Piebalgas alus

Founded in 1989, on the eve of the Soviet collapse, in the county of Piebalga — reputedly Latvia's most ecologically pristine — the Jaunpiebalga brewery was built around the legendary brewmaster Gunārs Barviķis, creator of dozens of recipes including the famous dark Sātans of the 1990s. Faithful to the 1516 Reinheitsgebot and the brewers' code of honour, it remains one of the rare Latvian houses to practise open fermentation, with a unique house yeast preciously preserved at the Latvia University of Agriculture. Its rounded, living lagers, including the Lux, are earned like a well-kept secret of deepest Vidzeme.