The first bottling of the Baltika #9 Strong took place as far back as 1998. Beer lovers immediately appreciated the novelty.
In 2005 the brand cardinally changed its exterior and a little later Baltika Breweries started filling it into a convenient PET package that quickly became popular with consumers. At the same time the "Devyatka" (meaning "Nine") popular name became the official name and is now used on the label.
The taste of the strong Baltika beer was recognized not only by Russian citizens. The brand is successfully exported to almost 40 countries around the world, including Germany, Ireland, France, the USA, and even such exotic countries as Mexico, Mongolia and South Korea.
One should also note the social role of the beer at the time. Many strong drink consumers switched to Baltika Nine with the alcohol content below 8%. The strength is achieved by natural fermentation only, according to a unique recipe developed by Baltika specialists.
"Accumulation" of alcohol in beer depends on the wort gravity and the period of fermentation of a special yeast culture. Therefore, the wort for strong brands is prepared with a higher initial gravity (body). To obtain an alcohol content up to 8% by volume in a natural way it is necessary "to make" the yeast causing beer fermentation work especially hard. Strong beer production is a very labour intensive process, with extremely high requirements to the brewers’ skill. Therefore, in many European countries strong beer is especially appreciated by connoisseurs while the value of such brands is much higher than that of lagers with traditional alcohol content. Moreover, strong beer has been always considered an elite one in countries with old brewing traditions.
The collection of the Baltika Nine brand contains about ten awards of various international contests. In spring 2008 the Baltika Extra won a silver award of the annual Superior Taste Award contest in Brussels (Belgium) that is one of the most recognized contests of product quality in the world. The jury includes representatives of prestigious European culinary institutes and the International Sommelier Association (ASI) who make "blind testing" of the samples of the products submitted for the contest, which guarantees an unbiased voting result. The honorary award of the "Nine" is another proof of the compliance of this brand’s quality with the highest international requirements.
Baltika Nine is produced under a license in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan.
purified drinking water, pale barley malt, malt barley, hop products, malt extract