Baltika

Russia's defining beer brand organised itself by arithmetic: Baltika numbers its beers, from No. 0, the alcohol-free one, up to No. 9, the strong one, so drinkers order "a three" or "a seven" the way others order by name. Baltika No. 3, the classic pale lager, is the flagship.

The Saint Petersburg brewery opened in 1990, in the Soviet Union's last full year — accidental but perfect timing. As the planned economy dissolved, Baltika filled the gap at speed and grew into the defining beer company of post-Soviet Russia, its numbered bottles reaching from the Baltic to Vladivostok.

Its recent history is geopolitics in a bottle. Carlsberg ran Baltika for years, then divested in 2024 after the Russian state intervened in the business; ownership now sits with JSC VG Invest in Saint Petersburg. The brewing hasn't slowed: 19.7 million hectolitres in 2025, fourteenth-largest in the world, nearly all of it drunk in Russia and its neighbours.

Baltika No. 3, the flagship, is a clean golden lager with fuller grain character than Western light lagers: bready malt, gentle herbal hops, medium body, and a crisp, slightly mineral finish. The numbered siblings bracket it — No. 0 alcohol-free, No. 7 a smoother export style, No. 9 strong and warming — but the three is the benchmark.