Ukrainian Beer

[mdante99]

Does anyone has an opinion about Ukrainian beer? I found it to be very good.
I am thiknig of importing the beer to USA. It is available wholesale for about 20 cents a bottle in Ukraine.

Thanks.
Mark

[RW]

... in response to Ukrainian Beer, posted by mdante99 on Dec 9, 2001

Mark,

Have you looked into "business" aspects of this deal?

My findings on insurance, custom taxes and fees, etc were not optimistic at all.... May be it is different story shipping from Russia than Ukraine, but I doubt.  

Also, Russian and Ukranian beer tastes so much better because it does not have preservatives as mentioned before, but it means that you will have much shorter period before it's past due date. In my "previous life" in Russia I did work on the projects with local breweries and that was one of the major problems for them to start importing.

[mdante99]

... in response to Re: Ukrainian Beer, posted by RW on Dec 10, 2001

RW:
Here is the result of my preliminary research.

It is not possible to import beer from Russia and make a profit because of the costs.

The Ukrainians however are actively promoting Obolon beer to foreign countries.
The price is around 20 cents in Kiev; by the time it gets to New York, the wholesale cost is about 40 cents a bottle.
The manufacturer has also added prservatives so that the shelf life is about six months.
The Latvian are marketing their Zelta beer to foreigners.

The Baltic beer is also very good and is available in USA in some stores.

Also the Czech are actively promoting their beer for exports.
Developing the initial business is difficult, but I think Americans will like the taste of it.

RW, I have tackled far more difficult tasks before; like convincing my wife to marry me, so this should be easy :-).

Mark

[RW]

... in response to Re: Re: Ukrainian Beer, posted by mdante99 on Dec 10, 2001

Good for you, I am just curious as I have done a lot of research on that topic as well.

But still.... all the freight, taxes, customes fees (US + Ukraine), brokerage fees, possible USDA inspection+ storage add up only 20c a bottle? That's pretty good deal if it is so...  Also, is it already certified in US?

In the worst case you just drink it all or announce a special sale on this board ))

Russian Wife

[mdante99]

... in response to Re: Re: Re: Ukrainian Beer, posted by RW on Dec 10, 2001

The beer has to be imported in large quantities to reduce the costs as you described.
The Baltic beer is already available in USA though only sporadically. The Czech beer is available fairly commonly in the stores. I am trying to follow and see how the Czechs have succeeded.
In the meantime, I am getting free samples shipped over to me; not bad :-).

Mark

[Ramblin]

... in response to Re: Re: Re: Re: Ukrainian Beer, posted by mdante99 on Dec 10, 2001

Why don't you just brew your own beer and market it, that would save all of those import costs that were mentioned?

[Richard]

... in response to Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Ukrainian Beer, posted by Ramblin on Dec 11, 2001

But would he be able to duplicate the taste of the Ukrainian beer?  Some of us like the taste.  I like Slavutych and a brand from Odessa.  (Sorry, only had it once and don't remember the name.)

[JohnG]

... in response to Ukrainian Beer, posted by mdante99 on Dec 9, 2001

While in New York, I took Olga to the Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn, which has stores, shoppes, restaurants, etc. all in Russian. There we were able to buy her favourite Russian beers for less money than we pay for American beer, and in those larger bottles.

However, Olga has adapted my love for Corona with a lime ;=)

[Rags]

... in response to Re: Ukrainian & Russian Beer, posted by JohnG on Dec 10, 2001

V wanted me to buy some peeva so I got my favorite, Pacifico. She wasn't impressed with it so the next trip to the store I bought some Coors (Curs). She thought it was much better. Go figure. At least it's much cheaper!

[WilliamMGi]

... in response to Ukrainian Beer, posted by mdante99 on Dec 9, 2001

Have Ukrainian beers gotten better over the past few years?
Last time I was there was 1995.  The beer in the hotel was very poor, like a batch of Stroh's gone bad.  Beers on the street weren't much better, when we could even get service.  

[DE]

... in response to Ukrainian Beer, posted by mdante99 on Dec 9, 2001

With large Russian and Ukrainian populations in major cities and with large chains in the bigger cities like Beverages and More that have large international selections, you shouldn't have too much difficulty rapidly expanding once you get your foot in the door.  Get the stuff over here ASAP!  I'm sure I can convert a lot of my friends to it.  BTW, does the ATF regulate the ETOH content of beers sold in America?

[wsbill]

... in response to Ukrainian Beer, posted by mdante99 on Dec 9, 2001

They have it.  Or possibly in the Chicago area.

[cherokee]

... in response to Ukrainian Beer, posted by mdante99 on Dec 9, 2001

rtg

[Oatmeal]

... in response to Ukrainian Beer, posted by mdante99 on Dec 9, 2001

My vote is for Slavutich.

It was a much heavier and stronger beer than Obolon and seemed to have a much higher alcohol content too, but I liked the taste much better than Obolon.

I was told that Obolon used to be really good but the quality of that beer has really gone down in recent times.

The only one thing I did not like about the Slavutich beer was that you woke up the next day feeling like you were run over by a Mac truck.  It was like drinking twice the amount of Obolon.

I guess that is the price for good taste, so to speak.

[Rags]

... in response to Ukrainian Beer, posted by mdante99 on Dec 9, 2001

I'll vote for Obolon (from Kyiv) also and maybe some Crimean red wine. Careful on the wine as V brought back some wine labled "Kpèm" (Crimea) was actually from Dnipropetrovsk. (Don't be too impressed, V helped me spell that