History of brewing in the USSR
The official date of birth of Soviet (although more precisely the RSFSR, the USSR was created a little later) brewing can be considered the date of February 3, 1922, when the decree “On excise tax on beer, honey, kvass and fruit and artificial mineral waters” was signed. This time coincided with the deployment of the New Economic Policy, when some freedom was given to private enterprise, which was expressed in the fact that in addition to the nationalized breweries, quite a few leased ones, usually by former owners and brewers, arose. What kind of beer was brewed at that time? The same varieties as before the revolution.
These are pro-German brands - “Bavarian”, dark “Munich”, “Kulmbach”, “Export”, strong “Bock”. These are Austrian and Czech brands (the Czech Republic was part of Austria-Hungary before the 1st World War) - “Vienna” (on “Viennese” malt), “Bohemian”, classic “Pilsner” and its denser, “export” versions ( "Extra-Pilsner").
In the traditions of English brewing, they brewed a dark, dense “Porter” and a light “Pelle Ale”. Very popular (most likely due to its low density, and therefore low cost) were “Stolovoe”, dark “Martovskoye” (developed under the influence of both Austrian and German brewing), some independent Russian brands have also survived (although they arose under the influence of Western European brewing) - “Cabinet”, “Double Golden Label”.
The only original Russian type of beer is “Chernoe” (as well as its version, “Chernoe-Velvet”). This type of beer was not completely fermented (just like traditional Russian kvass), it had a very low strength at high density and such beer was almost unknown in Europe.
By the end of the 20s, the NEP began to be curtailed, private traders were squeezed out of brewing production, the first OST for beer was introduced (OST 61-27), which was mandatory only for large state-owned factories (at the same time it did not prohibit the brewing of other varieties). According to this OST, it was proposed to produce 4 types of beer - "Light No. 1" - close to the Pilsner style, "Light No. 2" - close to the Viennese style, "Dark" - close to the Munich style and "Black" - traditionally Russian, fermented with top yeast (with density 13% had a strength of 1% alcohol, like kvass).
By the mid-30s, active work was underway on new OSTs; they wanted to expand the variety of varieties, moreover towards Western European traditional brands ("Vienskoe", "Pilsen", "Munich"). By the way, the main thing in determining the style of beer was malt - for “Pilsner” beer they used light “Pilsner” malt, for “Vienna” - more roasted and therefore darker “Viennese”, for “Munich” - dark “Munich” malt.
The water was also taken into account - for the Pilsensky it had to be especially soft, for the Munich it had to be harder. But as a result, beer under other names was included in the OST, which is usually associated with a well-known legend - about the victory of the beer "Venskoye" of the Zhigulevsky plant at the beer competition at VDNKh and Mikoyan's proposal to use the name of the plant - "Zhigulevskoye" instead of the "bourgeois" name "Venskoye" ".
Be that as it may, both malt and beer were renamed. Malt began to be divided according to color into three types - “Russian” (formerly “Pilsner”), “Zhigulevsky” (formerly “Vienna”), Ukrainian (formerly “Munich”), and the beer was renamed accordingly - “Russkoe”, “Zhigulevskoe” ", "Ukrainian". The variety "Extra Pilsen" was renamed "Moskovskoe". The names were given in honor of the largest state factories - "Zhigulevskoye" - the Zhigulevsky plant in Kuibyshev (Samara), "Russkoye" - the Rostov-on-Don plant, "Moskovskoye" - the Moscow factories, "Ukrainskoye" - the factories of Odessa and Kharkov, "Leningradskoye" (dense variety in the style of side and even double side) - Leningrad factories. Other varieties were also included in OST 350-38, under their old name (since there was nothing “bourgeois” in their name) - these are “Porter”, “Martovskoye”, “Caramelnoe” (the successor to “Chernoy”). These 8 varieties (with some changes) existed until the collapse of the USSR (and some survived it), so I will dwell on them in more detail.
"Zhigulevskoe" (11% density
awn) - in the style of "Viennese" - more roasted malt gave a deep amber color, the taste was more malty than hop-like.
"Russian" (12%) - in the style of "Pilsner" - as light as possible, well hopped.
"Moskovskoe" (13%) - also made with "Pilsner" malt, but denser and even more hopped.
"Leningradskoye" (18%) is an elite dense and strong light variety.
"Caramel" (11% density, 1.5% alcohol) - this dark, unfermented beer was recommended for consumption even by children and nursing mothers. It was not stable and had to be pasteurized.
“Martovskoe” (14.5%) is a dark beer variety, which could use both dark malts and specially roasted “Viennese”.
"Ukrainian" is a dark beer with a deep malt flavor.
"Porter" - fermented according to the English tradition by top fermentation, a very dense, highly hopped type of beer with a wine and caramel taste.
By 1936, all factories switched to brewing precisely these types of beer. Although they also brewed “Velkhatnoe” - a dense dark type of beer, new varieties were also being developed, primarily “elite” ones.
By 1939, "Moscow premium grade" (18%) had been developed.
"Stolichnoe" (19%) - this light variety became the strongest (and after the war, when the density value was increased to 23%, the densest) variety in the USSR.
"Kyiv" is a type of beer with wheat malt, although bottom (lager) fermented.
A variety in the style of ale was also developed, but the beginning of the Great Patriotic War stopped all work in this direction.
Already in 1944, after the liberation of Riga, the “Rizhskoe” variety was put into production, which duplicated “Russkoe” and in GOST 3478-46 replaced this variety (now Riga was not a “bourgeois” city and the name “Rizhskoe” can be was used).
The remaining varieties were preserved in GOST (only “Leningradskoye” became “heavier” to 20% density, and “Porter” began to be fermented by bottom fermentation). From that time on (with rare exceptions), all beer in the USSR was produced using bottom-fermentation technology (lagern
The restoration of the economy destroyed by the war began. During the 1930s, beer production in the USSR increased 3 times, but in 1946 it was less than half of the production in 1940. Most beer was sold on tap (as before the war, although in the Russian Empire everything was the other way around), little bottled beer was produced, and the Baltic states were the leaders in this matter. The main volume of beer was the Zhigulevskoe variety; in some cases it accounted for up to 90% of the total volume of beer produced.
Serious changes occurred only during the Khrushchev “thaw”. At that time, various administrative and economic reassignments were carried out in the country; instead of GOST, republican standards for beer were introduced, which greatly increased the number of varieties of Soviet beer. Many large factories introduced their own VTU (temporary technical specifications) and began to brew “branded” varieties (unfortunately, this was not practiced for long). The quantitative diversity far exceeded a hundred varieties (except for the RSFSR, there were especially many varieties in the Ukrainian SSR, BSSR, and the Baltic republics; they usually bore the names of republics, historical regions, capitals and cities with brewing traditions). At the same time, unmalted materials began to be introduced to a very wide extent in brewing (which, by the way, made it possible to create different flavor profiles - barley, rice, corn, soy, wheat, various types of sugar - became an integral part of the recipe of Soviet beer). In the late 50s, early 60s there were
factories for the production of enzyme preparations were opened (in Zaporozhye and Lvov), which made it possible to increase the amount of unmalted products used to 30-50% (primarily in Zhigulevsky). In the mid-60s, half of the Zhigulevsky beer in the Ukrainian SSR was produced with an amount of unmalted raw material from 30 to 50%.
I will dwell on the most interesting varieties that began to be produced at this time. “Taiga” and “Magadanskoe” were produced using pine needle extract, and the Estonian “Kadaka” with juniper, “Pereyaslavskoe” and “Romenskoe festive” with honey, and “Lyubitelskoe” with 50% unmalted wheat. Some plants were real “generators” of new varieties. Under the leadership of G.P. Dyumler, “Isetskoe” was created at the Isetsky plant (the prototype was the German “bock”, although according to Soviet tradition this beer contains 30% unmalted products - rice and sugar), this variety is still brewed. "Uralskoe" is a dense, dark and winey type of beer. "Sverdlovskoe" is a highly fermented light beer - the forerunner of the types of beer that we drink now.
They tried to completely ferment beer in the USSR, but the technologies of that time (primarily the yeast races used) did not allow this to be done, so with the same initial density, Soviet beer varieties are always less strong than modern ones (and this is despite very significant periods of fermentation of Soviet beer, up to 100 days at Stolichny). In Moscow, they revived the pre-revolutionary “Double Gold Label” under the name “Double Gold”, a little later they began to brew dense light “Our Mark” and “Moskvoretskoye”, dense dark “Ostankinskoye”. In Khamovniki they brewed “Light” - at 14% density, 1.5% alcohol - beer in the traditional Russian style of unfermented kvass.
In Ukraine, the Lvov plant (with several versions of “Lvovsky”), the Kyiv plants (several versions of “Kievsky”) and some others stood out. The Baltic states remained the last island of pure malt beer, several varieties were brewed there (for example, the Senchu variety, which actually repeated the recipe of Zhigulevsky, but only from pure malt), throughout the entire Union, the only mass-produced pure malt variety was Rizhskoye. But closer to the 70s, “Slavyanskoe” began to be introduced to replace “Rizhsky”.
In the USSR, many varieties of both light and dark beer were brewed, the density varied from very light varieties (8-9% density) - "Stolovoe", "Letneye", "Svetloe" to beer with a density of 20% and higher - "Leningradskoe" , "Porter", "Stolichnoe" (23%), "Dijalus" (21%), "Kishinevskoe". Since the mid-60s, bottled beer had already begun to prevail over draft beer, beer was usually not pasteurized, its shelf life was around 7 days, but often did not reach 3 (breweries could afford this, beer did not sit on the shelves). From the latest GOST standards for malt, “Zhigulevsky” (“Viennese”) malt disappeared and “Zhigulevskoye” lost its “Viennese” character, and due to the significant amount of unmalted products and the reduction in fermentation time to 14 and even 11 days, the variety turned into the most unassuming .
In the 70s, such well-known brands of beer were launched, many of which have survived to this day, such as “Admiralteyskoye”, “Donskoye Cossack”, “Petrovskoye”, “Barley Ear”, “Klinskoye”. The Lyubitelskoe and Stolichnoe varieties (not to be confused with the varieties brewed in the 60s) continued the trend towards highly fermented modern varieties. In the 80s, new varieties continued to appear constantly (oddly enough, the anti-alcohol campaign of 1985 even stimulated their appearance, especially low-alcohol ones), especially in the 90s, although many of these varieties can already be attributed to the period of independence of the republics former USSR. At that time, such well-known brands as “Tverskoe”, “Bouquet of Chuvashia”, “Vityaz”, “Chernigovskoe” arose, but this needs a different conversation...
In total, during the existence of the USSR (from 1922 to 1991), approximately 350 types of beer were brewed
