To Russia with beer

A well-known Danish brewery once advertised its product with the slogan, “so good the Danes hate to see it leave’. British drinkers might feel the same way about a 70-ft clipper which is expected to dock in St Petersburg tomorrow. The Thermopylae is carrying casks of British beer, specifically Russian Imperial Stout, as part of a promotional mission which has as its inspiration one of the great beer journeys.

Tim O’Rourke, brewer and all-round beer expert, is the man behind ‘The Great Baltic Adventure’. He and his crew left London in May with beers from 14 British breweries – including traditional family concerns like Harvey’s and Shepherd Neame and some of the best new brewers, such as Thornbridge and Dark Star – with the intention of recreating the journey that Russian Imperial Stout once took to reach its market in Russia, a journey that has not been taken by British beer for over 100 years. Along the way the Thermopylae has stopped in at Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki to promote British beer.

Speaking in Helsinki at the weekend before the last leg of the trip, O’Rourke said that despite some difficult sailing conditions the trip had been a success. The Thermopylae took some additional cask beer to sell at the stopping points and it has been well received, particularly in Copenhagen. “We’ve been virtually drunk out,” he says.

“There’s a pub called Charlie’s Bar in Copenhagen and that was drunk out after four and a half hours, that’s nine gallons. We also went to the Copenhagen Beer Festival and the beers were going great guns there: Denmark has a superb beer culture of its own, we were really warmly received. It has been a great showcasing for a great British product.”

British beers originally travelled to Russia in the 18^th century, apparently because Peter the Great had enjoyed drinking them whilst in London during his stay there in 1698. Catherine the Great was said to be “so partial to Porter that she has ordered repeatedly very large quantities for her own drinking and that of her court”. British beer continued to be exported to Russia until 1822, when heavy tariffs hurt the trade. What happened then is not clear: “A lot of the conventional wisdom on the history of Imperial Russian Stout is wrong,” says O’Rourke.

What is certain is that Russian Imperial Stout almost died out in the latter half of the 20^th century as the great old brewers that had made it famous either dropped the style or disappeared themselves. Thanks partly to the American microbrewery scene, though, it has made a spirited comeback and there are any number of decent versions on the market. British drinkers should look out for Thornbridge’s St Petersburg (pictured above) or Harvey’s Imperial Stout (below).

The beers that travelled with O’Rourke had already been tasted before the trip in London; they’ll be tasted again on Friday before a champion is announced sometime in September. The boat will arrive in St Petersburg at the same time as an economic conference is taking place there, a fact O’Rourke tried to use to his advantage.

“We very nearly became the beer of the conference but there were political and economic problems,” he says. “But that demonstrates how this trip isn’t just a beer story, it’s a trade story. Britain plc needs as much good will and advertising as possible. We’re flying the flags for British ales.”

And having a good time as well, it appears. O’Rourke says the trip has been enlivened by all manner of interesting encounters. “We went to an island called Oland [off the coast of Sweden] where this guy had discovered a sunken ship full of champagne and what they were claiming was Russian Imperial Stout.

“Looking at it, though, it’s much more likely to be India Pale Ale. It’s really fascinating: we say India Pale Ale was exported to India – you would, wouldn’t you? Actually it was just a standard export ale.”

Russian Imperial Stout, by contrast, is far from standard and such is the modern beer world’s variety that it’s hard to nail down what a typical example should taste like: like Guinness but much, much more so, perhaps. It’s undoubtedly unique, though, and O’Rourke is not alone in celebrating and enjoying its resurgence. “It’s great that the style is making a comeback,” he says. Catherine the Great would surely agree.

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