The brewers taking stout back to Russia

“Later on, Catherine the Great was enthusiastic for Imperial Russian stout. She was proud she could drink as much of this strong, sweet beer as any Englishman.”

The stout needed to be strong. Beer with a lower alcohol content often froze on the journey over.

Some of the brewers on board have created their own versions of imperial stout.

And now they’re hoping Russians will rediscover a taste for it. That could be good news for British business – and British diplomacy.

“We have lots of smaller brewers represented here,” says project organiser Tim O’Rourke. “It may be really quite important for small brewers who are looking to expand and who are suffering a bit from sales in the UK.

“It’s not an easy market for us to penetrate but I think this is engendering goodwill. It’s almost like the ping pong diplomacy we had with the Chinese.”

Once on dry land, stout diplomacy begins in earnest. At the giant Baltika brewery in St Petersburg, the UK brewers make a collaboration imperial stout with the Russians as a symbol of cross-cultural friendship.