In just 12 years, St. Petersburg-based Baltika has become Europe's biggest brewery and the continent's No. 2 brand of beer

Europe's biggest brewery in Russia's second city has created the continent's No. 2 beer brand in just 12 years as it tries to meet the almost insatiable thirst of Europe's fastest-growing beer market. The Baltika brewery in the sprawling northern suburbs of St. Petersburg started brewing the Baltika brand only in 1992, and said Friday that it outsells beers in Europe with hundreds of years of history like Carlsberg, Kronenbourg and Stella Artois. Baltika's success has mirrored the remarkable growth of the Russian beer market. Ten years ago it was half the size of the British market, now it has leapfrogged ahead and is the world's fifth-largest after China, the United States, Germany and Brazil. The St. Petersburg brewery has been virtually rebuilt over the last 10 years to make it Europe's biggest and its top brand Baltika now has Europe's top brand, Heineken, in its sights. BBH, owned 50-50 by Britain's Scottish & Newcastle PLC and Denmark's Carlsberg controls a beer empire that stretches across nine time zone from the Ukraine to the Pacific coast, brews one in three of Russian beers and sells through half a million outlets across Russia.