Beer Factory

On Wednesday, March 30, 2011, we went on an excursion to the Ochakovo Beer Factory. Everyone was extremely excited to go on this trip, which was evident by the extra participants we had accompanying us. We had additional students from Moscow State Agricultural Engineering University joining us on our trip, whom we had never met before. The company was welcome and served to excite us about what was in store for us (I mean, if people are giving up several hours for an event, it should be a pretty exciting one).
Once we arrived at the enormous beer factory, our tour guide joined us. She was extremely effervescent and eager to tell us all about the factory. Ochakovo is a Russian beer company that makes Kvac in addition to their many variations of lager. Our tour guide seemed very proud to be working at the facilities. Before we entered into the building, she elaborated our group on the agreement between the Russian military and Ochakovo Beer Company. Ochakovo would sponsor the military and supply beer and in return the military would provide support and protection. This was relevant in explaining the two tanks outside of the factory.
Upon entering the building, we changed into white lab coats and placed covers over our shoes. Maintaining a sterile environment is extremely important to the factory, as it is a hub of Ochakovo Beer, providing it throughout the world from that specific location. Once we changed into our attire, our tour guide elaborate on the history of the production of beer. It was a very interesting and surprisingly violent process of crushing, beating, smashing, straining and squashing the grain into a pulp and then packing it into a barrel to ferment. It was quite comical to watch out tour guide bringing out the different tools and going through the motions.
After we were given the history of production, we were led into the room where the mash was stored. There were gigantic vats of mash containing 65,000 L each, and in which gigantic fans churned and mixed the solution. The mash is made from hops bought from Germany and the Czech Republic. It was interesting because this room was the only one we were not allowed to take pictures in. After going through the production room, we were shown the various marketing techniques and logos of the company. This included the stickers on the bottles of beer. The most interesting part of this was that recently they had a contest to find a new man to feature on the bottle. I couldn’t help but wonder how interesting it would be to have your face as the face of a beer company, and your picture on every bottle.
We were shown through the rooms where the yeast is stored. The yeast is also bought from Germany in small quantities. In these rooms, the yeast grows enough to fill several gigantic tanks and is used up to 5 times, after which it is no longer useful. This yeast is mixed with the mash and water and fermented. When it is time to cool the beer it is transferred into a very chilly room containing extremely large tanks. Each of these tanks can hold 700,000 bottle of beer. There is an extremely high number of tanks, so you can only imagine how much beer is located in this factory.
The most interesting aspect of this factory was how extremely modern and European it was. There were very few workers because everything was operated mechanically. The Russian students were not quiet about their awe over the vastness of the factory either. I believe that everyone had an excellent time at the factory and I would love to go back again. Oh, and yes, we did have a beer tasting at the end of the excursion. However, beer does not taste very good to me at 4:00 in the afternoon so that was not my favorite part of the trip. I’m sure others enjoyed that very much though! ☺