My wife, a fellow beer drinker, is going to Moscow this week. Last time we were there the scene was dominated my piny and malty IPA. She is way more into saison and NEIPA, as well as super clean pils and the like. Wondering what cool new places are around. Also wondering about bottleshops because she is bringing me back a goody bag. What new breweries are killing it? We know about Bakunin, Zagovar, Jaws, and Zavod, but wondering about what else is good these days.
Tonnes of NEIPA floating around these days. Quite a few saisons, too. Pils are harder to find, but theyāre definitely out there.
AF Brew, Victory Art Brew, Selfmade, Saldenās and One Ton are all very decent breweries. Velka Morava make some nice beers, especially lagers. Stamm is definitely worth a try, too. Also, Zagovor is no longer a tap-only brewery.
Bottleshops are quite easy to find, they seem to have popped up everywhere. The best (biggest-selection) ones are centrally-located, although the smaller bottleshops focus on Russian stuff, which is great for those looking to drink local. For example, this place I added just today: https://www.ratebeer.com/p/goto/80555/.
RusBeerShop is one of the best bottleshops in the city and you can check the stock beforehand on their site (http://rusbeershop.ru/country/), although itās pretty badly designed. Also I recommend ŠŃŃŃŠ»ŠŗŠ°, ŠŗŃŃŠ¶ŠŗŠ°, ŠŗŠ¾ŃŠµŠ» - theyāve got around 100 different Russian craft beers in stock (see Untappd). Eric the Red also has around 100 Russian brews (also see Untappd).
In terms of bars, itās hard to say. Really it depends on what youāre looking for. Thereās a place I like on Prospekt Mira called SpielBEERg, but itās not amazing in terms of ambiance, just a small basement-level place with a basic interior. RULE Taproom is pretty awesome, as is Jawsspot, and Craft Station. However, these arenāt exactly the newest places as I donāt go drinking in bars much anymore.
I see that you havenāt rated anything from Georgia. Itās possible to find Georgian stuff here. Iāve seen bottles of Sviani, Zedazeni, Khevsuruli and Golden Eagle in recent months.
Tip: itās definitely worth having Untappd handy. To be honest Ratebeer is not very good for Russia due to the sheer lack of users. Almost all the new beers are added by a single guy in St. Petersburg.
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Thanks. This is helpful. Do you know about any place to get beers from the Stans? Last time I was in Moscow, I got Armenian beer but that was the only tick I got. Eric the Red we have been to, and it was solid. She will prob, time permitting look into the other places. Glad to see Georgian beer has been relegalized.
Youād think that beer from the Stans would be available with the sizeable migrant worker populations and the Eurasian Economic Union, but unfortunately it just canāt be found in Moscow (and if it can, Iād love to know where). A couple of years ago the liquor store chain ŠŃŠ°ŃŠ½Š¾Šµ Šø ŠŠµŠ»Š¾Šµ sold three different Kazakh beers nationwide, but judging by their site that isnāt the case anymore.
On a related note: last winter this Abkhazian restaurant was importing a couple of beers from Abkhazia: http://stranadushi.moscow. I donāt know if they still do that/whether it would be possible to buy them to take away.
