OnTap Magazine

ontapmag.co.za | Spring 2025 | 39 C entral Asia isn’t a place you think to visit for the beer. This is a majority Muslim region without much of a culture of beer drinking, the locals enjoy fermented horse milk, and brewing ingredients need to be imported. However, that doesn’t mean the region is dry. Luckily, for the intrepid drinker, Central Asia not only tolerates drinking but actively encourages it - especially if you’re subject to a friendly kidnapping by vodka wielding locals. I travelled to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Three vastly different countries with hugely varying cultures and landscapes, but united in a love for sometimes terrible beer, often served out of plastic bottles, but enjoyed in dedicated beer bars. This being said, there is a lot of good. If you find yourself in a large city in central Asia you can locate craft beer bars catering to locals and foreigners alike, often with regional specialties such as sea buckthorn sours on the menu. These are often owned by local breweries and generally serve good beer alongside snacks such as chechil, a chewy smoked cheese, and qurat, a crumbly and chalky cheese that looks like little white pebbles. In Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, you find Auster Bar. They serve beer from Sigma Brau - arguably the best craft brewery in Kazakhstan - as well as a few imported cans. Here you can get properly poured pints (or occasionally poured from a saxophone, if you ask nicely) with a distinct Central European influence. We tried the Kölsch and Premium Pils, both were carefully made and well-lagered with delicate noble hop character. The Ludmilla tomato Gose, however, is brewed with smoked tomato, mango, and Worcestershire sauce, and similar in appearance to a Bloody Mary. These tomato beers are for sale all over Central Asia, and are becoming more popular in Eastern Europe too, although I do struggle to understand why. Most beer in Kazakhstan is from the local macro-breweries, owned by Efes and Carlsberg, as well as a local conglomerate that produces Shymkent lager. Kazakhstan is also the biggest export market for Baltika, with sanctions on Russian goods having little impact on the popularity of Russian beer. Kazakhstan, however, is trying to move away from the Russification that blighted the latter half of the 20th century, and signs and official documents are now being written in Kazakh - using the Latin alphabet. Although Russian beer is still popular, young Kazakhs are using traditional Central Asian flavours in food and drinks, with a real push towards neo- nomadic cuisine. As this drive towards pride in Kazakh products continues, I’d not be surprised to see the influence of Baltika declining sharply in the near future. Moving south to Bishkek, the cosy and