Estonia
Breweries on the map
Narva Pruulikoda
At Estonia's far eastern edge, where Narva castle stares across the river at the Russian fortress of Ivangorod, Narva Pruulikoda brings craft beer to the country's most singular city. This neighbourhood microbrewery on Hariduse street, in the heart of Narva, brews approachable, well-made beers on a small scale, finally giving Estonia's third city a craft address of its own. In a largely Russian-speaking city shaped by Ida-Virumaa's industrial history, it embodies the local revival and rounds off a visit to the castle, the riverside promenade and the nearby Baltic seafront of Narva-Jõesuu perfectly.
Purtse Brewery
In autumn 2016, three friends set up a modern brewery in the old smithy of Purtse castle, a fortified residence from 1533 on the Ida-Virumaa coast. Purtse proudly claims its identity as Estonia's Wild East: rugged industrial landscapes, mines and chimneys inspired characterful beers with evocative names like Metsik Ida ('Wild East'), served all the way to Tallinn's finest restaurants. Muscular IPAs, honest lagers and special brews can be enjoyed on the spot at the castle's café-restaurant next door, whose medieval vaults also host concerts and banquets. The easternmost of Estonia's noted craft breweries — and one of its most distinctive.
Sillamäe Õlletehas · Sillamäe · Ida-Viru · Microcervecería
Sillamäe is one of Estonia's most surprising towns: a closed city in Soviet times, it preserves a 1950s ensemble of Stalinist architecture unique in the region, stepping down in terraces towards the Baltic. On Ranna street near the seafront, the small Sillamäe Õlletehas keeps the local brewing tradition alive with simple, honest beers produced in small batches for the town and its surroundings. With no website or tourist storefront, it remains a confidential address to be discovered on the spot, between the seaside promenade, Mere boulevard and the neoclassical façades: an authentic, endearing fragment of today's Ida-Virumaa.
No brewery for this initial.