A German-style microbrewery with three styles of excellent homemade beer is not, perhaps, what one might expect to turn up in your average desert city. But then Baku is no average desert city. The beer-making equipment was imported, along with recipes and all the key ingredients, straight from the fatherland and is now housed upstairs in a spotless controlled environment – the old-school copper apparatus on display down below being for decorative purposes only. Plans are afoot for a bottling plant, which will be housed elsewhere, due to noise complaints from neighbours, but for now, Salm Brau, as the light, medium and dark brews are collectively known, is available only here. Bavarian waitress uniforms, the carved pine-clad room, with its German country kitchen-style snug out back and the delicious sausages on the excellent bar menu all compliment the teutonic theme nicely.