Visited on: 
Monday 15th October 2018
Bob Thompson
Vaclac is a chain of three restaurants in St Petersburg. However, the one we visited on this day is the most important, as it is the one that houses the brewery. It is to be found in the Kalininsky district, north-west of the centre. You have to be fairly intrepid to get hear as there is no local metro station so it’s a journey by trolleybus and possibly a tram, to get here.
It was an unseasonably warm day considering it was mid-October in Northern Russia. Temperature was around 23°C as we walked under a cloudless sky from the trolleybus stop to the pub.
Inside we found a medium sized room with a stainless steel brewery in a room behind glass walls. At the back of the room we noticed the service counter.
The furniture was varnished wooden tables with a mixture of upholstered chairs and fitted comfortable bench-type seats.
The floor is tiled and to the right of the entrance we could see a sort of anti-room that had an area set up as a stage as there is live music on some nights. There were some large wide-screen TVs mounted on the walls as they also promote live sport. Although most of the guests this lunchtime were dining I got the impression that later in the evening there is more of a pub atmosphere here.
There is a good range of regular beers and these are: Пшеничное (Pshenichnoye) (4.3%), a wheat beer; Медное (Mednoye) (4.7%), a honey beer; Оригинальное (Originalnoye) (4.5%), Original, a Czech-style Pilsener; Красный Зль (Krasnyy El) (5.8%), a Red Ale; Дчнкель (Dunkel) (4.7%), a German Dunkel-style beer and Бишневое (Vishnevoye) (4.7%), a cherry beer.
Also, there were two special beers: Светлый Зль (Svetlyy El) (5.0%) a Light / Pale Ale and Молоный Стаут (Molokiya Stout) (7.0%), a Milk Stout. When in bottles it is Dr Hopkins Milk Stout. We must not forget Квас (Kvass) (1.2%), also brewed here. It’s a low alcohol beer liked by children. It’s unusual for a small brewery to make this traditional drink. Most of the beers are brewed to Czech recipes and only use malt and hops from that country, and Germany. All beers are non-pasteurized, even those that are bottled, so they are very fresh.
The food menu looked good and so if you want to taste good food and experience some extremely good beer then make the effort to visit this Brewery-Pub-Restaurant.
Important Information:
Vaclav/Вацлав, ul. Marshala Tuhachevskogo/ул. Маршала Тухачевского, 41, St. Petersburg 195067.
Tel: (812) 925 9611. Web: vaclav-beer.ru
Hours: Monday-Thursday 12.00-24.00; Friday-Saturday 12.00-01.00; Sunday 13:00-24:00
The nearest bus stop is ul. Marshala Tuhachevskogo/ул. Маршала Тухачевского. There are two useful buses. The 133 Bus comes here from Ploschad Lenin/Площадь Ленина, which is on Metro line 5.
Also the 16 Trolleybus may be of use. It runs very close to Ploschad Vosstaniya/Площадь Восстания.
This is also on Metro line 5. The stop get on (or off) at is Suvorovsky Prospekt/пр Сувоворовский. The city centre stop is in Nevsky Prospekt/пр Невский, about five minutes away from the square and Metro.
Whatever the situation you will need access to a good map.
