................................................................................... 6 Most highly regarded Latvian breweries................................................................ 7 A short history of Latvian beer................................................................................ 6 Dzīvais alus (Live beer)............................................................................................. 13 Kvass............................................................................................................................ 14 Homebrewing............................................................................................................. 16 Jāņi - the ultimate Latvian beer holiday.................................................................. 18 Date of foundation of still existing Latvian breweries.......................................... 20 Latvian beer - the best beer there is?....................................................................... 22 How is the guide organised....................................................................................... 23

Breweries Abula (Brenguļu)....................................................................................................... 24 Aldaris......................................................................................................................... 28 Bauskas........................................................................................................................ 34 Brālis............................................................................................................................ 36 Brūveris....................................................................................................................... 40 Cēsu............................................................................................................................. 44 Krāslavas...................................................................................................................... 48 LIDO........................................................................................................................... 50 Līvu/Lāčplēša............................................................................................................. 54 Madonas...................................................................................................................... 58 Piebalgas...................................................................................................................... 60 Rēzeknes...................................................................................................................... 62 Tērvetes........................................................................................................................ 64 Užavas.......................................................................................................................... 70 Valmiermuižas............................................................................................................ 74

continued next page...

Table of contents

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Practical information Excursions to Latvian breweries.............................................................................. 78 Five beers to bring home from Latvia..................................................................... 80 Where to get beer - general advice on stores, pubs and bars............................... 82 Some of the best beer locations................................................................................ 86 Latvian beer vocabulary............................................................................................ 88 Copyright, disclaimer and contact information.................................................... 89

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“Latvian” beer style

With regards to Latvian beer, it is quite similar to average European lagers. There is no distinct Latvian beer style, but usually plain and bittery pale lagers and overly sweet, pos-sibly diacetyl-laden dunkels are considered to carry Latvian characteristics. Dominant sweetness in beer is not considered as a flaw by many of Latvian beer drinkers, even opposite is often true - although the sweetness masks the flavour deficiencies, it helps to hide the alcohol as well. This from the point of view of a beer drinker for whom the overall aim of the evening is to get totally drunk, greatly increases drinkability.

If there was once a significant German influence to Latvian beers, especially during the 19th century, it disappeared almost completely already by the end of the 1920s. As the G. Mīlbergs, Member of the Saeima (Latvian Parliament) mentions in the newspaper in 1932 - “Czechoslovak beer is at least three times cheaper and better than Latvian beer”. Sadly, there have not been as many changes as one could have expected since.

Currently the only clearly distinguishable German roots can be found in beers whose recipes and equipment has been imported from Germany and Austria in the 1990s and 2000s, such as LIDO, Užavas, Brūvera, Valmiermuižas and partly Abula (Brenguļu).

There is one pleasant exception - Baltic Porter that is produced with lager yeast in this region. Although the style did not originate in the Baltic States, Baltic Porter was highly regarded in the Russian Empire (as the name of a similar style - Russian Imperial Stout style suggests) to which Latvia belonged during these times. There are pitiable remnants of this industry remaining in the region, but one or two occasional Baltic Porters are still produced in Latvia.

There is no tradition of bottle-conditioning beers and 99% of Latvian beer (except for one or two Hefeweizens) are lagers. Almost all bottled beer is filtered, only two or threee unfiltered and bottled seasonals can be found. Of course, there are a couple more of un-filtered beers available on-tap, but to much smaller extent than one would desire.

With regards to beer ingredients, although a significant portion of Latvian beer drink-ers assume otherwise, everything from yeast to grain (except, of course for water), is imported as there is no commercial maltster in Latvia. With some exceptions during the Soviet time, it has been mostly like this for the last century, but most of the brewer-ies do not want to admit this fact to the public as they often market their beer as a very traditional drink.

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Most highly regarded Latvian breweries

During April and May 2010 a survey was conducted by labsalus.lv asking 350 Latvian beer drinkers to evaluate the Latvian breweries and beers they produce. Of course, it is no easy and highly subjective task, as everyone has its favourites. Results obtained pro-vide some glimpses what beer savy locals consider to be as the best Latvian brews. I have to add that I mostly do not share this view.

The score is plain and simple: 5 is maximum, 1 is minimum. As expected, the three largest breweries have scored the worst, although there is no doubt that most of their critics do not hesitate to consume this beer on a regular basis. But that is a part of hu-man nature.

1. Tērvetes 4.51

2. Užavas 4.39

3. Abula (Brenguļu) 4.21

Bauskas 4.07Valmiermuižas 4.06Piebalgas 3.90LIDO 3.57Brālis 3.16Brūveris 3.09Krāslavas 2.86Madonas 2.83Rēzeknes 2.80Cēsu 2.55Aldaris 2.50Lāčplēsis/Līvu 2.36

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A short history of Latvian beer

Latvians tend to pride themselves as a beer drinking and brewing nation with beer as the national drink and so on and so forth; they are no different from any other European nation in this aspect. In addition, the Latvian and Lithuanian word alus is amongst some of the most ancient words meaning beer in Indo-European languages. Unfortunately the grim reality as well as the recent history clearly shows that Latvians during the last couple of centuries have also shown quite a keen interest in spirits and the production and consumption of vodka in Latvia (in the terms of absolute alcohol) has exceeded that of the beer for the last 200 years. In addition, average beer consumption pre capita is one of the lowest in Europe, hovering slightly below 70 litres per year.

Beer, for sure, was very important just a dozen decades ago - in the 19th century there were several hundred small and more than 60 larger breweries in Latvia, producing beer both for the local population as well as export to the vast Russian Empire. Riga at this time was one of the most important industrial hubs (just after St.Petersburg and Mos-cow) of the Russian Empire and that was true also with regards to brewing.

Things went pretty well until the First World War that saw most of breweries closed and their equipment was “evacuated” to Russia in order to avoid it falling into German hands. Of course, most of it never returned from the Soviet Russia, as newly established Soviet state invented many reasons why it can not be handed back. And a large portion of it was looted anyway.

Although a fresh start was difficult, things started to improve again in 1920 - immediate-

Former Aizpute Castle pub.Aizpute, a town of 5500 in central Kurzeme, it boasted at least 30 pubs during the second part of 19th century. Now there are none.

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Former Aizpute brewery.

Established in the 19th century, the

brewery finally ceased operations during the 1950s.

ly after the independence was gained. About 100 breweries re-opened, the future started to look bright, despite the loss of the largest export market - Russia. Unfortunately this development lasted only till 1925 when new anti-alcohol measures were passed that saw 70% of the breweries closing during the following years and the total output dropping by almost 40%. Although these laws were repelled in a few years time, commercial produc-tion of the beer was further hampered by extortionate import tax, incredibly high excise duties (the highest in Europe during that time) and a cartel of five largest Latvian brew-ers that resulted in high prices - from double to triple compared to those e.g. in Germany during that time. It meant that average worker simply could not afford to drink com-mercial beer and spirits provided much better price/drunkness ratio. This is verified by the official statistics that shows that in 1927 only 3.5 liters!!! of beer annually per person were consumed (15 - 25 times less than in pre-war years) in Latvia. There is no doubt the actual consumption was many times greater, as most of the beer was produced by home-brewing. Still, the government policies during the 1920s and 1930s can be considered as the most severe blow to the Latvian beer industry (surpassing even changes caused by the both World Wars) that caused most of the smaller breweries to close and paved the way to mass-produced and boring beer.

In 1937 the authoritanian regime of Kārlis Ulmanis decided that foreign capital is not needed in a healthy nationalist state. The most succesful businesses in all industries were simply taken away from their owners, but at least they were adequately compensated for their loss. Similar things took place also in the brewing industry - three breweries “vol-untary” sold their operations to the state that established a new central brewery, called Aldaris. It is interesting that the necessity to nationalise a significant portion of the brew-ing industry was explained by arguing that the beer was becoming too expensive for or-dinary Latvian peasants that were the backbone of the great Latvian nation. Never mind

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that it was mostly state set excise duties and customs policies behind the high price. To further provide a proof that nationalisation was required, breweries were ordered to in-crease beer prices in 1938 - and what a suprise - the chief of the State Price Inspectorate soon became the chief of newly established brewing company. One year later, maximum price was lifted back again to previous levels and the show was over.

During the course of subsequent Soviet and German occupations from 1940 till 1945 many changes occurred - repeated nationalisation of breweries, newly established Al-daris was split and merged again, centralisation, introduction of common standards and recipes.

In Soviet times all breweries brew more or less the same brands of beer - Rīgas, Marta, Žiguļu, later Senču (Ancestor) was introduced. Similarly to other Soviet industries, beer standarts were well developed and theoretically should have produced excellent beers. Unfortunately standarts did not take into account widespread stealing and negligence from the side of workers, after all, who cares about the state property. Most famous of them all were shortages. Shortages of everything - equipment, raw materials and ingre-dients that were solved only in the most ingenious ways only Soviet people are capable of. It would be unfair to say that beer was always bad - some of it was good, much larger portion - not that drinkable, sometimes spoiled and sour, but as there was a very limited access to imported brews (some Czech beer was available) and even the domestic pro-duce was often in very short supply, there were not too many comments heard. You were lucky enough to get any beer at all.

In the 90ies, just after the USSR collapsed and the Soviet occupation was over, the Latvi-an beer industry was not in a good shape - there were several inefficient, previously state owned breweries. Of course, they all could be bought cheaply (that is, from the Western point of view, local companies did not have neither too much money, nor too much ac-cess to loans and other industries, such as looting scrap metal, were more profitable). Many of the largest breweries landed in the hands of Scandinavians in a result, such as Carlsberg, Harboe and Olvi. From those few who were still owned by the locals, all, but three, went under during the course of next 5-15 years.

Nowadays the situation is similar to the most of the developed world - roughly 90% of the market is possessed by gargantuan international brewers while the rest is shared by imports and smaller local breweries. It is also worth noting that the ABV of Latvian beers has gone up from about 4% during the 1920s to about 5.5% nowadays.

None of the Latvian beer ingredients, but water originates in Latvia. Only barley for Tērvetes brewery is a notable exception. Malt for the rest of the breweries is imported mostly from Lithuania and a couple of other European countries. Hops are mostly pur-chased in the Western Europe - Latvian climate is not well suited for growing them, although many homebrewers use Latvian wild hops and sometimes achieve suprisingly good results. During the nineties, Piebalgas brewery had their own hop fields, but the

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idea was soon abandoned because of financial reasons.

Of course, homebrew has always co-existed along its com-mercial relatives. Most of the Latvian homebrew is made using rather old and time-tested methods that include little or no maturing whatsoever, so the final result can be murky brown/yellow liquid, not too pleasant for the eyes, but sweet and quite high in alcohol, one should expect between 7- 10% ABV. The largest proprtion of traditional homebrewers re-maining today can be found in Latgale region, but only a few of them brew regularly, most opt for the largest holidays once or twice per year. Sadly, but it could be expected that these brewing traditions will be almost extinct within a decade or two.

Current affairs

There is a clear distinction between small and large breweries, as the Latvian legislation grants a 50% excise tax discount for breweries brewing less than 5 million liters annu-ally (the discount applies to the first million though). Exactly this exemption was the main reason why three largest brewers left the Society of Latvian Brewers (LADS) a few years ago to found their own similarly named Association of Latvian Brewers (LACA). Neither of these associations with fancy names is doing much to promote beer, except for neverending quarrels between each other and occasional rants towards homebrewers that are blamed for providing cover to illegally imported alcohol.

Large breweries

There are 3 large breweries in Latvia, all owned by large Scandinavian breweries, the biggest of them Carlsberg. All operate under the same principle as large international breweries all over the world, producing mostly low quality bland lagers. Some of the “Latvian” beers are not produced in Latvia at all, they can be imported from either Lithu-ania or Estonia where they are produced in sister breweries and vice versa. It is quite easy to imagine that it is far more profitable to brew large batches and distribute them all across the Baltic States than to brew smaller and more diverse beers. Sometimes even the labels are the same (just translated) for otherwise seemingly different beers from dif-ferent breweries. In general, I would suggest keeping away from most of their products except for select beers, such as Aldara Porteris or Cēsu Nefiltrētais.

Small breweries

With smaller breweries it is a different story, as very diverse quality beers can be expect-ed from these brewers. Sometimes it is good, sometimes not that all right. A common

Special edition 1 LVL coinIn June 2011, a special edi-tion coin was released by

the Latvian Bank with beer mug on the front, honouring

Latvian beer traditions

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practice for some small brewers involves selling the same beer with different names or using one beer as a ‘base’ and introducing small tweaks (such as extra carbonation) to obtain a ‘different’ beer, so the range of beers can appear larger than it actually is. Often some of the smaller breweries go bust, during the last years it has happened to Gulbenes, Lodiņa, Latgales and previously to many others.

In general, smaller breweries are not doing well as the most, but few have been on de-cline for the couple of years and I believe it is mostly due to bad management practices. Latvians seem to embrace ‘hit and run’ tactics - at first a fair quality beer is introduced, but after the demand increases, the owner immediately puts a ridiculous surcharge, pos-sibly even sells a beer brewed elsewhere under its name that leads to inevitable quality issues.

Unfortunately it does not seem that all brewers are seriously involved in any long-term planning, some just go with flow, blaming everyone else, mostly government and home-brewers for their own faults. This type of tactics has clearly not yielded any results, as the market share of small Latvian brewers has fallen below 10% in 2010. It was more than 20% just less than a decade ago and there is no sign for this tendency to decline.

Lodiņa Brewery in Bauska.Lodiņa brewery, operating from 1873 - 1950s was opened again in 2004 in the historic buildings under a new owener-ship and with lots of promises. It managed to last for just under 5 years. There are plen-ty of similar stories in Latvia - Gulbene, Vārpa, Kimmel, just to name a few.

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Dzīvais alus (Live beer)

Live beer is an interesting concept that is quite popular in Latvia and some surrounding countries, most notably Russia and Lithuania. It is generally assumed, mostly by sup-porters of the national beer (meaning that origin of the beer is far more important than its taste), that there is a special type of beer that has significantly better flavour, in addi-tion to being healthy. This beer is called ‘live beer’ and this definition has nothing to do with CAMRA’s cask ale.

Although many locals tend to assume that this concept has been known for many years, its origins in Latvia can be traced back to mid-nineties when Lāčplēša brewery released its Dzīvais alus (Live beer), the same term was also used by Užavas brewery. Prior to that, this term was rarely used and never in this particular context. It is quite possible that Latvian simply borrowed the term from Russia where it has been utilised much more extensively. During the Soviet times, only state approved names for beer could be used and all-pervasive state standartisation system would not allow for such loosely defined criateria to exist.

In order for beer to be considered live, usually several arbitrary conditions have to be met. Some of them are mentioned below; the concept of live beer usually includes not all, but a few of them:

- live beer can not be pasteurised,- live beer can not be filtered and pasteurised,- beer only from small breweries can be considered live,- live beer does not contain any E-substances (any food supplement classified by the EU and containing a letter E in its abbreviation. E300, E209, you know the drill),- only draught beer is live.

What is more important, many breweries, instead of trying to educate customers about properties of beer, try to use this obscure term for their advantage as a marketing tool. One of tricks used include not filtering the beer, but pasteurising it. Yest is dead and does not contribute to the taste, but public seems to love the haze it generates. And the brewer can safely claim that he is brewing live beer - there is yeast in the bottle, after all. No Latvian brewery who actually claims to be a brewer of live beer would be able to define precisely what live beer actually is and why his own beer qualifies for it and others not. Only one thing is certain - live beer can be sold for much better price than ‘indus-trial’ beer.

I would suggest not paying any attention to live beer and waste your time seeking for it. Some of the most acclaimed live beers are bad and there is no need to overpay just because of some local hype.

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Kvass

In addition to beer, another similar beverege - kvass, has been popular for several cen-turies not only in Latvia, but also in other parts of the former Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. Historically it is a traditional low alcohol drink made from barley and rye malt. As Latvia was a part of the Russian Empire up to 1917, kvass gradually became popular also in this region.

Kvass is brewed similarly to beer, but with different yeast strain and its ABV does not exceed 1.0%; usually it is even lower, less than 0.5%. However, according to the Lat-vian legislation, a substance can be regarded as alcoholic only if its ABV exceeds 1.2%.

Kvass gained immense popularity during Soviet times and was frequently purchased on draught on the street from barrels such as one visible above. It was often accompanied by another barrel containing beer.

Nowadays one has to be careful when buying it. First of all, it has been defined in the national legislation that only naturally fermented drinks can be called ‘kvass’ (or ‘kvasa dzēriens’ (kvass beverage) or ‘iesala dzēriens’ (malt beverage)). This incentive was intro-duced because supposedly more and more artificial lemonades, bearing similar look and aroma to kvass were introduced in the market. Still, that same legislation implies that addition of lactic acid, ascrobic acid, citric acid, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate also can be regarded as a part of a natural process. However, the most important is the

Kvass barrel from Soviet times

Once a common sight in many public places, it was prohibited from use citing to health and safety reasons, however one can still find then in Russia and Ukraine. It always brings back nostalgic memories and urban myths about worms that were reportedly frequent inhabitants of dirty barrels.

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addition of sugar, therefore read the label carefully, it may turn out that even very natural kvass is not so very healthy after all and has the same health benefits as Pepsi or Coke.

It has to be kept in mind that not all companies that sell kvass, really produce it. It is also imported from Ukraine and Belarus bearing “traditional Latvian” labels. On the other hand, it is difficult to deny that kvass is a geniune Russian/Ukrainian drink therefore it is best made in its fatherland. Currently several Latvian breweries (Aldaris, Bauskas, Cēsu, Piebalgas) brew their own kvass, but it can be expected that more breweries will follow soon. It is no secret that kvass and bottled water is easier money than beer.

There is one dedicated kvass-only brewery in Latvia that is also the sole producer of malt extract - Iļģuciema brewery or Ilgezeem as it has fashionably renamed itself, mimicking Latvian spelling of the 19th century. Iļģuciema has a long history of brewing both kvass and beer under different names, its production has ceased from time to time during the 20th century, but since 1998 it is producing only kvass. They also sell beer under Ilgezeem brand name, but it is EU brewed with unknown origins. Most of Iļģuciema customers do not notice it anyway. Iļģuciema is currently expanding and installing new equipment as demand for its kvass has grown considerably not only domestically, but also abroad.

Iļguciems kvass brewery, located in a historic brewery building in Riga suburbs

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Homebrewing

For a very long time homebrewing in Latvia has been mostly associated with “tradition-al” country style beer that frequently is treacherous. This beer is often made in all-wood barrels and pots from homemade malt, wild hops, bread yeast and more often than not, has not been matured enough. A popular wisdom is that 1 or 2 days of primary fermen-tation is more than sufficient and sugar can been added generously to aid a swift forma-tion of alcohol. The second fermentation can take place in a wooden barrel for 2 more days, but not much longer as a multitude of bacteria usually present in such barrels start to manifest themselves. The result, as expected, can be quite varied and unpredictable. Even swift arrival of drunkness and intense hungover can be considered to be a part of homebrew tradition as well.

During the last decade American homebrewing traditions have reached Latvia and have been embraced by mostly younger generation that are not used to above mentioned country drinks and often do not find their flavour palatable. Currently one of the biggest difficulties is the availability of brewing ingredients as some speciality malts have to be ordered from the Western Europe and the USA, but situation is improving rapidly.

Still, if one mentions geniune Latvian homebrew, in 90 cases out of 100 Latvians would associate it with sweet, possibly diacetyl laden beer, brewed with the same methods and wooden vessels used two or three centuries ago in the Latvian countryside.

Homebrew meetSimilarly with such meetings all over the world, Latvian homebrewers regularly meet all year long to taste beer and hold collaborative brewing sessions. Consult forums.kupla.lv for more details if you would like to attend one.

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Gordon brewing on his HERMS during Aizpute 2011 homebrew meet

Although Gordon who moved to Latvia from the USA a few years ago was the first to homebrew using HERMS (Heat Exchanged Recirculating Mash System), several other Latvians now have built or are building their own systems

Annual Aizpute homebrew meet

In May 7 and 8, 2011 many Latvian hombrewers met again for the second homebrew meet in Aizpute (town in Kurzeme region) where during the course of three days many kegs and bottles homebrew is consumed, homebrew competition is held and several col-laborative brewing sessions take place using both modern and more older techniques. Also Lithunian homebrewers as well as other international beer enthusiasts have attend-ed this meeting and in order to gain more homebrew “converts”, general public is invited to attend brewing sessions. It is expected that a similar event will take place also in 2012 - consult kupla.lv for further details.

KUPLA (movement for good beer) - kupla.lv

In 2010 a non-governmental organisation was started by several homebrewers. One of its main aims is spreading knowledge about beer, as most of the current Latvian beers lack diversity and character. KUPLA is heavily involved in homebrew activities and hosts the only Latvian homebrew forum (forums.kupla.lv), organises regular meetings as well as trips to breweries. If you are in Latvia for more than a couple of weeks, but do not know where to get the necessary ingredients or just want to chat with fellow homebrewers, feel free to visit the forum (English posts are ok) or drop an email to [email protected].

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Jāņi - the ultimate Latvian beer holiday

There is a holiday and then there is Jāņi - certainly the largest and by far most signifi-cant Latvian holiday. It is supposed to be set around the summer solstice, but is actually celebrated a day or two afterwards - on the evening of 23 June (it is called called Līgo evening) and 24 June when it is called Jāņi (it is no coincidence that Jānis is also the most popular Latvian male name).

Jāņi is an official 2 day holiday that is often extended, e.g. there were three official holi-days in 2010 in addition to a weekend, so it made five days of uninterrupted celebration in total. Jāņi are based solely on ancient pagan traditions that pre-date the introduction of Christianity during the 12th century and even 700 years of forced Christianity could not make a difference. Although some loose mention of St.John can be found around this time, even seemingly devout Latvian Christians seem not to mind actively taking part in pagan celebrations. During Jāņi most people try to leave the city, therefore Riga and other larger towns might look like they were hit by a deadly virus, so certainly it is not a good idea to make a pub crawl during this time. Many business are closed during this holiday.

The true meaning of most Jāņi traditions have not survived, except for food consump-tion habits, bonfires and careless mating. One of the main elements is to consume as much as beer as possible, eat cheese, sit by the bonfire (as well as to jump over it), sing and possibly look for a love affair during the short night - it is euphimistically called searching for the flower of the fern (meklēt paperdes ziedu). The part with regards to beer is always succesfully realised to the full extent and not much energy remains for the search of the elusive flower. Police and emergency services would easily testify that as a large number of accidents almost exclusively caused by drunk driving take place around Jāņi.

Jāņi is also the time to taste the real Latvian homebrew. There are many, especially el-derly, farmers who brew only once a year - just before Jāņi to provide refreshments for the celebration, using decades old techniques, old wooden barrels and other interesting pieces of equipment that might belong in the museum. It is always exciting to watch this process, so if there is an opportunity to see it, do not miss it.

Jāņi is obviously also the most important time of the year for any Latvian brewery, as a significant part of the total yearly production (demand is at least triple if compared to any other month) is sold just within a few days, often at elevated prices. Retail stores may place orders as early as several weeks in advance, sometimes even pre-paying to ensure enough stock. During 23 June, just before the main celebration kicks in, one can be sure that almost not a drop of beer remains in the maturing tanks of the small breweries. Most people plan their beer purchases for Jāņi well in advance.

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Although it might seem a golden time for everyone in the beer industry, Jāņi also has its negative sides that are felt mostly by consumers. Brewers are very tempted to mature their beers just for a couple of days less than they should and to perform other opera-tions that enable breweries to produce more beer and help to cope with demand. Even so, during the last years, aided by the financial crisis, brewers have realised that abusing the trust of their customers for a short-term profit may have negative consequences in the long-term and such a behaviour has become much rarer now.

On the other hand, maybe one should not worry about quality issues around Jāņi too much as also simple drinks are more than sufficient for getting drunk.

Traditional style homebrewingAfter mashing (on the left - it takes some effort to mix the malt with water in the large wooden bar-rel all through) the wort is being transferred to lauter tun (it is filled only partly in the picture on the right) where it rests for up to one hour before it is sparged and filtered through juniper branches, but also straw may be used. According to more traditional approach, the wort is not boiled (only hops, usually Latvian wild varieties, are boiled separately), but goes straight to the fermenation vessel.

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Date of foundation of still existing Latvian breweries

Tērvetes

Although some (Aldaris and Cēsu) often state that their breweries were founded earlier than 20th century, these claims can be easily dismissed as marketing fairy tales. It has to be noted that Aldaris, Cēsu and Lāčplēša all do not even operate in their historical buildings and all have changed their ownership and management completely for sev-eral times during the 90ies.

The only truly historical brewery, operating in the historical premises and under the successive management is Brenguļu brewery, followed by Tērvetes and Bauskas, all founded during the Soviet times. The rest of breweries are relatively new operations.

Aldarisdubious claims

back to 1865

Cēsudubious claims

back to 1590

Lāčplēšabrewery closed

and brand merged with Līvu in 2008

Abula (Brenguļu)

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Date of foundation of still existing Latvian breweries

Piebalgas

Bauskas

Tērvetes

Krāslavas

Līvu

Brālis

Brūveris Madonas

Valmiermuižas

LIDO

RēzeknesAlthough some (Aldaris and Cēsu) often state that their breweries were founded earlier than 20th century, these claims can be easily dismissed as marketing fairy tales. It has to be noted that Aldaris, Cēsu and Lāčplēša all do not even operate in their historical buildings and all have changed their ownership and management completely for sev-eral times during the 90ies.

The only truly historical brewery, operating in the historical premises and under the successive management is Brenguļu brewery, followed by Tērvetes and Bauskas, all founded during the Soviet times. The rest of breweries are relatively new operations.

Abula (Brenguļu)

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Latvian beer - the best beer there is?

Latvians, just as almost any European nation take pride in their beer. There are enough breweries to choose from and everyone has their favourites. On the other hand, many Latvians, just as almost any other nation, despite constant bickering about the decline of the beer industry, do not take the the criticism from outside too well.

It is difficult for me to describe the Latvian beer industry on strictly objective terms. Firstly, despite being a small-scale homebrewer, I have never studied brewing other than reading a couple of homebrew books and subscribing to beer magazines and my day-job does not involve any beer related matters. Secondly, I am a Latvian; in Latvia everyone knows each other and the least thing you want to do is to say anything even remotely bad in the public about someone you might encounter sooner or later.

However, I do not think sweet lies are the best option. Many of the Latvian printed tourist guidebooks would not agree, most probably because they do not care. Or their advertisers prefer that way.

It should also be mentioned in the beginning that it would be impossible to judge the current selection of Latvian beer entirely by the same standards as American or British craft beers; unfortunately many of the Latvian brews still have a long way to go. This is accompanied by almost extreme reluctance from the side of Latvian breweries to try brewing anything else than standard European pale and dark lagers. Unfortunately it seems there is a also a certain lack of qualified Latvian brewers - it is no secret that almost all new Latvian beers that have been introduced since 1990 have been either bought abroad or have been introduced under the supervision of foreign, mostly Ger-man, brewers.

Of course, not everything is very gloomy, as the situation is improving steadily, there are some nice beers to be found therefore I hope you would be able to bring home some pleasant memories about the Latvian beer.

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How is the guide organised?

It is no easy task to provide a good overall information about the breweries, especially to someone who has not heard neither anything about the brewery, nor the beer that it produces. It also has to be taken into account that Latvian breweries rarely make any other information public except for fairy tale style legends. Unfortunately that is why one should not trust what breweries are saying, even on official tours one can hear out-right lies.

Most numbers mentioned are my estimates, but they represent the reality well enough (errors of up to 15% are possible). Information on precise production volumes is re-garded as sensitive information and there is no official data available.

In addition, all the beers have been rated to some extent. Although in the previous edi-tion my personal rating for each and every beer was added, now I have combined my thoughts with the opinion of almost 400 readers of my blog to evaluate which are the best brews.

Only up to five of beers are highlighted for each brewery, as I did not feel there was any need to include all average and below average beers, in most cases they are not worth drinking and only a serious ‘ticker’ might be interested.

It has to be mentioned that RateBeer people are also doing a good job of keeping very close watch on current offerings of Latvian breweries and it might be a good idea to have a look there as well. BeerAdvocate would much poorer choice, as its information on European breweries leaves a lot to be desired.

It can be suggested you try this beer. It is also one of the most favourite brews of many Latvian and it may represent some of the better traditions of local brewing

The beer is generally regarded as good, it might be a good idea to try it

This beer is quite suitable for drinking

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Their beer is known by two names, it is the most commonly called as Brenguļu (after the village where the brewery is located) yet the brewery still often refers to itself as Abula, its legal name. It is often true that many Latvians know this brewery only by the name Brenguļu, so be sure to use the latter when asking someone where to get it.

Abula is a tiny establishment that could be regarded as the most well-known of Latvian nano breweries. None their beers are not bottled. Nowadays many beer drinkers still visit the brewery to buy the fresh produce on the spot, but their beer is widely available on-tap also in Riga and other large Latvian towns. Abula brewery was started in 1969 by a local collective farm and produced just one sort of beer for several decades. The beer was never inteneded for a large-scale production and it was mainly sold to thirsty locals. In 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the brewery and the small hydropower plant on Abula river (both are located in the same building) was privatised by the Freivaldu family who continued brewing and with a help of a German brewer expanded the selection of beers available to two, starting to brew a pale beer as well, so now there both a pale and a dark lager is available. Just until a few years ago the brewery used only locally grown grain from the neighbouring farm-ers, but cheaper and easily available Lithuanian malt has taken a firm hold also in the Brenguļu brewery, just like in all others.

In my opinion, Brenguļu beer represents some of the most common features that would characterise a typical and slightly older tradition of Latvian beer – dominated by sweet malt, but quite drinkable. Brenguļu beer is sometimes blamed for producing amazing headaches and sickness the next morning if consumed in large volumes, but one should not expect that excessive drinking would bring any health benefits anyway.

Beverīnas novadsBrenguļi

Abula (brenguļu)

190thousand litresbrewed annually

0.13 % of totalLatvian beer volume

production stats of the brewery in 2010

no website

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For several years in a row the brewery has been expanding rapidly, mostly by adding new fermenting tanks and its sales volume rose significantly even during the recent financial crisis.

The building of Abula breweryThe building of the brewery is located on the dam of Abuls river, a few kilometers before it flows into Gauja river. Tha same building also houses a small hydropower plant.

Brenguļu brewery is located in a small and otherwise rather insignificant village. How-ever, just a few kilometres away there is a town of Valmiera – the largest town of Vidzeme region with enough activities to fill at least a day, if not the entire weekend. • www.valmiera.lv

sights and attractions around the brewery

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gaišais 5.6% (pale lager)

tumšais 5.6% (munich dunkel)both draught only

Abula (Brenguļu) Tumšais ABV 5.6%, Munich Dunkel

The original beer that for long time was known mostly locally, but its fame spread fast soon after the Soviet Union collapsed.

Tumšais is murky dark brown with thin, almost non-existent lacing and full of very small carbona-tion bubbles. Aroma reminds of sweetish straw, slightly reminds of a farmhouse.

Taste is malty sweetness, quite similar to the Pale with more alcohol leaving a thick layer of sugary coating. Mouthfeel is thick and even slightly creamy, certainly not loaded with carbonation. Despite the ever present sweetness it suprisingly has a very good drinkability.

Brenguļu Tumšais is a dark country brew at its best, especially if compared to its direct competitors - Madonas and Krāslavas and a golden standard for many Abula fans out there.

brenguļu beers

You love them or you hate them - there is no other option. For some it is the best Latvian beer, for others - a diacetyl bomb, promting discussion whether the buttery taste, quite often found in Brenguļu brews can be regarded as brewing fault or part of the national taste preference.

If one wants to know what a traditional Latvian miestiņš or a homebrew is, after trying Abula and Krāslavas beers - both Pale and Dark, quite good impression could be formed.

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Abula (Brenguļu) GaišaisABV 5.6%, Pale Lager

This is not the original beer as Abula Gaišais (Pale) was developed later in the 90s, be-fore that, only its dark brother was brewed. The beer is neither filtered nor pasteurised, it is not bottled as well, so it would be difficult to bring to back home. Try visiting any draught beer shop to buy this beer in plastic bottle that will hold for a couple of days. Also quite many bars in Riga carry this beer on-tap as well.

Abula Gaišais pours yellow golden with a small and foamy head that fades rather soon, aroma is faint, almost non-existent.

Taste is sweet. Almost a blow of sweetness that lets out some minor herbal bitterness after a while, but sweetness certainly dominates; it is not cloying. At the end of the glass notes of alcohol and faint yeasty flavours can be felt as well, overall the taste does not seem to be a very pleasant experi-ence.

One more disadvantage is that the qual-ity of Abula/Berguļu beer is not consist-ent, its taste can be rather varied from time to time and it often feels that the beer has not been matured enough. It is not that I always enjoy such games, especially taking into account its rather elevated price and restricted availability.

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Aldaris is the biggest Latvian brewery, owned by Carlsberg and currently controls about half of the Latvian market - its market share has remained steady from the beginning of 1990ies and there is little doubt it will continue this way. Carlsberg is clearly the biggest player also in the Baltic beer market and it churns out the same typical standard Euro-pean lagers as in the rest of Carlsberg plants all over the world.

Although Aldaris boasts that it was established as early as in 1865, it all really started in 1937 when the authoritarian regime of Kārlis Ulmanis in a true spirit of populist ideas decided it was time to privatise the most profitable businesses, conveniently owned by foreigners. Mostly Jews and Germans; both were not liked. With regards to nationalisa-tion of breweries, it was publicly claimed that swift actions are required to to finish with the beer cartel that controlled most of the Latvian beer and was partly responsible for the high beer prices. Latvijas Kredītbanka, operating under the State protection and us-ing suspect methods acquired Iļģuciema brewery and several others, closed all of them and purchased state-of-the-art brewing equipment that was installed in the premises of former Waldschlosschen brewery to provide cheap beer for the thirsty masses.

The brewery remained almost intact during the Second World War and produced loads of beer for both German and Soviet soldiers. During the Soviet times Aldaris still re-mained as the largest brewery in the Latvia and was one of the showcase breweries of the Soviet Union. It was bought in 1993 by Finnish Pripps (later sold to Carlsberg) that simultaneously acquired the largest breweries in all three Baltic countries and merged some of their operations.

All of the current beers were introduced in the mid-nineties and the offer has remained almost constant since. It has to be noted that no one missed the Soviet brews too much - although the recipes were not bad, often the beer turned sour within days as the most

RīgaTvaika iela 44

aldaris

62 000 thousand litresbrewed annually

43 % of totalLatvian beer volume


aldaris.lv@aldarisalus

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workers could care less about the quality of brew they produced. Aldaris, taking the best from the Western brewing traditions, also is one of the few Latvian brewers to use adjucts, such as corn, but usually is too shy to admit this fact to the public. It, in par with other large Latvian breweries does not list ingredients on labels.

In general, it will be impossible to miss Aldaris products while in Latvia. It has enough funds to provide for ample advertising and promotion, but despite this, many Latvian beer lovers publicly reject most of Aldaris beers and calls it names. Still, Aldaris brews are hugely popular amongst general Latvian population, mostly because of the extremely attractive price (cheaper than bottled water) and the brewing giant undoubtedly does it best to promote their modern industrial lagers as a part of older Latvian tradition.

Although it might seem that Aldaris brews a large variety of beers, unfortunately most of them are too similar to each other. The selection mostly is represented by low priced and not so high quality watery lagers, so called ‘economic beers’. There are a few exceptions though, most notable being Porteris that is discussed in more detail in the proceeding pages.

Aldaris, following the latest craze with regards to live beer, also released an unfiltered beer in 2010, although the former head of the brewery V. Gavrilovs had always voiced an opinion in the media that unfiltered beer is a low quality product. Aldaris version (Dūmaku that means Smoky) is also an interesting product, because the beer is pasteur-ized meaning that the bottle is filled with loads of dead yeast cells - that haze is for the looks, not the taste.

In addition, Aldaris also brews Carlsberg for distribution in other Eastern European countries, as well as beer for its sister breweries in Estonia and Lithuania - Saku and Švyturis. There is no canning line in Aldaris, therefore most of canned Aldaris beers are brewed in Estonia, but its wheat beer (Kviešu) is brewed by Lithuanian Švyturis.

Sarkandaugava is a former industrial district that was not even a part of Riga when the pre-Aldaris brewery was founded in the 19th century. If abandoned industrial areas and typical Soviet style housing is your main interest, the surroundings of Aldaris might be even worth visiting. It would be a nice idea to take a bicycle and pedal around, because large distances might be too exhausting on foot.


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The main boiling room (above) and control panel of the boiling room (below)Aldaris certainly boasts the most impressive boiling room of all Latvian breweries with six huge boil-ing kettles that operate round the clock for most of the year. In the same time, the brewery, in contrary to other large and small Latvian breweries, relies on Chzechoslovak equipment installed in the begin-ning of 1980s. In many locations throughout the brewery, a combination of old and new co-exist side by side, as in the main control below, visible below.

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Aldaris is the only Latvian brewery that has taken part in the World Beer Cup on a regu-lar basis since the end of the 90ies. It has had success, mostly with Aldaris Luksus, but is hard to say whether or not also other Latvian breweries would bring some medals home if they chose to participate.

Some people have been rather suspicious about this success and rumours had been heard that Aldaris Luksus used for presentation purposes tastes way better than the one in the shops. On the other hand, that difference can be also easily attributed to storage temperatures, freshness, exposure to light and many other factors.

Despite the criticism, no other brewery has had any significant international fame dur-ing the last two ot three decades. From time to time local tasting events are held by the Latvian Breweries Association where some of the Latvian breweries participate and all claim awards - during the last couple of years all entries have been declared as being either very good or excellent.

There is no way these tastings could be regarded as even remotely objective, as judges usually work in the participating breweries and might have rather significant influence on the final result. It would be more appropriate to say that such competitions are more publicity stunts to pay attention to beer when the beer drinking season starts in May.

Bronze

Luksus 1998 Dortmunder/Export

Gold

Luksus 2008 Dortmunder/Export

Bronze

Latvijas Sevišķais 2008 Märzen

Silver

Tumšais(no longer brewed) 2000 Schwarzbier

aldaris in the world beer cup

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Currently one of the finest pale lagers brewed by Aldaris, this one was the first “Western-style” beer introduced in the Latvian mar-ket after the takeover by Pripps in the beginning of 1990ies. It was brewed in Finland before the brewing operations were transferred to Riga and many people swear this move made it taste much worse.

The beer was expensive when it first appeared, in a new type of bottles and it seemed as a luxury to many people indeed. Luksus has lost some of its appeal over the years, but still it is one of the flagship beer of Aldaris, although many other beers outsell it by a great margin.

It pours pale golden with noticeable grassy hops aroma. Taste is sweet malt with refreshing and spicy hoppy background, but not much. Refreshing beer to be drunk during hot summer day, but not very memorable. Still, it tastes way better than most of semi-bland juices produced by Aldaris.

LuksusABV 5.2%, Dortmunder/Export

porteris 6.8% (baltic porter)

luksus 5.2% (dortmunder)

zelta black 4.2% (schwarzbier)

zelta 5.2% (pale Lager)

pilzenes 4.2% (german pils)

latvijas sevišķais 5.0% Märzen

aldaris beers

Aldaris brews mostly cheap-end beers, that is the fact. Especially be aware of Apinītis se-ries, do not buy it under any circumstances, as seldom worse beers can be encountered; it is very ironic that one of Apinītis beers is called ‘premium.

On the other hand, all these beers can be easily excused if Porteris is considered. Aldaris is the only Latvian brewery to brew Baltic Porter on a regular basis and is very careful about not compromising its excellent quality.

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PorterisABV 6.8%, Baltic Porter

Aldara Porteris is the two remaining representatives of Baltic Porters in Latvia. Beers that belong to this interesting style, were brewed throughout Latvia along Imperial Stouts, mostly for export to the Russian Empire as the local population could not afford it. It was a good business until the First World War when the Russian Empire collapsed and there were no more export possibilities.

Curiously enough, the style was revived only dur-ing the Soviet times in 1950s and in contrast to nowadays, Porteris was not brewed continuously, but was available just a few times a year.

Porteris is almost black with small brownish head that does not seem to last too long. Aroma is nice malty with notes of bittery coffee and dark choco-late.

Taste is is even better mild roasted and sweetish malt with coffee bitterness, notes of liquorice and molasses, bits of raisins. The full body is smooth and creamy with smooth carbonation - certainly not a session beer, but for cosy winter evenings next to the fireplace.

Clearly a king amongst Latvian dark beers, it would difficult to imagine any other coming even close.

It is worth noting that none of the small Latvian breweries brews Baltic Porter citing complexity of brewing and long maturation times as the biggest obstacle. The only other Latvian brewery to release any kind of Porter on a semi-regular basis, usually for Christmas, is Cēsu - it is usually a different recipe each year.

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One of the most well-known Latvian breweries opened in 1981 and from the start it was associated with the one of the most famous Latvian brewers of the late 20th century Kārlis Zālītis. He is over 80 now, but supposedly still works in the brewery part-time. Kārlis Zālītis had also helped to establish Tērvetes brewery and was involved with sev-eral other breweries before starting his very successful career in Bauskas in 1979. During the last 10 - 15 years he has also taken part in tweaking and improving the recipes in one way or another for nearly all Latvian breweries.

Bauskas brewery is located just outside of Bauska town, in Īslīce village. Their building is certainly not attractive - a grey concrete construction representing the best of the typical Soviet countryside architecture that seems to have lacked maintenance for a number of years. But it is not the looks that matter in this case - from all the breweries that pre-date 1990s, Bauskas, Tērvetes and partly Abula are the only ones to successfully use older recipes developed during the Soviet times that, although modified, have been able to en-sure a continuous support from beer lovers all across Latvia. The support has dwindled for Bauskas beers a bit, as it experienced almost a 50% fall in production in 2009, but it seems the brewery is slowly recovering and in 2011 it started to brew kvass.

Almost all Bauskas beers could be considered to be decent. Of course, many complain that the quality of Bauskas beer is declining, because of the “commercialisation”, “glo-balisation” and other rather obscure reasons, but the same talk can be often heard about most of the Latvian breweries, maybe about Bauskas more often than about other. A few years ago Aldaris started distribution of Bauskas beers that lead to many rumours about possible takeover.

“Imantas”Bauskas novads

bauskas




bauskasalus.lv

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gaišais speciālais 4.8% (pale Lager)

tumšais speciālais 5.5% (dark lager)

tumšais premium 5.5% (dark lager)

senču 4.0% (pale Lager)

Tumšais Speciālais ABV 5.5%, Dark Lager

There are two dark lagers produced by Bauskas - Speciālais and Premium. The latter was introduced in around 2004 to provide Bauskas customers with a beer that would cost slightly more and would have more “exclusive” feel to it. Unfortunately it seems that despite these efforts Speciālais still tastes better than the Premium.

Bauskas Speciālais pours dark copper with medium off-white head that slowly fades. Aroma is mostly sweetish malt, quite reminiscent of the black Latvian rye bread, slightly toasty.

Taste is dominated by the sweet malt with hints of caramel, some notes of burnt and slight bitterness in the finish. Sweetish honey-like residues are left in the aftertaste, and notes of alcohol can be occasionally felt. It possesses that same sweetness Latvian dark beers usually have, but at least there is not too much of it.

The feel is quite thick, certainly above moderate. I am not sure that Tumšais Speciālais is something of unique quality - just a good Latvian Dark Lager. If compared with Tumšais Speciālais, Premium feels far more sweeter and certainly more watery and I am not sure if it is worth the money.

Bauska is one of the largest towns of Zemgale region, located at the confluence of two rivers that form Lielupe, completed with impressive ruins of a medieval castle, tolerable Old Town and impressive Rundāle castle just nearby. • www.tourism.bauska.lv


bauskas beers

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Name of the brewery means Brother in Latvian, but some of their beers carry the label of Inčukalna brewery and sometimes their legal name SIA “Alus Nams” (The Beer House, Ltd.) is listed as the brewery name on bottles.

This small brewery with various names was set up in 2002. Sadly, but it concentrated on quantity instead of quality first and payed for the mistakes by losing a significant num-ber of customers. Now the quality is back on track and for more than a year now their market share is slowly, but constantly increasing, but still, it can be estimated that Brālis uses not more than 20% of its capacity.

One of the most important facts about this brewery is that for few years were are only ones in Latvia to bottle unfiltered beer (the ones with Nefiltrēts in the name) and what is more important, this beer has been quite drankable.

During the winter also a spiced Christmas seasonal is available that is made using Tumšais as a base.

“Ojāri”Inčukalna novads

brālis

810 thousand litresbrewed annually



bralis.lv

37

Brālis breweryIt is located about 20km from Riga, in Vangaži on the right side of Riga-Sigulda highway. It is in-teresting that are two shops in the front of the brewery - pub “Pie Brāļa” and shop “Brālis”. Just the latter is owned by the brewery.

Inside the brewery, some of the fermentation tanksBrālis theoretically is one of the largest of the small Latvian breweries, able to brew almost 50 thousand hl if operating at full capacity, but currently not doing exceeding 20% of that. It has also a postive side, as all beers are allowed mature for some extra time.

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gaišais nefiltrēts 5.3% (pale lager)

tumšais nefiltrēts 6.6% (dark lager)

stiprais 6.7% (strong lager)

senču 4.0% (german pils)


Brālis Tumšais NefiltrētsABV 6.6%, Bock

Just a few years ago Tumšais (Dark) was a strictly seasonal beer, available only around Jāņi and Christmas (last year a spiced ver-sion was offered as well), but for at least half a year or more it is available on a constant basis.

Brālis Tumšais is not that very similar to other Latvian dark lagers - it is not even half of the usual sweetness with somewhat nice Bock qualities.

Beer pours semi-hazy orange brown with small, but dense off-white head. Aroma is wonderful light sweet malt with a touch of alcohol. Taste is malty with harsh bittery tones and ever increas-ing presence of alcohol.

Overall, an interesting beer, but the whole 1l bottle (it is not avail-able in smaller volumes) seems to be too excessive for a single person use. A similar beer to Tumšais is Brālis Stiprais, but the taste of the latter seems to vary from time to time.

brālis beers

The range of Brālis brews is changing constantly, but most of its pale lagers are very simi-lar, if not the same beer with different labels. Brālis is also contract brewing the same for Lithuanian and German breweries.

In 2010 Brālis brews started to appear also in supermarkets, but only a few of their beers are available this way. On the other hand, enough small shops and bars in Riga carry Brālis brews.

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Brālis Gaišais NefiltrētsABV 5.3%, Pale Lager

The name simply means Brālis Pale Unfiltered. For many years it was the only unpas-teurised and unfiltered Latvian beer that is bottled. It can be easily confused with its filtered version, labels are almost identical, so read them carefully. Gaišais Nefiltrētais can be bought only in a few locations.

Beer is slightly hazy pale yellow with bubbly head that soon fades to white layer, it is by no means not the most attractive one around. Smell is mostly faint citrus malt.

But is the taste that matters the most in this case - malt is very well balanced with grassy bitterness and a touch of fruit; medium-dry fin-ish with long lingering bittery citrus aftertaste. Clean, refreshing and drinkable - this is very seldom the case with other typical Latvian pale lagers that frequently are too sweet and with repulsive flavours.

Brālis Gaišais Nefiltrēts could be considered nothing too particular in most of more popu-lar beer destinations in other regions, but it is something worth its quite high price in Latvia.

I usually give this beer some extra credit for showing to sometimes very conservative Latvian commercial brewing scene that also unfiltered beers can be fine even if bottled.

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This brewery with rather mundane name meaning The Brewer was founded already in 1993 and is quite a good example of very interesting businesses practices that developed in the beginning on 1990s in post-communist Latvia.

Brewery was called “Sandriko” first and the company initially intended to produce tel-ephones. It soon switched to become a factory of premium quality crystal lamps and only then, after considerable Austrian investment, it started brewing and production of food. It is even more interesting that its director for some period of time was former Latvian minister of interior who, in a newspaper interview in 1997 when asked when the initial four million USD investment in the brewery would pay back, answered that never. However, already by the next year Sandriko bought the premises of the former Liepaja brewery that has been recently closed and promised further 4 million Ls investment that would enable to commence brewing on a grand scale there. These plans never material-ised, possibly because much larger investment was required.

Still, the original brewery in Riga survived, albeit under a different legal name and cur-rently some of its beers are known under the brand name “Ingvera” (Ginger) and are still produced using Austrian recipes. As the name says, these are ginger beers - average according to European, but quite good for Latvian standards.

During the recent years a couple more interesting brews by Brūveris have appeared and currently this brewery can be considered as a leader in Latvia with regards to different beer styles. However, not all of its beers are drinkable, but at least their range of products is not as boring as it is for several other Latvian brewers. .

Despite the large range of beers and presence in most Latvian supermarkets, Brūveris is not very well-known to Latvian consumers. on the other hand, it seems that the brewery

Podraga iela 1aRīga

brūveris




bruveris.lv

41

is satisfied with the existing fan-base it has and the output has been steady for years, although during the last years Brūveris has not fared as well as expected. It has also shut down some of its beers, although one can not be always certain as they sometimes keep re-appearing several years later.

The sign says - Production premisesThe brewery is located in the outskirts of Riga,

in rather unattractive industrial area. It does not seem that anyone from the brewery really

cares about the appearance.

The district of Iļģuciems has solid a solid history of brewing and manufacturing in gen-eral. It is still very industrial and unattractive area located in the vicinity of the busy Riga port. However, the brewery is surrounded by a high fence and there is absolutely nothing to see. Excursions are not available.


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KviešuABV 3.9%, American Wheat Beer

The first original Latvian wheat beer, made using Austrian recipes - I did not invent this, it says so on the bottle. On a side note it also adds that ‘live’ yeast found in the bottle is healthy. Brūveris Kviešu is rather strange wheat beer that can be seldom found in Hefeweizen dominated Europe - a wheat lager. It is even not filtered.

Altough the appearance of the beer is not too bad - murky brown liq-uid with soft and dense slightly off-white head with excellent retention that forms good looking and slowly downsliding lacing, it gets worse when it gets to smell. Aroma is dominated by bready yeast, reminding of all those hastily brewed Latvian homebrews made with bread yeast and an addition of sugar to speed up the fermentation.

Taste does not seem to fare better - thick and somewhat flat sweet and sour beer with significant presence of not very pleasant yeast that also dominates the aftertaste. It all does not seem to be a nice and enjoy-able combination. It might be interesting to try Brūveris Kviešu out of curiousity, but not as way to quench thirst on a hot summer day.

ingver alus sarkanais 5.4% (vienna lager)

ingver alus melnais 7.0% (schwarzbier)

ingver alus gaišais 4.7% (pale lager)

kviešu 3.9% (american wheat)

rīgas gaišais 5.2% (pale lager)

brūveris beers

Brūveris brews a large and ever changing variety of beers. During the last years it has become as one of the leading producers of unpalatable artificially flavoured beers (grape, pear, apple and raspberry) that should be avoided. It also is the first one to produce a ‘bio-beer with similarly awful taste.

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Ingver Alus SarkanaisABV 5.4%, Vienna Lager

Name of the beer means “ Red Ginger Beer” and it has ginger listed as an ingredient. It has to be noted that Brūveris one of a handful of Latvian breweries to actually list all the ingredients on the bottle, meaning that some breweries use cheaper adjuncts quite happily.

The beer is reddish coppery with dense generous and creamy off-white head that leaves large thick and patchy lacing. Aroma is malty, some slight fruitiness and spice.

Taste seems to be dominated by bready malt with hints of toasty and an interesting touch of ginger. Medium-dry finish, malty and long lasting after-taste with low hoppy bitterness setting in. The beer has quite thick and sticky feel to it with some sug-ary residues remaining on the lips.

This beer, along with other Ingver brews by Brūveris is quite distinct from the beers offered by other Latvian breweries and although Austrian recipes are to blame, the result is quite satisfactory.

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Cēsu promotes itself as the oldest Latvian brewery and claims it was started as early as in the 16th century in one of the most impressive Livonian castles, now in the form of impressive ruins (a must-see if visiting Cēsis). As usually, most of the story is exaggerated as it well known that there were breweries in also other castles and manors during that time, but were not properly documented. Almost until the end of the 20th century Cēsu brewery was a small locally owned operation that made reasonably good beer.

Its hour of glory came in 1999 when Finnish Olvi (via Estonian A. Le Coq) bought the brewery, constructed completely new production premises in 2001 in the outskirts of Cēsis and started production on a far grander scale. Unfortunately several Cēsu beers are watery, lack both flavour and aroma, but occasional brews are fine, such as their sea-sonal Porters or unfiltered pale lager. Otherwise Cēsis produces an impressive array of American Adjunct Lagers - all the light and extra light beers one could possibly imagine. Most of them are filled in 1,5 and 2 liter PET bottles and intended for folks with little money, but very unhealthy drinking habits.

Cēsu Alus and its sister breweries in Lithuania and Estonia (Ragutis and A. Le Coq respectively), similarly to other large Baltic breweries, do not hesitate to distribute the same beer with almost identical labels in all the Baltic countries. Cēsu Special 1590, brewed just until recently, is a good example. If you would happen to visiting either Lith- uania or Estonia you would notice the same looking beer (label and bottle), but under the different name - it is called A. Le Coq Special 1807 in Estonia and Wolfas Engelman Rinktinis in Estonia.

When visiting Cēsis, it might be interesting to have a look at the old brewery, still intact, but not accessible to the public. The building is located close to the Cēsu castle.

Aldaru laukums 1Cēsis

cēsu




cesualus.lv@cesualus

45

Boiling and mashing vessels of Cēsu breweryHead brewer of Cēsu Māris Grambergs can be seen inspecting the results of the boil.

Cēsis is one of the most interesting and picturesque towns of Vidzeme region, and with plenty of activities for anyone. One has to be careful as the former Cēsu brewery build-ing is located close to the castle in the middle of the town, while the current one can be found in the outskirts of the town. • www.cesis.lv


Canning line of Cēsu breweryCēsis is the only Latvian brewery that actually has a canning line installed, so all of their canned beer originates in Latvia

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nefiltrētais 5.4% (pale lager)

mītava 5.0% (pale lager)

premium 5.2% (pale lager)

pilsener 4.7% (german pils)

speciālais 1590 5.2% (pale lager)

In 2010 Cēsis was the first large Latvian brewery to introduce an unfiltered beer to the market. It was the original high gravity beer that is usually diluted to produce a variety of pale lagers. This “un-filtered experiment” with 6,4% ABV turned out to be reasonably good tasting beer was met with unexpectedly warm reception; demand soon exceeded supply and in spring 2011 Cēsis released it bottled. Its ABV was lowered by 1% though.

It pours slightly hazy dark amber with small, but dense head. Aroma is malty and grainy, with bits of herbal hops in the back-ground.

Taste is similiar to aroma with gentle herbal aftertaste and hints of yeast, not typically found in any other Cēsu beers. Mouthfeel is medium with average carbonation and faint warming feel. It clearly stands out amongst other brews made in Cēsis.

NefiltrētaisABV 5.4%, Pale Lager

cēsu beers

While Cēsis is responsible for undrinkable RIMI supermarket beer series Walter, it has several rather palatable and reasonably priced brews to offer, namely Pilsener (canned only) and Mītava.

Cēsu does not produce any dark lagers, except for its seasonal Baltic Porter, released in December, brewed each year using a different recipe.

47

MītavaABV 5.0%, Pale Lager

Mītava is one of the most successful Latvian beers as it managed to conquer rather large market share in a comparatively short time. It was introduced several years ago in rather interesting fashion - the story behind the beer supposedly is that the grand- father of one of the members of Latvia’s most well known pop groups Prāta Vētra (Brainstorm) created the recipe. It lay forgotten until it was discovered by the beer loving grandson and put into use by Cēsu Alus. Of course, Prāta Vētra also set out it advertise it. Any sensible person would understand it all sounds too perfect to be true, but it all worked fairly. At least the advertising was different from those perfect settings with tons of attractive and happy people pouring golden beer into their glasses.

It also proved to be different last Christmas, when it underwent design changes, getting a synthetic American Santa Claus on the front and it was supposed to be “limited edition”. That Christmas brew lasted well until June in the shops.

Appearance is light golden with streams of small carbonation bubbles rising white head that soon starts fading. Nice, no, impressive lacing that nicely sticks to the glass. Taste as well as aroma is mostly plain malt with bits of herbal hops. Sure it goes down well and could be quite suitable session beer, but I would have preferred way more character to it.

Now it seems most of the people have forgotten about the unusual story of its origins, but enjoy Mītava’s rather refreshing taste that, uniquely for Latvian beers brewed by large breweries, does not deteriorate as the years pass by.

48

It is quite sad to think that the largest and most densely populated region of Latvia - Latgale that was once famous for its homebrewers has only one commercial brewery that has operated since the end of the 1980s without interruption. The smallest Latvian brewery is located deep in the picturesque Latgale countryside, close to the border with Belarus, more than 250 km from Riga. The beautiful area of Daugava river loops and its valley is certainly worth the visit to this region, preferably during the summer time. If one is there, it might be a good idea to try to taste some fresh Krāslavas beer.

The name of the brewery means Krāslava spring and it even produced its own malt when it was started in 1988. The brewery has always been a small, but successful operation and it does not seem that there is any expansion planned.

These beers are very good representatives of a typical sweet Latvian country style beer and it seems that the brewery has acquired a solid customer base that likes Krāslavas beers exactly this way. It is bottled in 1 l and 2 l PET bottles and it will spoil rather quickly - in a week or so.

Vītolu iela 4Krāslava

krāslavas




no website

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GaišaisABV 4.0%, Pale Lager

Similarly to Abula brewery (actually both of these breweries are rather similar in many aspects) the Pale beer was introduced later than the Dark one, but it seems that the lat-ter seems to be more widely distributed.

The beer is pale dark golden, slightly hazy with some carbonation bubbles rising, several rings of weak lacing are visible. Aroma is weak sweetish malt mostly, nothing too interesting to it.

Taste is mostly malt, maybe a bit sourish with hints of citrus yeast with rather long lasting sweetish malty aftertaste. Smooth below medium mouthfeel, with weak and pleasant carbonation.

Overall, this is pale Latvian country beer at its best, drink-able and tasty, maybe not as sophisticated as other more industrial Latvian beers, but certainly worth trying. It certainly has the feel of a farmhouse beer to it and I hope it will stay this way.

A small picturesque town situated on the banks of the picturesque Daugava river with tens of lakes surrrounding its hilly countryside is always worth a visit. • www.kraslava.lv



tumšais 4.8% (munich dunkel)

krāslavas beers

The brewery does not cater for a large variety and the range of beers has been constant for over 20 years. It is only worth noting that ABV of Krāslava beers show a slow ascend-ing tendency; there were times when Gaišais was a solid 3.5% session beer.

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For for than 10 years it is still the only brewpub in Latvia, located in the large building of LIDO windmill on Krasta Street that offers the best of quasi-traditional Latvian style kitchen. It sometimes seems to me that in LIDO’s opinion every dish of the Latvian na-tional cuisine begs to be cooked in copious amounts of fat butter or cooking oil, so it is all greasy and oily at the end. At least they do not use any cooking oil for making beer.

LIDO brewery was started in 1999, when the windmill building was opened. It can be assumed that its owner Gunārs Ķirsons was inspired by the success of Užavas beer that for several years was offered in other previous LIDO restaurants. In addition, the whole idea of brewing must have fitted neatly into the whole concept of the traditional Latvian themed kitsch.

Gunārs Ķirsons is one of the most interesting characters amongst all other brewers and brewery owners mentioned here - full of ambitions and out-of-Earth ideas (one of the founders of a society that seeked to connect Daugava river to rivers draining in the Black Sea basin, they lack not only the support of both public and government, but also a couple of billion euros), has been fined for petty tax avoidance, has publicly supported a dubious political party of shady businessman that later failed during the election and is currently offcially bankrupt. However, it is expected that brewing in LIDO would con-tinue anyway.

Recipes for beers and brewing technology, in contrary to what one migh suspect, were not developed in Latvia (brought from Austria), so there is nothing uniquely Latvian about this beer. Part of the brewery - several fermentation tanks with control panels that shine mysteriously in the dimly lit cellars is visible to everyone in the beer cellar down-stairs that also features Latvian schlager bands on most evenings, and an extensive array of beer snacks and plethora of other food is available upstairs.

Krasta iela 76Rīga

lido




lido.lv

51

Three different draught unfiltered/unpasteurised beers are brewed that are also available in other LIDO locations in Riga (e.g. Alus Sēta in the very centre of the Old Riga). Food in LIDO is better than their beer and as usually, some more variety could be expected from the brewery. During the course of more than 10 years there have been no new beers introduced and considering the fact that the demand for LIDO beer is on decline already for some time, it might be about the time to make some change.

LIDO building in Krasta streetOnly a part of building is visible and it has many additional facilities all around. The beer cellar is located downstairs.

Brewery of LIDO is located next to Soviet style housing area and a busy transit street. Just fifteen years ago the area currently filled with shopping centres was a vast empty field. However, the residential area called Maskavas forštate with its wooden architecture and rich history is certainly worth exploring. • www.maskfor.lv


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SpeciālaisABV 4.5%, Vienna Lager

I am not sure if the Speciālais is the best beer of LIDO, as also other beers are of com-parable taste and quality, but it often stands out.

Speciālais pours almost clear beautiful amber with thin, but dense slightly off-white head that forms thin downsliding lacing. Aroma is rather rich and toasty malt with bits of caramel. Unfortunately the taste is less attractive than aroma, soft, but plain malt with firm and distinct bitterness and slowly drying finish. The feel is more on the thin-ner side with moderate carbonation.

LIDO Speciālais is quite drinkable and refreshing beer, but nothing too remarkable. It somehow starts to feel even watery towards the end of the glass.

speciālais 4.5% (vienna lager)

medalus 4.5% (pale lager)


lido beers

All of these beer are available only on tap. In case you want to take home any of LIDO’s beer in a bottle, they offer such an option that surprisingly is terribly expensive as the smallest one - half a liter bottle costs 3.05 Ls and that is even without the beer included. Even worse, LIDO’s bartenders do not seem to bother by washing empty bottles before filling (bottles are kept in open shelves for weeks and are visibly dusty), so it is very prob-able that the beer will spoil immediately.

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MedalusABV 4.5%, Pale Lager

Medalus is quite an interesting one. It is translated as mead in English, but in reality it is just a pale lager with honey flavour and aroma. Still it is one of a few beers brewed with honey nowadays in Latvia and that seems to be quite strange considering the long and rich mead and honey fermentation tradi-tions not only in Latvia, but also in other countries around the Baltic Sea. Just before 1940 there were several mead-only breweries in Latvia, but none of them were operating during the Soviet-era and none of them were revived afterwards in the 1990ies.

It might be the reason why Latvians currently use only one word nowadays to denote both beer with honey and real mead. Unfortunately many think this is the same and mead simply means beer mixed with honey before serving.

Aroma of LIDO Medalus is dominated by sugary honey. Flavour is similar and also some presence of floral hops can be detected. Overall, all the honey does not feel too artificial, it maybe even boosts the drinkability. Other than that, there is nothing worth noting about this beer.

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It is quite easy to say that this beer is the least Latvian of all the Latvian beers, as the production of this brewery has been “globalised” to the maximum extent.

Lācplēsis was very famous brewery once - it was established in 1966 by one of the most successful and rich of Latvian kolkhozs (Soviet collective farm). Lāčplēsis means the Bear slayer and it stems from the Latvian folklore. Lāčplēsis was one of the few kolkhozs’ in Latvia that were actually under a good management and even turned in a handsome profit. It was only natural for this collective farm to set up a brewery in the 1950s that produced one of the most famous beers in the Soviet Latvia and many people still have very fond memories about it. During the prohibition campaigns of the Soviet Union that were conducted on a regular basis, but usually yielded no results at all thanks to the in-genuity of the Soviet people that always found the way around the system, Lācplēsis beer was brewed, labeled and sold not as beer, but as a “country drink”. The same strategy was been employed also by other smaller breweries. Also the local municipalities were satis-fied, as it appeared in the official statistics that less beer is produced and sold therefore showing that anti-alcohol efforts were conducted succesfully.

Unfortunately after the collapse of the USSR when the capitalism arrived, it spelled a disaster for Lāčplēsis brewery. Kolkhoz Lāčplēsis was split up in many small entities andalthough the brewing business somehow struggled forward, it was clearly not succes-ful. It is interesting to note that during 1990ies it was even visited by the famous beer journalist Michael Jackson. Towards the 2000ies a completely new brewery was built, but even this was not enough to save Lāčplēsis from the financial disaster - it was sold, the newly built brewery closed and all brewing activities relocated to Liepāja - home of Līvu alus.

Līvu brewery - the other brewery of the current tandem has no history whatsoever - it was built founded in 2000 and it has absolutely no relation with the former and rather

Ganību iela 9/11Liepāja

līvu/lāčplēša

29 000thousand litresbrewed annually



alus.lvlivualus.lv

55

famous Liepāja brewery that was closed in 1998 after operating for slightly more than a century.

Both breweries that were merged together into one single operation - Lācplēša and Līvu finally landed in the hands of Scandinavians - Danish Royal Unibrew. Danes also own another brewing operation - Lithuanian Kalnapilis in Panevežys, Lithuania. It seems that managers of Līvu/Lāčplēša, similarly to the ones of Cēsu have realised that it is easier to conduct their operations in the Baltic States just by replicating the acitivities in all three markets simultaneously, while feeding locals with legends of brewing heritage and unique beers.

Products from the Līvu/Lāčplēsis and Kalnapilis are almost exactly the same - same beers, same names, the same visual style, advertising, basically everything. It is difficult to say which beer is of Latvian origin and which is brewed in Lithuania, it is different for each and every beer.

Lāčplēsis himselfThe Bear slayer image you will find on bot-

tles and cans. Lāčplēsis has bear ears and he was fighting German crusaders during the 12th century. It seems that more ‘pre-

mium’ beer uses the Lāčplēsis brand while the rest goes under Līvu label

An industrial town, boasting a bustling port and a large metallurgical complex with plenty of tourist attractions. Liepāja has a rich manufacturing, trading and sea-faring history with an unique mix of 19th and 20th century architecture. In addition there is a beautiful nature all around it, so it is certainly worth at least a day trip. • www.liepajaturisms.lv


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līvu nefiltrētais 7.2% (strong lager)

līvu pilzenes 4.6% (german pils)

lāčplēsis kastaņu 4.8% (english pale ale)

lāčplēsis dižalus 6.3% (strong lager)

lāčplēsis 3 iesalu 5.0% (pale lager)

Lāčplēsis DižalusABV 6.3%, Strong Lager

Name of the beer means Grand Beer and it is one of the new additions to the Latvian range of Harboe products, although it has been brewed for some time in Lithuania already. It was introduced as the first ‘premium’ strong beer in Latvia - rather interest-ing concept I think.

Large brewing companies usually use the term ‘premium beer’ to denote premium prices, but even if the quality criteria are also applied, there have been countless premium strong lagers in Latvia before Dižalus (and the tradition of Bocks goes very long way back) and just to name one current beer - Brālis Stiprais sure is a better one.

Dižalus is dark golden with very slightly off-white head and full of small carbonation bubbles. Aroma is malt with slight hints of alco-hol and becomes very medicine-like towards the end.

Taste is light malt with distinct and even unpleasant herbal bitter-ness that lasts well into the aftertaste as well as notes of alcohol. Mouthfeel is light with excessive carbonation in the beginning.

Overall, not a bad strong lager, but feels too bland and watery towards the end.

līvu/lāčplēša beers

There are more than ten beers brewed under both Līvu and Lāčplēša brands, most of them horrible cheap-end lagers in 2 liter PET bottles. They are also the only ones in Latvia to offer top fermented beers - Lāčplēšu Kastaņu (Chestnut) that is supposedly English Pale. In 2010 they also started distributing Saison named Alfie in clear 0,33 bot-tles, presumably aimed at metrosexual crowds out there.

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Lāčplēsis 3 Iesalu AlusABV 5.0%, Pale Lager

The name simply means “3 Malt Beer”. When it was first introduced it was advertised in a manner as if any “regular” beer carries just one type of malt and only the innova-tive Lāčplēsis is responsible for the discovery that different malts can be combined together. It even had a small packet of three different malts (a few grains from each) attached to the bottle.

Beer pours brilliant clear coppery with large and slightly off-white head that soon fades to dirty patches and leaves bits of downsliding pieces of lacing. Aroma is quite weak malt with even lighter glimpse of hops.

As could be expected from the name, the beer tastes mostly malty. Sweetish and watery malt with faint grassy hops and light puckering finish, as wells as short citrusy aftertaste - everything one could expect from an “industrial” lager. The beer is not very thin at least and it has pleasant and slightly prickly carbonation.

Overall, it would be difficult to say that this beer is good. It sure quenches thirst, but it seriously lacks flavour. However, in my opinion, this beer at least has some bits of character as opposed to many other beers from the same brewery.

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Madonas brewery brews Bodnieku beer. Or is the brewery called Bodnieku? I am not sure myself, but Madona is the town close to “Bodnieki” country house where the brew-ery is located. It is all rather confusing, so I will use both names.

No one was even suspecting it, but it turns out that Madonas Bodnieku brewery has been operating for at least eighty years, dating from 1916, retaining its brewing tradi-tions through both World Wars. Its trademark design and some historical photos that are displayed in some of the beer stores are all set to convince the customer of the his-torical value of this beer. Unfortunately it all looks too fake. It might seem that every new Latvian brewery requires a legend nowadays. It does not even matter whether it at least sounds believable. I seriously do not understand why a brewery can not be a completely new establishment and simply brew good beer.

As far as facts are concerned, Madonas brewery in „Bodnieki” opened in 2009 and has enjoyed a rather good start and currently has expanded from the initial 3 to about 20 tonnes of beer per month. However, there are many rumours about the inconsistent quality of the beer and it turning sour far too soon.

The beer is available in bars and draught beer stores in Riga, mostly in those centrally located, but it can be found much more often in the hilly Madonas area.

“Bodnieki”Madonas novads

madonas




no website@madonasalus

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madonas bodnieku gaišais 5.8% (pale lager)

madonas bodnieku stiprais 8.5% (strong lager)

both draught only

Madonas BodniekuABV 5.8%, Pale Lager

The beer is light hazy and nice amber with a small head that almost iimediately dissi-pates, despite rather aggressive pour. Aroma is sweet malt, as expected.

Taste is thick and sweet with not that pleasant herbal bitterness, noticeable caramel flavours and a feel of al-cohol towards the finish. It leaves some sugary residue after the traces of bittery aftertaste are gone. Towards the end of the glass the beer regrettably turns flat and becomes medicine-like.

Overall, it seems to be rather simple, not well balanced pure country style lager.

It is almost drinkable, but I am afraid there are much better ones out there. Certainly it is not worth the high price it currently costs. It seems that the owners have tried to emulate Valmiermuižas in some aspects (at least in setting the high price), but they clearly have not succeeded.

The brewery is located in the countryside, about 10km from the small and attractive Madona town. There are typical countryside attractions, nice nature, some manors and country houses. • www.madona.lv/turisms


madonas beers

Madonas brewery produces two types of pale lager, but the pale version is much more common. The strong one is brewed irregulary and can be found only in a few locations.

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Piebalgas Alus was started in 1989 in one of the most picturesque Latvian regions that is very well-known for its open minded residents that once constituted a significant part of Latvian intelligentsia during the last part of the 19th century when the first ideas about Latvian independence from the Russian empire started to emerge. Piebalgas Alus, very soon after it was established gained a reputation of a solid brewer and steadily increased its market share. A few years ago additional investments were brought to brewery and it was modernised and expanded in 2003.

Contrary to many other Latvian breweries founded around the nineties, all recipes of Piebalgas were developed by its brewers, the brewery also used to produce their own malt for a couple of years until it was deemed to be too expensive. It also had its own hop plantations that were abandoned to too.

It is interesting that one of Piebalgas founders and shareholders is the current Latvian minister of agriculture Jānis Dūklavs. It is thought that he was invited to become the minister because he was good with managing the brewery.

However, although beers of Piebalgas are still decent, they are sadly somewhat slowly losing popularity and the image of traditional good quality brewer it once had. I can only hope it improves in the near future.

Gaujas iela 2Jaunpiebalga

piebalgas

2 600thousand litresbrewed annually



piebalgasalus.lv@piebalgasalus

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Piebalgas Tumšais Lux ABV 5.8%, Dark Lager

It is interesting that a throughout Latvian brewery could not resist using Lux that is clearly a non-Latvian word. Actually the brewery is not as Latvian as it might appear on the surface - almost 50% of its shares belong to an investment company with roots in Moscow.

Lux is a weaker version of once very famous beer - Sātans that was discountinued almost a decade ago due to its high ABV and blas-phemous nature. But most of its good flavour has been succesfully transferred to its lower ABV successor.

Lux pours clear dark copper with large off-white head that fades relatively quickly. Aroma is sweet malt, but in contrast to many other Latvian dark lagers the sweetness is not overwhelming.

Taste is much less sweet with noticeable bitterness that almost provides good balance to lightly sweet malt, some hints of liquorice can be felt. The beer does not feel as thick as it looks and it has quite lively carbonation.

Piebalgas Tumšais Lux could be considered as one of the best Lat-vian beers and certainly should be included in the shopping list. It is sold in supermarkets all over Latvia, so it would not be a problem to find it.

Jaunpiebalga is a village of slightly more than one thousand people with the brewery as one of the main industrial enterprises. Not much to do in the village itself, but a few museums, holiday houses at lake and riversides. • www.jaunpiebalga.lv


lux 5.8% (dark lager)

jubilejas 5.2% (pale lager)

mednieku 4.7% (pale lager)

piebalgas 5.6% (pale lager)

senču 4.0% (german pils)

piebalgas beers

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Rēzekne is one of the largest Latvian towns and for many years till the beginning of nine-ties it had reasonably large brewery. During the Soviet times it was joined with another brewery in the neighbouring town of Daugavpils, but both of them retained separate brewing activities. Unfortunately the management of the brewing establishment was not able to grasp economic realities of the capitalism when it arrived and the brewery in Rēzekne was closed (Daugavpils brewery managed to stay afloat and even continued brewing rather good beer, when it finally collapsed in 2008).

Rēzeknes brewery re-opened again in 2003 in new premises (car servicing facilities from Soviet times), but again, similarly to its predecessor, it brewed mostly financial losses and was subsequently closed after one or two years of operation.

Although it seemed that this time the brewery will be gone for good, it was re-opened again just in July 2009, after the company changed the ownership and made some ad-ditional investment. During the first year of operation locals have shown an increasing support for Rēzeknes beer and it has started to move slowly towards much larger market in Riga.

Atbrīvošanas aleja 162Rēzekne

rēzeknes




no website

63

One of largest Latvians towns, located just in the midst of one of the most beautiful Lat-vian regions. Similarly to some other industrial Soviet style Latvian towns, skip the town and enjoy the countryside. • www.rezekne.lv


brūveris gaišais nefiltrētais 5.2% (pale lager)

rēzeknes beers

Brūveris GaišaisABV 5.2%, Pale Lager

Will be added later.

Rēzeknes used to sell two bottled beers - Latgales and Mārtiņa that were contract brewed in Lithuania. Most probably not even using Rēzeknes recipes, but just with Rēzekne la-bels on them - it is a popular practice used by several companies. Currently Rēzekenes selection has decreased, but the beer is distributed much more widely and sales volumes have increased as well. After all, most clients of Rēzeknes do not care too much about the variety.

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Name Tērvete sure rings a bell to a Latvian beer drinker. Although it is highly debatable what comes second, most people would have no doubts who is the best out there. They do not export and do not expand too rapidly and they do not have to spend too much on advertising. Tērvetes brewery can be regarded as one of the most traditional and successful of smaller Latvian breweries that was able to get through all the economic turmoils during the 1990s barely unscathed and still kept brewing good quality product.

Tērvetes Alus was established 40 years ago - in 1971 in the small village of Kroņauce (village of Tērvete from which the name is borrowed is located a couple of kilometers away) by one of the most successful agriculture co-operatives in the Soviet Latvia called “Tērvete”. It is said that the idea to establish a brewery was contrived when then heads of both Tērvetes and Lāčplēša breweries were touring Denmark and visited a small brew-ery there. While Lāčplēsis chose to brew so-called “country beer”, Tērvetes decided to go a slightly different path, by producing classic bottled beer styles - rather an unortodox and ambitious move for a small kolkhoz brewery at that time.

It took several years to develop the recipes. During the setup of the brewery the most famous Latvian brewmaster - Kārlis Zālitis was involved, but is often wrongly claimed that he is the sole author of recipes; the current manager of Tērvetes Anita Krāģe and

One of the earlier Tērvete labelsDuring the Soviet times, most bottles had just one small label and most of the beers was made according to the State standards, sometimes the same recipe and technology was applied in many breweries throught the USSR. Not in this case though, Tērvetes beer was unique.

KroņauceTērvetes novads

tervete.lv

Tērvetes




65

her collegues were also reponsible for this work to an equal extent. Soon Kārlis Zālitis transferred to the new Bauskas brewery, but Anita Krāģe still, after 40 years is work-ing in the brewery. During the Soviet times brewery provided steady income for the kolkhoz. There are rumours that all the money from beer sales was used to fund other activities that were closer to the heart of the management of kolkhoz, e.g. its very costly and famous horse breeding facilities, to the point that brewing operations were partly neglected.

One of the main reasons for the current success of Tērvetes was their well-managed privatisation after the collapse of the Soviet Union that ensured that ownership of the agricultural co-operative, including the brewery landed in the hands of several hundred local shareholders. It has to be added that these small shareholders are not in control

The Green SpoonThis label denotes that at least 75% ingredients of this par-ticular product have originated in Latvia. Tērvetes is the only Latvian brewery to have received this label and there is no chance other breweries could get one as well.

Tērvete brewery in KroņauceThe building is located just next to the main road

Be careful, the brewery is located in village of Kroņauce although it uses the name of other nearby village Tērvete. However, there is virtually nothing to see in Kroņauce ex-cept for the brewery, but luckily there is a nature park Tērvete just a few kilometers away with plenty of attractions for both adults and children. • www.vietas.lv/objekts/tervetes_dabas_parks


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any more, as the majority of shares (around 80%) have been bought by four large share-holders and there has been a serious criticism of their actions. Still, Tērvetes is a very profitable business that employs several hundred people and brewery is one of the main and most valuable assets, others being a horse breeding facility, dairy business and crop farming.

Tērvetes is also the only Latvian brewery that grows their own barley that is mostly malt-ed in in their own maltings (the rest of Latvian breweries rely only on imported malt), but the remaining part (20 - 30%), as there is not enough in-house capacity, is contract malted in Lithuania from Tērvetes grain. Spent grain is fed to Tērvetes cows, so there is a bit of beer in their milk too.

During the last decade the brewery has been modernised, new fermentation premises have been been built and tanks installed that allowed Tērvetes to double its capacity from 2 to 4.5 million litres per year. It is expected that replacement of mash tun and boil-ing vessel, both of which have been in operation since the very beginning 40 years ago, will increase the capacity even further.

Fermentation tanks of TērveteA few years ago most of the brewery was modernised and nee extension built where fer-mentation tanks are located now.

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Maltings facilities in TērveteMaltings has not changed since 1970s. Pictured above are immersion vessels, below germina-tion facilities are visible where malt is turned over manually every day for five days.

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OriģinālaisABV 5.4%, Pale Lager

One can fully appreciate this beer only after a handful of bland Latvian lagers. Despite its name, the beer is not The Original, its recipe has been significant-ly tweaked several times since the 1970s, but the popularity of this beer has remained steady.

One of the most important things about Tērvetes Oriģinālais is that it has been developed in Latvia by the Latvian brewers. One would think of it as a common occurrence, but unfortunately only a hand-ful of Latvian breweries can say the same about their beers.

Oriģinālais pours light golden, almost yellow with large and fluffy white head and dense generous lacing. Aroma is malt with slight hints of citrus as well as hops that are much better felt in the taste where the weakly sweetish malt is quite well balanced with herbal hops that finishes in long lingering bittery citrus aftertaste.

Although the beer is not exceptional, it is solid and well made pale lager and there are only one or two such beers to be found amongst Latvian brews. Certainly one of the must try beers during the visit to Latvia.

oriģinālais 5.4% (pale Lager)

tērvetes 5.3% (pale Lager)

senču 4.5% (pale lager)

tērvete beers

All pale, no dark - this has been the constant situation with Tērvetes beers for already 40 years. Some praise their sticking to the roots, some claim that their beers taste more or less the same and some more diversity could be encouraged.

There have been some experiments with Tērvetes brews, thoug. First, ABV of their beers has changed frequently over the years, it also quite clear that recipes had to be changed as well, when Western European ingredients became available. During the last decade there have been several limited edition summer and winter beers released and a brief period when Tērvetes beer was bottled in PET bottles.

In addition, Tērvetes red label beer is sold as Raganas Rūgtais in-house beer in a road pub next to Rīga-Valmiera highway.

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SenčuABV 4.5%, Pale Lager

Senču means “Ancestor” in Latvian. Despite its name, it does not mean that this beer is brewed according to any traditional Latvian recipes or technology.

Senču beer was developed during the Soviet era in a now kvass-only Iļģuciems brewery in Riga by the famous brewmaster Kārlis Zālītis. The beer is based on Žiguļu beer (that itself finds its roots in Vienna lager modifications carried out in the Soviet Union in 1930s), but con-trary to Žiguļu brew where 15% of adjuncts were permitted, no adjuncts were allowed in this one.

It was a standard recipe used by several breweries and it has to be kept in mind that Soviet enter-prises were not supposed to compete with each other therefore using the same standartised State approved recipes and technologies was part of the deal; of course, due to many other factors, the quality and the taste of these brews differed greatly.

It is interesting to note that only Senču beer has been able to survive the change from socialism to capitalism 20 years ago - the rest of the Soviet brews - Rīgas, Žiguļu, Marta and others were mostly forgotten. As one can see in most of the stores, now several of the smaller breweries brews its own version of Senču beer, but mostly they are not related to Soviet recipes and the taste of these beers is clearly very diverse.

One of the best Senču beers is brewed by Tērvete - it is light yellow lager with mild malty aroma and similar flavour.

Good and refreshing summer beer that is reason-ably priced and is the best selling beer of Tērvete brewery.

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The brewery opened in 1994 in Kurzeme region, close to the largest Latvian port town of Ventspils. During the nineties Užavas brewery was a comparatively small operation lo-cated inside a large countryside dwelling house, owned by Uldis Pumpurs - a millionaire and a former First Secretary of Komsomol (Soviet Youth organisation) of Ventspils city for whom brewing was a hobby. I always enjoy the irony when the most avid proponents of the Soviet regime very fast became avid supporters of the capitalism; in addition Uldis Pumpurs supposedly has strong ties with mayor of Ventspils - Aivars Lembergs who has been accused of bribery and money laundering activities both in Latvia and the UK. But

Užavas breweryThe newest of three brewery buildings that was completed in 2007 with 2.5 million litre capac-ity. It has purpose built visitor gangways that enable to see most of the brewery by not disturb-ing any brewing operations.

Užavas pagastsVentspils novads

uzavas-alus.lv@uzavasalus

užavas




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these are the realities behind many “innocent” Latvian businesses.

The biggest role in securing the popularity of Užavas was played by the friendship be-tween Uldis Pumpurs and the owner of LIDO Gunārs Ķirsons who introduced Užavas to the general public that received the beer warmly indeed (both friends until were re-cently involved in another project - digging an utopian shipping channel from the Baltic to the Black Sea, worth several billion euros). There is nothing very Latvian about their beers – tweaked German recipes and technology with imported ingredients.

Užavas beers are famous with regards to their price, it is certainly one of the most expen-sive Latvian beers (surpassed only by Valmiermuižas and Brālis to some extent). Some do not think it is worth its price as it is quite evident that Tērvetes, Piebalgas or Bauskas are capable of turning out similar quality beers that cost less.

The brewery has been expanded twice - first in 2000 when 1 million litre capacity was reached, but the demand still could not be satisfied. Thefeore a new building soon fol-lowed, opened in 2007, increasing the total capacity of the brewery to 3.5 million litres. It is interesting to note that in the new building only the bottled beers are produced while in the old one beer sold on-tap (including all the unfiltered one) is made. Un-fortunately the owners did not make the necessary calculations when they started the expansion so since 2007 the brewery is running at 30-40% capacity, but the owner has been quick to blame the government and imported beer for this.

Part of the Užavas beer labelIn in the old brewery building is displayed. It is still there today, but is now used as a dwelling house only.

Tiny village of Užava is located a few kilometres off the Baltic Sea coast. There is little else to do and see except the brewery and sparsely inhabited rugged Latvian seaside. How-ever, town of Ventspils is nearby with plenty of tourist attractions. It has to be noted that it will be nearly impossible to reach Užavas brewery by public transport. • www.tourism.ventspils.lv


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It was announced in summer 2010 that a cheaper pale lager will be released. The summer passed, then came the autumn and a new beer was released indeed. It was not cheap - just a handful of santīms cheaper than regular Užavas. It also seems that it bears some similarity with Valmiermuiža beers.

Brilliant pale yellow with soft white head and patchy downsliding lacing. Aroma is very strong grassy malt.

Taste is simple malt with herbal hops and ever increasing and long lingering bitterness in the aftertaste. Mouthfeel is light with moderate carbonation. Although not bad, it sure lacks character.

I am not sure if I would buy it again, it seems a bit too overpriced. It might be better to stick with regular Užavas Pale or find something cheaper instead.

UžavnieksABV 4.2%, German Pils

The lineup of Užavas has not changed much for almost 20 years and probably will not change for another twenty. It seems the brewery is comfortable with the current situa-tion and does not want to experiment too much, quite similarly to many other Latvian breweries. Its two main beers are solid brews, made under the supervision of German brewmaster, while the third is an experiment gone wrong.

Gaišais Nefiltrētais* 4.6% (pale Lager)

Gaišais 4.6% (pale Lager)

Tumšais 4.9% (dark lager)

Tumšais Nefiltrētais* 4.9% (dark lager)

užavnieks 4.2% (german pils)* draught only

užava beers

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Gaišais pours brilliant clear light goden beer with large and foamy white head. No doubt excellent by the looks.

But that is it, some malt and grassy hops in both flavour and aro-ma. It would be difficult to distinguish Užavas Gaišais from other pale Latvian or German lagers; it possibly has slightly elevated bitterness if compared to other Latvian lagers.

Very drinkable, but easy to forget beer.

Gaišais ABV 4.6%, Pale Lager

TumšaisABV 4.9%, Dark Lager

Name of the beer is simply Užavas Dark. It does not seem that dark when poured into the glass - it is rather reddish pale copper with slightly off white and somewhat fizzy head that fades rather fast. Aroma is mild sweetish malt with light fruit and nuts, I have to ad-mit that this is one of the nicest smells amongst Latvian brews.

Taste does not seem to be too remarkable, it is quite similar to smell with low bitterness and dryish bittery aftertaste. Mouthfeel is more on the thinner side with pleasant carbonation levels.

This beer is rather different from what could be considered a typical Latvian Dark Lager, but it is no wonder considering its German origins. Although Užavas Tumšais a decent and very drinkable beer, it seems to lack a character.

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In Valmiermuižas web page you will find a story that beer has been brewed in Valmiermuiža area for centuries, trying to convince the consumer that the establishment of the new brewery was a continuation of a very famous brewing tradition. It is a pity that makers of Valmiermuiža have made so much effort to surround themselves with fairy tales and half-fake legends. Pity because their beer is good and it does not actually need any of them.

Although there were several breweries in the beginning of 20th century in Valmiera area, there is no evidence that one was located where Valmiermuižas brew currently is. It is one of the most recent of Latvian breweries - its owners invested more than 3 million euros, one third of this EU funds, to build and equip a completely new brewery. In 2011, the capacity of the brewery was doubled, by installing new fermentation tanks.

The brewery is located just outside Valmiera, in a rather interesting surroundings - his-toric premises of Valmiermuiža manor. Not much has been left from the manor as it was destroyed during the both World Wars - mostly pictureque ruins and fences remain.

The cap of Valmiermuiža beer1764 has nothing to do with the current brewery, however it is possible to see the remains of the tower shown in the cap and the gate just accross the road from the brewery building

Dzirnavu iela 2 Valmiermuiža

valmiermuiza.lv@valmiermuiza

Valmiermuižas




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Valmiermuižas brewery is one of the few in Latvia that succeeds in attracting customers by actively encouraging drinkers of their beer to visit the brewery - apart from Užavas, the only in Latvia to do so. There is no doubt that in a short period of time it has become one of the favourite tourist destinations in Valmiera area. Recently the brewery also added a shop next to the brewery as well as one in Riga (open up till 22.00) that sell not only Valmiermuižas beers, but also ‘natural’ sauna essentials and snacks and cheeses to complement beer - most notable being the cookies from spent grain, these are truly a magnificent treat and a must if visting the brewery.

I would also encourage everyone to fall under Valmiermuižas spell and pay the visit. It is worth noting that also English tours (even during weekends) are possible and you can kill two birds with one stone, as another interesting brewery - Abula (Brenguļu) is just some 10-15 km from Valmiermuiža, on the other side of Valmiera. Even more - on the way to Valmiera even a third brewery visit - to Brālis brewery can be added.

Valmiermuiža breweryThe brownish building in the centre is the brewery and it has been newly built while the white building to the left remains from pre-brewery times and houses a shop that sells not only beer, but sauna essentials and snacks and is used also as a storage.

A large park and a lonely ruin is all that remains of a former Valmiermuiža manor today. However, just a few kilometres away there is a town of Valmiera – the largest town of Vidzeme region with enough activities to fill at least a day, if not the entire weekend. • www.valmiera.lv


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Valmiermuiža Gaišais ABV 5.2%, Vienna Lager

The brewery constantly reminds its both current and potential customers that this beer has been matured for amazing 30 days in its vaults, as if setting the Latvian record. Just a small reminder - a brewery that positions itself as a traditional Latvian brewer should know that as recently as in 1930s, maturing beer for at least 3-4 weeks was considered essential by most Latvian brewers.

Taste is soft and toasty malt that is well balanced with pleasant light bittery hops. Medium and slightly creamy mouthfeel with prickly carbonation in the beginning that soon softens. The beer is very, very drinkable and no doubt it is one of the better made paler lagers in Latvia.

Unfiltered version of Valmiermuižas beer can be purchased in the brewery and some select shops and pubs in Riga, it is certainly bet-ter than the bottled version.

Gaišais Nefiltrētais* 5.2% (Vienna Lager)

Gaišais 5.2% (Vienna Lager)

Tumšais 5.8% (Munich Dunkel)

Tumšais Nefiltrētais* 5.8% (Munich Dunkel)* draught only

valmiermuiža beers

Valmiermuiža currently is the only Latvian brewery to use solely German malt, possibly thanks to its German brewmaster. They brew only two beers and both are sold both fil-tered and unfiltered. All four are frequently available in Valmiermuiža shops.

Thanks to increased capacity, it is possible that the range of Valmiermuiža beers could be extended, although it seems the brewery is comfortable with the current range - after all, their beer is frequently sold out.

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Valmiermuiža TumšaisABV 5.8%, Munich Dunkel

Their dark beer was released in April 2010, after extensive market surveys that took more than half a year.Valmiermuižas brewery was the first in Latvia to brew 5000 sam-ples of different recipes and let the customers vote for the best. It is interesting to note that the 4 initial versions received almost the same number of the votes, thus greatly complicating the process.

Unfortunately due to the longer maturing periods and high demand it may be frequently sold out, especially during summer.

Although this beer can be regarded as some of the best Latvian dark lagers (frankly, there are not too many to choose from), it has its flaws. First, eve-ryone would notice its quite high ABV, so this is no session beer - three of these and you certainly feel the effects. Secondly, it lacks any individual characteristics, there is nothing particularly unique about the beer, nothing that would stand out if compared to its German counterparts.

Still, it is worth trying.

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Tērvetes

It is possible to visit all breweries, but you should always make an appointment by phone or email first (just a note - not everyone speaks English, so it might be a good idea to ask a Latvian speaking person for help) and it is often that a group of at least 8 -10 persons will be required.

It also has to be added that this experience can be very different - in several places visitors are not allowed inside the production premises. If short on time, I would suggest visiting Valmiermuižas brewery for more interesting experience. It would cost about 3.50 LVL per person, no group required. Visit to Užavas costs 1 LVL, for Abula it is free of charge, but it is certainly expected that you would buy some of their beer afterwards. I guess you would not need a reminder anyway. Some of the breweries, e.g. Valmiermuižas are open to visitors on weekends, reservation in advance is a must.

These details are certainly subject to change, it is also possible that some breweries are partly closed during the winter. Local tourist information offices certainly would be able to provide correct and up-to-date information.

Lāčplēša/Līvu

UžavasAldaris

Brūveris

Excursions to Latvian breweries

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Abula (Brenguļu) - 64230272 (appointment required only for larger groups)Cēsu - 80009090Bauskas - 63960013 or 26765153LIDO - just visit the beer cellar downstears in Krasta 76, RigaLīvu/Lāčplēša - 63425262Piebalgas - 64162518, 64162665Tērvetes - 29476708Užavas - 63699484Valmiermuižas - also English tour possible, 20264269, [email protected]

During the last years commercial brewery tours have appeared, e.g. latvianbeertours.com. The idea is good, but prices are on the high-end and the range of activities these companies provide is very large (such as carting and canoeing), so some element of doubt remains. It is possible to do a similar tour on your own, but, of-course, it would require much more effort.

Valmiermuižas

Tērvetes

Madonas

Rēzeknes

Krāslavas

BrālisCēsu

Abula (Brenguļu)

LIDO

Bauskas

Aldaris

Brūveris

Piebalgas

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5 beers to bring home from Latvia

Aldaris Porteris

The most distinctive taste amongst Latvian dark brews, the only Baltic Porter brewed in Latvia - this beer is a must.

Piebalgas Lux

Good and well made dark la-ger, encompasses some of the most distinctive qualities of the dark Latvian beer.

Tērvetes Oriģinālais

Not as original as the name would suggest - the recipe is tweaked on a regular basis, but it still is a good representation of Latvian brewing.

If short on time, here is a short list of 5 beers that are easily available in many locations, including supermarkets, all around Latvia and will be a good rep-resentation of the Latvian beer scene.

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5 beers to bring home from Latvia

Valmiermuižas Gaišais

One of the best Latvian pale lagers by one of the best new Latvian breweries. Unfiltered version (not bottled) is even better.

Brālis Gaišais Nefiltrētais

Decent pale lager, as well as one of the few (others are brewed by the same brewery) bottled unfiltered and unpasteurised beers in Latvia.

Tērvetes Oriģinālais

Not as original as the name would suggest - the recipe is tweaked on a regular basis, but it still is a good representation of Latvian brewing.

If short on time, here is a short list of 5 beers that are easily available in many locations, including supermarkets, all around Latvia and will be a good rep-resentation of the Latvian beer scene.

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Where to get beer?

Although beer from all Latvian breweries is listed here, you will be able to get only a fac-tion of those in an average Latvian pub or shop. Aldaris production will be encountered the most often, followed by Cēsu, Lāčplēša/Līvu brews. Sometimes smaller shops will have the most interesting selection. Outside Riga there can not be a large variety expect-ed. The best and safest option would be to rely on supermarkets, as smaller shops will carry mostly Aldaris, other breweries do not seem to have so large distributor network.

Riga Airport

You should not rely on airport for your last-minute beer purchases. There will be very limited selection of Cēsu and Aldaris beers available in the shopping area behind the customs. In addition, LIDO and Užavas draught beer can be purchased outside customs area in LIDO eatery on the second floor. If you are transiting and have at least 1 hour to spare (although the whole operation can be conducted even in 30 min or even less), there is a Maxima supermarket with a draught beer shop quite close to the airport. And there are plenty of bottles in the supermarket itself as well.

There are two options to get there:1) Taxi - 5 min taxi ride (charge would be about 3 LVL one direction), tell the driver to go to Maxima XXX store on K.Ulmaņa gatve.2) Bus - take bus No.22 till the stop “ SPICE Tirdzniecības centrs” (single ticket for one direction is 0.70 LVL) and look for the grey Maxima XXX supermarket on the opposite side of the highway - do not confuse it with the red SPICE supermarket. It is suggested tp check www.rigassatiksme.lv for timetables and map of relevant bus stops.

Taxis usually take credit cards while bus tickets have to be purchased with cash, so the first option is better if you have no desire to withdraw the Latvian currency from the ATM, both supermarket and the draught beer shop accepts payment cards as well.

Riga Passanger Port (ferries to Stockholm)

There is a dedicated beer section with beers from small and large Latvian breweries in

IMPORTANT!It is prohibited to sell any alcohol from 22:00 till 8:00 in any shop. Bars an pubs are allowe to sell also later in the night, as long as alcohol is intended for consump-tion on the spot.

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Riga Spirits and Wine Outlet (rigaspiritsandwine.lv) alcomarket, just across the Andre-josta jacht port. Its large banner is clearly visible from the ferry terminal.

Central Bus station and Central Railway Station

Stockmann department store and two RIMI supermarkets (Galerija Centrs and the Cen-tral Station) are 3-5 min. walk, you will not get anything better in the Old Town or its vicinity.

Stores

Latvians generally do not favour small shops. Thanks to communism there is no tradi-tion of family owned local stores, therefore most of the shopping is done in the super-markets that in most cases can be easily reached by foot. Markets are shopped heavily as well, but it is not advised to buy any beer in markets in Riga. Luckily the opposite can be said about small town festivals and other local festivities. As with most supermarkets, mostly the largest brewers are well represented - the presence of Aldaris, Cēsu and Līvu/Lāčplēša is guaranteed, finding the rest can be a varied success.

Prices in shops vary from 0.30 to 1.10 LVL for a half liter bottle, but those from smaller breweries usually cost above 0.65 LVL. And remember, it is not allowed to drink alco-holic beverages or to carry an open containers of any alcoholic drink, including beer, in the public (fine is up to 100 LVL/140 EUR) in Riga, although some other towns have made similar rules.

Stockmann department store (stockmann.lv)13. Janvāra iela 8, Rīga, Mon-Sun 9-22Finnish department store, slightly more expensive than others, but centrally located with good collection of Latvian beers - Aldaris, Brūveris, Bauskas, Cēsu, Piebalgas and others. If short on time, this certainly is the best choice.

SKY supermarkets (sky.lv)Three locations in Riga suburbs, Mon-Sun 8-22It carries many exports, mostly from Germany, than can not be found elsewhere in Lat-via as well as Valmiermuižas, Piebalgas, Tērvetes, Cēsu, Aldaris, Līvu and Lāčplēša. Ex-pensive.

RIMI, Maxima and Prisma supermarkets (rimi.lv, maxima.lv and prisma.lv)Numerous locations in Riga, Mon-Sun 8-22If it is possible, it is the best to visit only the largest hypermarkets in the outskirts of Riga, they will have the best choice of Aldaris, Cēsu, Līvu and Lāčplēša, Brūveris, Piebalgas, Tērvetes and Valmiermuižas.

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Dzīvais alus (dzivaisalus.lv)Riga, Remtes 21 and several other locations both in Riga and outside, Mon - Sun 10-21These shops are located mostly in the suburbs, have a good look in the map before try-ing to reach the location; shopping centre SPICE is nearby. Although they do not carry Latvian beers, there is a good selection of interesting Lithuanian brews.

Cash and carry Riga, Remtes 21, Mon - Fri 8-18Located next to SPICE shopping centre in the old metal hangars surrounded by a con-crete fence. Sure, it looks appalling, especially if compared to nearby slick shopping cen-tres, but an excellent diversity of beers can be found here for some of the lowest prices. This is how most of the Latvian shopping looked like during the nineties. Nowadays these gloomy shops are a gold mine for rare Latvian beers.

Miestiņš (miestins.lv)Several locations in Riga and other towns, Mon-Sun 12-22In these shops best of Abula, Piebalgas, Brūveris, Madonas, Rēzeknes, Tērvetes, Krāslavas, Brālis, Užavas is available. Draught and unfiltered only, filled in the plastic bottles, with a special filler so the beer will keep fresh for a couple of days, but not much more.

Alus stacija, Alus Muiža, Pikniks and many othersMany locations both in and outside Riga, typically Mon-Sun 8-22There are several other draught beer saloons, similar to Miestiņš that offer beers from smaller breweries on-tap for takeway, plasic bottles are provided. Majority of them are located in shopping centres, in particularly those where Maxima supermarkets can be found.

A few notes on bottled beers

With regards to storage periods for bottled beers, they vary from brewery to brewery - they are typically between 3 and 6 months. Best before date is always available on the back label, accompanied by information with regards to maximum storage period. Subtract one from another and you get the brewing date. Unlike the US, it is not allowed to sell any alcohol past its expiry date, so there is no need to pay particular attention to these numbers. It is not recommended to store any bottled beer (except the one made by large breweries) for extended periods. In case with plastic bottles filled in any of the draught beer stores, up to five days in the fridge will be a maximum before it will start to spoil.

Theoretically there is a deposit for beer bottles, but empty bottles are accepted only in a few hard to find locations (0.03 - 0.04 Ls per bottle). Do not even bother.

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Pubs and bars

Pubs in Latvia are not much different from their Western European counterparts. Tips of about 10% are welcome although they are sometimes included in the bill, usually in places with an awful service. Tipping is not mandatory and unlike the US where not leaving tip can get you killed, because bar owners do not bother paying their staff a de-cent wage, it is usually done only to compliment good or excellent service.

There are a couple of bars and pubs in Riga that operate solely to scam foreign tourists, so do have a good look in the menu at first, especially if the bar is filled with wannabe stripper type gals and a young and attractive lady-friend after a small chat suddenly suggests you to pay for her drink; that drink could cost you a fortune. Bills of several thousand euros can be easily accumulated in such locations and there is no way thet staff will let you out before paying, they have impressive bouncers that do their job well. As always, an indication of a reliable watering hole is where plenty of locals are around.

Prices for beer are varied, but expect to pay from 1.00 to 2.50 LVL (1.30 to 3.50 EUR), most commonly around 1.90 (2.70 EUR) for half a liter of Latvian beer on-tap. Pric-es for Valmiermuižas and Užavas usually will be the highest (the most expensive be-ing Valmiermuižas Tumšais, in the region of 2.20 LVL and above), followed closely by Brenguļu, Madonas and Tērvetes. Although often an array of bottled imports is available in most bars, it would be difficult to find bottled Latvian brews there, except for colour-ful beer flavoured drinks that are so admired by underage population.

Maintenance of beer lines in most bars is not a responsibility of bars themselves, but breweries who distribute these beers (beer dispensing system often is the property of the brewery), thefore it is not always reasonable to blame the bar if certain beers taste foul. Blame the brewery instead and let them know your opinion.

For a detailed and realiable restaurant and bar guide I would suggest visiting inyour-pocket.com where you can download a full free PDF version of the Riga in Your Pocket guide. Or better buy the paper version in the airport (there might be free copies as well), hotel or in many press stands, also international mail orders are possible from their Web site. It includes good and usually up-to-date pub and restaurant guide, certainly worth the money.

For most bars there is no realiable information on their Web sites (neither in Latvian, nor in English) with regards to where which beers are currently available, but select breweries (such as Valmiermuižas in valmiermuiza.lv) have their full distribution list posted online.

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Some of the best beer locations

I simply like them, that is all. Of course, there are other good places, feel free to discover them on your own.

S. Brevinga alus salons (no website, twitter - @alussalons)Berga bazārs, Doma laukums (square), both in Rīga, Mon-Sun 12-23Good selection of bottled English and Belgium ales. Fullers, Wells&Youngs, Porterhouse, Meantime, St.Bernardus, Mikkeller and other breweries, including seasonal beers and limited editions. I think it says enough. There are a few Latvian beers, but no one goes there looking for local brews anyway. Both stores feature a bar with several taps as well.

Folkklubs (folkklubs.lv, twitter - @folkklubs)Smilšu iela 16, Rīga, Mon-Sun 12-till the last guestAs the name implies, it features Latvian folk music, there are often both local and inter-national bands performing, live music events take place almost every night. Its premises are large, so one can find a cozy and quite corner even during the noisiest concerts.

Folkklubs also provides fairly priced and good food, as well as a decent selection of some of the better Latvian beers brewed both by large and small breweries. Regular homebrew meetings also take place there, consult forums.kupla.lv for details and feel free to join them.

Alus salons in Doma laukums

The newest of both Alus salons shops it features a separate beer store, 16 taps and is the first Lat-vian pub to serve also cask beer, currently it is Fullers London Porter.

However, bottled beer selection is better in Berga Bazārs store.

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Beer restaurant Merlin (merlin.lv, twitter - @merlin)Maskavas iela 4, Rīga, Mon-Sun 11-23They cook with beer and sell beer, although one has to be aware that food is way better than the beer selection that features mostly the same international brews that can be found in supermarkets. From Latvian breweries, only Cēsu is available, as this restaurant was established with the support of Cēsu brewery.

Valmiermuižas alus tirgotava (valmiermuiza.lv, twitter - @valmiermuiza)A.Briāna iela 9, Rīga, Mon-Sun 10-22Although located outside the centre of Riga, in shopping gallery “Valdemāra pasāža”, the beer shop of Valmiermuiža brewery is the best of its kind in Latvia. Not only both unfiltered and filtered Valmiermuiža beers can be found here, but also an array of locally produced snacks, herbal teas, natural limonades and drinks, cheeses and meat prod-ucts can be purchased here. Also available are unusual, but delicious cookies and sweets made from the spent grain of Valmiermuiža brewery.

It is worth noting that Valmiermuiža is the first Latvian brewery to sell their growlers (both standard 2 l and 1 l) and providing refills at 10% discount in its stores.

Valmiermuiža store and bar in Valdemāra PasāžaIt is the only such brewery owned and run bar and store in Riga

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Small beer vocabulary

Alus [alus] - BeerPriekā! [prieka:] - Cheers!Gaišais [gaishais] - PaleTumšais [tumshais] - Dark

Vai jums ir Bauskas Tumšais? [vai jums ir Bauskas Tumshais] - Do you carry Bauskas Dark?Vienu Bauskas Gaišo, lūdzu! [vienu Bauskas Gaishuo lu:dzu] - One Bauskas Pale, please!

Mazais [mazais], or mazo [mazuo] if used in a sentence - small (0.33 l), e.g. vienu Bauskas mazo!

Pudelē [pudele:] - bottled, e.g. Vai jums ir Bauskas Tumšais pudelē?Izlejamais [izlejamais]- draught, e.g. Vai jums ir izlejamais Bauskas Tumšais?Vēl vienu (tādu pašu) [ve:l vienu (ta:du pashu)] - One more (of the same)

Uzkodas [uzkuodas]- snacks

Bezalkoholiskais [bezalkoholiskais]- non-alcoholic(Briesmīgas) paģiras [(briesmi:gas) pagjiras] - (terrible) hangover

Lūdzu [lu:dzu] - pleasePaldies [paldies] – thank you

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Credits

- Photos on page 45 are reprinted with kind permission of JSC Cēsu alus. All other photos I have taken myself; - Cover art created using tagxedo.com

Disclaimer

Facts and figures in this guide have not been oficially verified and may differ from real-ity and the actual situation. This guide contains only personal opinion of the author and all contents of this guide are not intended for further reproduction of any kind in any media. Check all the fact yourself, if you want be sure.

copyright

There is a copyright that applies to commercial use, this guide has been copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives licence - you are free to use it without modifying as long as it is intended for strictly non-com-mercial purposes (commercial puproses = the media sells ads or does not distribute all of its contents for free) and labsalus.lv is referred to as the source. Otherwise please contact me at [email protected]

Beer Guide Latvia

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