Author: Sloona Los

Posted: Mon Feb 16 19:53:32 -0800 2004

I have some unusual friends in different parts of the world from my younger traveling days.  They always enjoying trying beer from the Good Old USA.

This time, my travels brought me back to Moscow, Russia where I had spent the early 1990s trying to build Capitalism in the wacky post-Gorbachev Russian business era.  Many of the friends I made there had been into camping and hiking in Eastern Siberia.  The land out there is suprisingly like Montana, so I felt pretty certain that some Montana-hospitality would be well received.

So, last November, 2003, I checked a case of Moose Drool through airport baggage at Sea-Tac (each bottle individually  covered in bubble wrap).  The customs agents at first thought it was a little strange to be checking a case of beer, but the older of the two had tried Moose Drool and grinned and wished me good luck.  The beers arrived in no worse shape after traveling half way around the world.  

After getting through security at Sheremyetevo 2, I found my friend and we got into his KamAz truck and high-tailed it into Moscow back to his place.

Apparently, Moose Drool in Russian translates to "Sloona Losa" or "drool of the moose".  beer is called Pee-va, which when you think about it, really makes a lot of sense (enough said).

My friend's wife thought it was a pretty strange name for a beer, but decided that it was really named for guys and not for ladies (she could be wrong on this however).  She drank Moldavian red wine and that left more MDs for us.

We caught up on talking about fishing and hiking out in the hills and watched some of his homemade movies about getting his butt chased by bears in Siberia.

We saved a couple of beers so his other friends could try them and wish that they had such beer in The Motherland.

My friend liked Moose Drool so much that I had to mail him 6 pounder glasses with the color Moose Drool picture on the side.  I promised to bring him some beer coasters (podstavki) next time, if I can find them.

Party on and Na Zdarovtye! (Cheers!)

A fan from Moses Lake