Join us on a tour of Russian vodka history from its inception through mass production under the tsars.

Welcome to the vodka factory of the company Keller & K°, founded by a Russian citizen with German roots. It opened in 1863 at the corner at what is today the Obvodny Canal Embankment and Zaozernaya Street in St. Petersburg.

It opened the same year – 1863 – that the state monopoly introduced by Empress Elizabeth in 1751 was laid to rest. While the monopoly and promotion of state-manufactured vodka had made the drink popular, commercial liberalization caused the prices to drop significantly, allowing even low-income citizens to purchase it.

According to legend, the first recipe of vodka was created around 1430 by Isidore, a monk living inside the Chudov Monastery in the Moscow Kremlin. The drink was made through the distillation of fermented cereal grains and was not as strong as today’s version – it never exceeded 40 percent ABV. // A laboratory.