OREANDA-NEWS  On 10 December was announced, that the jury of the World Beer Championships 2008 which took place in Chicago on 2 December presented the results of their competition.

Many varieties of beer from around the world were there for the traditional battle over awards. This year Baltika Breweries participated for the first time. Five varieties of Baltika beer won medals in the different categories. Baltika №4 Original, Baltika №6 Porter, Baltika №7 Export, Baltika Cooler, and Baltika №9 Extra received four silver and one bronze medal respectively.

The World Beer Championships is the oldest competition in the USA. It was set up in 1994 by the Beverage Testing Institute. Traditionally the jury is drawn from among both professional experts and amateur enthusiasts of the foamy beverage. To a considerable extent, the evaluations are based less on satisfying classical dogmas of brewing than on quality and taste characteristics of the beer. Moreover, they have traditionally employed ‘blind tastings’ of the samples, which assures impartial judgment.

Elena Volgusheva, Sales Manager for North and South America: "Baltika Breweries was one of the first in the post-Soviet space to start shipping beer to the USA. Today our products are marketed in more than forty states and enjoy stable demand. Baltika is, without question, our country’s visiting card in the world in the beer category, and it is very pleasant for us to see that a jury consisting of professionals and beer lovers in America has given such high marks to our products."

Baltika Breweries long ago became a regular participant in authoritative international competitions, including those held in the USA. Thus, in 2006 Baltika №6 and Baltika №0 won awards from another prestigious American contest, the World Beer Cup.

Baltika beer has been supplied to the USA since 2001. At present, the entire line-up of the Baltika brand, as well as Arsenalnoye, Zhigulevskoye and Yarpivo are sold in this country. At the end of Q3 2008, the growth in sales of Baltika Breweries’ products in the USA amounted to +12%, which in terms of volume is around 1 million litres. The best results were reported by the Baltika №7 Export variety. Its sales rose by 68%. Next came Baltika №9 Extra (+54%).