The chic crypt in Vilnius where I first encountered red clover beer could have been any craft beer bar in the world on a Friday night – but for the price of the drinks. At Bambalynė (Stiklių g 7), a bottle shop and bar where ale-lovers flit between fridges deep beneath the old town, a pint of artisan beer sets you back about £1.80.
The Lithuanian capital was this year named the cheapest city in Europe in the Post Office’s City Costs Barometer, overtaking Budapest. Beer in Vilnius is cheaper than anywhere else in Europe: the perfect reason to visit its craft beer bars and discover how modern brewers are reimagining the country’s centuries-old farmhouse microbrewing tradition. When I visited last month, I travelled backwards in brewing time, starting out in modern Bambalynė and working my way back through the best pubs for country beers.
Bambalynė itself is an anachronism. Tucked just off a medieval street, the cellar bar is stacked with brightly labelled bottles, its exposed brick walls echoing during my visit with happy hardcore remixes of Alice Cooper hits. The bar is opposite Lokys (Stiklių str 8), a terrific restaurant specialising in medieval Lithuanian food – including roasted beaver – where a three-course meal with drinks included cost me just £18.
The range at Bambalynė is extensive but staff speak good English and are happy to matchmake: Caroline hitched me to three dark ales: 666 (I must have looked really into the Alice Cooper), which tasted like cherry chocolate; Varniuku, a toasty, honeyed dark beer; and the amazing bitter beer, Raudonųjų dobilų, made from red clover blossoms.
This last tipple is a great example of how Lithuanian breweries are revitalising traditional styles. Local beer is typically sweet, session strength – between 4% and 5% – and flat. Its distinctive earthy taste comes from malt and yeast rather than hops. But younger drinkers, Caroline explains, want stronger beer and quirkier flavours, and brewers are responding as their elders would have: by adding herbs, spices, fruits and vegetables.
Nearby at Aline Leiciai (Stiklių g 4), a restaurant and brew pub owned by the same people as Bambalynė, I find another example: a beer brewed with roasted hemp seeds for a nutty flavour.
None of this is to suggest that the traditional farmhouse brewers are struggling. Lithuanian breweries were nationalised under Soviet rule (1940-1991), and beer recipes standardised, but underground homebrewing in hamlets and farmhouses continued. Following independence, a number of these surviving brewers became private businesses. One of the best places to sample country beers is in another Vilnius basement, Alaus Namai (Alberto Goštauto g 8), which is just outside the old town beside the wide river Neris. Finding the bar itself is a bit like a level of the Crystal Maze: push on through the many closed doors and keep heading down. I tried the rich and creamy Širvenos, a light beer brewed with peas, a trick used in Soviet times when grain was scarce. All four of the country-style beers on offer were good – my favourite was Senoliu Senovinis, by Su Puta, a brewery that was among the post-Soviet farmhouse conversions. A glass of unfiltered beer made with its ancestral yeast cost 81p.
The bar – a student favourite and a strange cross between a nightclub and a sports bar – also does a good line in beer snacks: deep-fried rye bread sticks loaded with grated garlic, or a more adventurous beer soup and pig’s ears.
I saved what is arguably Lithuania’s most famous country ale, Jovaru Alus, for Snekutis (Šv Stepono g 8), where it’s the house brew. The bar is one in a chain of three – this tiny outpost, overflowing with kegs, barrels and glassware, is close to the station. Jovaru Alus is made by the queen of farmhouse brewers Aldona Udriene, in a hamlet in Jovarai, northern Lithuania, and is uniquely wonderful. Don’t be put off by the fermented, cabbagey nose: underneath, the beer is rich and tastes of peaches and honey.
A short walk west is Senoji trobele (Naugarduko g 36), a restaurant renowned for Lithuanian dishes such as spinach and potato dumplings, pork neck with wine sauce, and cornbread with linseeds, sunflower seeds and oats. It also has fine beers from nearby Rinkuskiu brewery. My waiter, Gytis, laments tourists’ lack of interest in Lithuanian beer: “People go to the centre of town and try beer from Švyturys (Lithuania’s industrial-scale brewer, owned by Carlsberg), but it tastes awful! Here, I recommend the old-style beer.”
But there was no need for Gytis to evangelise. Having discovered Vilnius’s craft beers in medieval streets overlooked by countless church spires, I’d already been converted.
• Liz Dodd paid for her own trip; her beer blog, It Comes In Pints, is at icipints.com. Wizz Air flies to Vilnius from Doncaster, Liverpool and Luton; Ryanair flies from Liverpool and Stansted
MORE CHEAP-BEER BREAKS
Brno, Czech Republic
Prague’s sister city boasts cavernous churches, a museum dedicated to geneticist Gregor Mendel, and an enormous ossuary. Pegas is a hotel with its own microbrewery (doubles from €75 B&B). Head to craft beer pub Ochutnávková pivnice (Lidická 1860/10) for rarer beers from Czech brewers such as Falkon and Nachod.
Cologne, Germany
Cologne is famous for Kölsch, a crisp, light lager-like beer. In the city’s huge brewhouses, you can try it for £1.23 a glass. Start at Früh (Am Hof 12-18), a century-old brewpub in the shadow of the spectacular cathedral; then work your way around its rivals Gaffel am Dom (Bahnhofsvorplatz 1) and Peters Brauhaus (Mühlegasse 1).
Riga, Latvia
Lithuania’s northern neighbour is also riding the craft beer wave. Folkklubs Ala Pagrabs (Peldu iela 19) – a folk club and underground beer bar in the old town – has around 20, mostly Latvian beers. For American-style IPAs, head to the microbrewery and craft beer bar Labietis Alus Darbnica, tucked into a small courtyard (Aristida Briana 9A-2).
