We sat on hops

Pivovars are trying to blow away foam from sanctions

Our life is like beer: it is dark, then bright ...

The beer itself provides a bright side to many, and it is so far. But is it possible to name the life of a bright one when there is no longer a big football for us, and with beer we have to watch Krasnodar - “Ural”. At the same time, the prospect is even darker, even if they show us the Russian team. She was deprived of the name, anthem and flag, but our sports lovers are already used to such intrigues of international federations. And recently, the matter is that the fans will be deprived of beer, and they will not endure such barbarism ...

What's happening? Pivovars of prominent foreign companies in connection with events in Ukraine begin to turn their activities in Russia. First, the Dutch Heineken, a world leader in premium beer varieties, announced the termination and sale of her brand brand. Then the Danish concern Carlsberg, since 2000, having owed the Baltika, in Russia, made a similar message on his website. We will not see on the shelves and Czech beer Pilsner Urquell, Velikopopovisky Kozel, Gambrinus, Budweiser Budvar ...

It is ridiculous to remember how I once first tried Czech beer. My now deceased friend Vasya Turenko in Soviet times served as an electrician on the ship, who drove tourists along the Volga. Once, the ship was inhabited by tourists from the GDR, and the river shipping company was especially taken care of-from somewhere, boxes with Czech beer were taken aboard. It is clear that the crew was not supposed to be, but the electrician on the ship is an influential person, without him, refrigeration units do not work in the restaurant’s kitchen. I don’t know if Vasya threatened the director of the restaurant with a short circuit, but when I visited it during the ship's ship in Kazan, two bottles of Czech beer (I don’t remember which brand) stood on the table in his cabin. Until that moment, I believed that beer is only “Zhigulevskoye”.

The word "happens" is inaccurate here. Either it happens, or it does not happen. There was no beer more often. Or it happened only in the most unexpected place.

So, in my student years in Kazan, beer was sometimes found in the buffet of the Opera Theater. And since tickets were not sold directly to the buffet, beer lovers had to pretend to be fans of opera singing.

They bought tickets for the second tier, impatiently hatched the first act, and in the break rushed into the buffet, where two bottles for an expert on the arts were issued. Some experts did not return to the hall. Hearing in the first act: "Oh give, give me freedom!" - They left the buffet home, never learning whether they gave the hero freedom, at least conditionally.

However, at that time, the total deficit of beer was the norm, and no one expressed the slightest indignation about this. Now the generation of consumers has grown up, and some of them already look so that put them into line - and they will be equal to the stomach of the fourth person.

Destroying beer lovers means causing indignation of millions of bulky men. And this is not a mournful squeak of women about the lack of imported cosmetics. Domestic brewers are ready to at least partially fill the barrel, but the requirement of creditors and suppliers of Khmeel and Solod: “Money for a barrel!” - In the new conditions, it is difficult. Hops and malt have risen sharply. And if the malt is its own, then according to the hops, the industry almost completely depends on the import. The Union of Russian Pivovars has already addressed a letter to Mikhail Mishustin. According to Kommersant, the premiere is asked to study the issue of subsidizing loans of the industry participants, which will maintain deliveries and prevent bankruptcy. The letter is business and restrained, but they could directly write that the lack of velvet beer could cause a velvet revolution in the country.

But this is so, to scare the government to give money. Local unrest is quite possible, and beer can turn into liquid currency, convertible no worse than vodka. And since I was here in memories, then, by right of a gray beard, I will tell you another story about the power of beer.

In my youth, for some reason, I studied at the Faculty of Faculty of University, and after the fourth year with my group I took a three-month practice at the potassium plant in Berezniki. A good Ural town, but after a couple of months we were pulled home. And we left safely. How did it happen?

One morning, two comrades and I left the hostel and saw how a crowd of men storms the truck from which they sell beer. There was no beer in Berezniki, he was sometimes brought from Solikamsk. We realized that such a chance cannot be missed. We wedged into the crowd, and after about fifteen, each of us pressed to his chest, to a shirt with torn buttons, three bottles of beer (they didn’t give more hands more). We went to the plant and put on the table the head of the workshop 9 (nine!) Bottle. He immediately silently composed the paper that a group of Kazan students worked at the plant in full three months. We were afraid that he would not let him go alone, since there were nine bottles, and students were ten, but the boss, apparently, lost his account from excitement.

Such is the prose of life, although taking into account the role of beer in our life, such memories should be written in verses. However, penetrating verses about beer have long been written. Take Evgeny Yevtushenko, “Northern Usebavka”: “Is it true, Comrade Chief, in America, beer in iron banks?” - "This is for those who have a currency in banks ..."

Sorry, the currency in banks is not by the time.