The beer under the Don brand was first brewed in spring 1998 at Baltika-Rostov brewery — a subsidiary of Baltika Breweries. Before 2000 the varieties of this brand were produced under numbers: the light beer was called Don 1, the classical lager was called Don 3 while the special variety was called Don 5. Each of the varieties was later assigned a name that reflects the specific feature of the variety in the most concise and full way. Today there are four varieties of the beer available: the Don Pale, the Don Classic, Don Southern, and a special variety the Don Live produced in 2007.

A major feature of the beer is that Don is the beer specially created for residents of the South of Russia with account for their taste preferences. The core of the target audience is males of 30-35, mostly married, with secondary vocational education, workers, technical specialists, with a medium income. They have traditional life values: work, family, child, they are hospitable, with a sense of humour, open, sociable, "southerners", in a word.

Since 2000 the Don beer has invariably been one of "100 Best Goods of Russia", the winner of the first gold prize of the Brand of the Year / EFFIE 2005 and the Gold Brand of the South Region.

The main distribution region is the South region of Russia, with 93% of the Don beer sales accounting for this region (the cities of Rostov, Krasnodar, Volgograd, Astrakhan, Stavropol, Kavkazskie Mineralnye Vody, the Black sea coast). Don beer is sold not only on the Russian territory: it is the only regional Russian brand exported to the USA.

Today Don is the most selling beer in the economy segment on the territory of the South region. According to Business Analytica, in 2008 the sales growth amounted to 12.5% compared to 2007, the brand’s market share was 9.2%, which ensured its steady position of the most popular beer brand of the South.

The concept of the brand promotion has been unchanged since the very time of its creation: Don is the branded beer of the South of Russia. Since spring 2005 all Don beer varieties have been filled into modern green glass bottles with a renewed label. The label on the Don Classic beer is bright green while the label of the Don Southern beer has become of a deeper orange colour. The new package harmonizes well with the light flavor and steadily high quality of the brand.

Since June 2006 the Don Classic variety has been bottled in a big "southern" volume: a 2.5-liter PET. The new economical package preserving all the light-protective properties of the "Shell" PET created in 2004 quickly became popular with the beer lovers of the South region.

At the end of March a new unpasteurized variety that was named the Don Live was brewed at Baltika-Rostov brewery. The Don Live beer is produced with high quality malt and hop and the purest water that undergoes a tough check for conformity both with brewing requirements and hygienic standards. The high requirements to the sanitary condition of the facilities, the state-of-the-art equipment installed at the plant (including a complicated multistage beer filtration system) enable Baltika to guarantee the beer quality and stability without pasteurization for two months rather than the usual five-seven days.

"Fishing with Don only!" is the slogan of the regional contest for fishing fans starting again in 2010 from the real southern Don beer. The contest for fishermen has become traditional: the first all-out fishing party with Don took place in the South in 2007. The contest can be attended by adult residents of Krasnodar, Rostov-upon-Don, Stavropol, Volgograd, Astrakhan and the regions.