Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

The exhibits of the Lviv museum of beer brewing allow you to make a trip back in time and learn about the way the beer was made hundreds of years ago. Natasha Belyakova Find out all about the beer drinking traditions in Lviv in our travel report

itation seemed unexciting and even a little confusing. These “Lviv beer parties” were previously unknown to me: part of the tradition of drinking hot beer widespread in the western part of Ukraine. An opportunity to visit Ukraine’s only Brewing Museum sounded attractive as well.

My decision to go was made quickly. After all, how could one not enjoy two days of drinking beer in Lviv?! This December I went to Lviv, to see and try it all for myself.

Lviv of a time

Lviv is hands down the most European city of Ukraine. It often feels so akin to Vienna that one could start wondering why these Viennese had all started speaking Ukrainian and complaining about their unreliable water supply.

Volumes have already been written about the lure of Lviv. There are countless reasons to take the usually overbooked late-night train to Lviv and, after the eight hour-ride, exit into the irresistibly cozy train station – the only one in Ukraine where the entire platform is covered with a steel roof, creating the feeling that the train itself is inside the station building.

Of course, you can go to the opera – if you are lucky, the taxi driver who takes you there will tell you the story of how it was built exactly on top of what used to be the riverbed of an underground river, which had to be turned sideways, because of the construction work. After telling me this, the driver then confided that one of the downtown restaurants has an underground passage from where you can see a part of the river. The river itself has the ancient Polish-Galician name Poltva. The restaurant boasting such a value-added attraction is called Niagara—alas, under construction as well.

In Lviv you can endlessly roam the old cobblestone streets gaping at the churches. You can ascend to the Vysokiy Zamok (High Castle)—ruins of an old castle located on the highest hill of the city, stay there until it’s dark and enjoy the magnificent view of the entire city, shimmering with lights.

Or, you can go underground and explore the 17th century Pharmacy Museum, with its myriad of corridors and dark lit rooms, where you can see life-size figures of scary-looking medieval pharmacists, most of whom, not surprisingly, specialized in making poisons. According to legend, those grim “masters” couldn’t die themselves, until they had thrown out all their magic books and poison-making appliances.

If you don’t feel like sightseeing, you can just relax at one of the countless restaurants, or coffee houses (kavyarnyas), sipping on a cup of famous “Viennese” coffee or cognac, and taste local cuisine.

But none of these were options in my case, as something new and unknown was still awaiting me – the real Lviv beer drinking experience!

Some like it hot

Hutsulskiy Dvir (Hutsul Yard) (36 Shchyretska, (032) 295-2564) restaurant is said to be the very best place to experience the local tradition of wintertime hot beer partying.

By the restaurant entrance, there is a young man dressed as a monk watching a 20-liter cauldron full of foamy porter, steaming but not boiling, so that all the alcohol doesn’t evaporate from the drink. Every restaurant guest is invited to stop by and try it. To me, the hot porter appeared to taste much better than its more traditional, icy version. The flavorful drink was spiced with cinnamon, cloves and dry lemon peels. To make the taste thicker still, the “monk” added honey to the beer. “This is a cure for everything,” he added, possibly meaning the cold…

Inside the restaurant, which like all mountain Hutsul restaurants (usually called kolybas) had a fireplace in the middle, traditional fare of grilled meats, vegetables and delicious mushroom and cheese cakes to complement the beer drinking ceremony.

First came a clay mug of beer with a yolk in it – as a starter to avoid getting too drunk by the end of the ceremony. The next beer came with several spoons of sour cream (I was told it helps to boost a man’s potency). Though I found these drinks quite unusual to say the least, I was assured that this is the traditional way to drink beer during the Christmas holidays.

All this was accompanied by very amusing and almost unbelievable stories told by the restaurant’s hosts. One of the stories dealt with hot beer being used to help skiers to cure strained muscles – by rubbing the beer into the skin.

After the drinking ceremony it really felt like it was winter outside, despite the complete absence of snow and with temperatures well above freezing. The first thing that came to mind is getting into a hot sauna.

“Isn’t this what you would do in the snowy mountains during a cold winter?” asked the cheerful host, who, as it turned out was one of the first Ukrainian pop stars of the early 90’s, “Now do you see what Lviv beer-drinking is all about?”

Beer larger than life

Lviv beer makers, who make Lvivske and several other varieties, try to maintain a reputation of brewing beer according to ancient traditions. For instance they insist that their beer recipes date back to 1715 and were invented by monks. No wonder Ukraine’s first Museum of Beer Brewing opened in Lviv – just across from the brewery where Lvivske is produced.

There is indeed a lot to see at the museum. For instance there are wax figures of those monks, the very same ones that are said to have invented the recipes of Lvivske beer - they seem to be caught in the act of discussing every nuance of the beer they make and inscribing this all into an intimidating black leather book.

The museum employees claim that they intended to tell the world history of beer making, starting with the times of ancient Egypt. Alas, Donetsk-based brewers were the first to make the beer using what they claim is an ancient Egyptian recipe. At the Lviv museum, however, that period of beer making gets comprehensive and quite convincing depiction in the form of several mise en scenes involving ancient Egyptian brewers that are somewhat reminiscent of the National Museum in Cairo.

But it seems that the main idea behind the museum is to show that the Lviv tradition of brewing is somewhat superior to that of its closest neighbors Poland and Germany. And as you walk among the medieval and more recent barrels, beer mugs and other brewing and drinking devices, the tour guide provides you with comprehensive statistics about the number of breweries in Lviv and surrounding areas that, he says, were always higher than in other Polish or German cities in pre-Soviet times.

Probably the most amusing thing about the museum is its collection of 19th and early 20th century old bar equipment and beer advertising posters. You can even see tokens received by the employees of one of the breweries that could be exchanged for 0.5 free liters of beer at the end of a working day – a somewhat naive way of protecting quality, meaning that “they made beer as if for themselves.”

At the museum you can taste samples of what is made at the brewery. Usually, the tasting consists of two beer samples served with dry biscuits. Nothing else – even coffee – is offered at the museum’s bar, so as “not to distract you from tasting the beer itself,” the Museum employees explained.

Tasting the beer at the Museum was nothing spectacular, as the beer itself wasn’t any different from what you can find at every supermarket or kiosk carrying the Lvivske brand. The museum itself is definitely worth looking into. Apart from the story about Lviv’s brewing supremacy, it does provide an exciting and authentic look into how it all started in the area.

Getting there

First-class roundtrip train tickets for the overnight train cost Hr 650. Train #91 leaves Kyiv at 22:26 and arrives in Lviv at 6:41.

Aerosvit offers three daily flights to Lviv starting at Hr 250 roundtrip.

Staying there

Hotel Dnister (4 stars).6 Mateyka,(032) 297-4306. dnister.lviv.ua

Rooms available from Hr 400 for a standard single to Hr 1300 for a two-room suite (Breakfast included).

Museum of Beer Brewing (18 Kleparivska, (032) 294-8065). Open daily, exc. Tuesdays, from 10.30 a.m. till 6 p.m.