ex-yu 4 - inb4 summer

Anyway, superb festival - really thrilled with the generally high quality of beers I’ve judged.

Nova Runda, now in Jastrebarsko, has rebrewed Brale, their American brown ale and it’s supposed to be very good, can’t wait to try it again! :)

BaD Brewery, an upcoming micro that’s awaiting official papers to start official distribution (will be limited to a pub in Zagreb) has debuted on the festival with a very good Pale Ale.

Visited the Ima & Može Craft beer festival in Mostar - organized in a mere 20ish days by the tireless Arslan, the American-based spiritus movens of the Oldbridž Brewery in Mostar.

It was supposed to feature both homebrewers and craft producers, but, unfortunately, a part of the Mostar homebrewing scene is at odds with the Oldbridž guys so, in the end, we only got 2 Mostar crews - the Džudžan guys with their very good Turbo Folk Pale Ale, and another, with their pretty good Märzen. Another PivarKA from Sarajevo, who was one of the stars of the show with his superb Mosaic Pale Ale, and an awesome Stout - but his Bourbon-aged Vanilla Porter (though a bit too young), IPA, Summer Ale and Amber ale were not far off. Another strong presentation was from a crew from Donji Vakuf - called Sherman’s I think, though my mind is a bit blurry on the matter. And that’s it when it comes to homebrewers from B&H. The Udruga Hmelj association in Split sent 2 beers too, but only Barbarossa’s (who took me along with him) very interesting Red IPA was poured.

The craft scene was immensely varied and en par with just about any festival on the scene. Starting with Oldbridž - who got a nice little Grodziskie (that’s right, Grodziskie brewed in Herzegovina!), a superb Nelson Session Pale Ale, an interesting Oatmeal Cookie Brown Ale, and, finally, an infection-free Red Ale - they changed the infected fermenters so their beer can finally shine fully. They also had a bottled English Mild (from a test batch), and, apparently a Gose (!!!) - though the latter wasn’t ready.

From the area, we also got the cool Lovac guys from Široki Brijeg - whose Pale Ale was much better than when I had it on tap - a genuinely nice beer now. They also brough a work-in-progress IPA and bottles of their Porter. Livanjsko brought their lager-like, nicely clean Pale Ale, and we never got to try their Porter though it was supposed to come. Hercegovacka - the local "small macro" brought, exclusively, an unfiltered version of their regular pale lager, Hercegovacko, which was suprisingly decent. They also had their nice dark lager Kosaca - and some dry hopped versions (by Arslan) of their beers, which unfortunately also didn’t get on tap. Sarajevo’s Brew Pub was also there with their interesting hAPA and the Summer Wild Wit which we didn’t get to try unfortunately.

Serbia was represented by two breweries - Kabinet, whose Melisa, though great in Slovenia, wasn’t in great form, and their Plavo, which sadly didn’t get its turn. And, on their debut - RazBEERBriga from Indija, a cool little new outfit that brought a Single Hop Red IPA, which many people thought was great - and an American Stout, which was even better. Great job, guys!

Croatia came in nearly full force - Varionica guys were there with their Pale Ale, and Nova Runda and Zmajska sent their Pale Ales in too, all in great form! Medvedgrad sent their Fakin IPA too, props to them. There was Vunetovo A La Americana and Hefeweizen as well, as great as ever!

I have not seen a dissatisfied person in the room, it was that brilliant a party, in a beautiful town with great, generous people. On top of everything, there was even brewing going on as demnostration outside. There were unfortunately less people than expected, perhaps, so beer did not go as fast as it should have - so several beers were left untried, as the number of taps was limited, and people basically had to go home at a certain point, taking their remaining beer with them. There are, obviously, growing pains, but MAN am I thrilled to be able to write these lines. Hopefully, it will go on next year too. :)

Also, there will finally be some proper craft beer in Montenegro - as of next week! :) An outfit called Big Hoof has had its Brown Porter brewed by/at Nova Runda here in Croatia. Nova Runda’s going there to help educate people about craft beer, and maybe, maybe, we’ll get to see some of their own craft beer, brewed in-country! :)

http://www.ratebeer.com/brewers/big-hoof-brewery/23561/

MBC from Požega has released their first beer - a SMASH called Slawoner Pivo. Aurora hops, 4.5%, and apparently instantly beloved by people from that area who got to try it. Hope to try it soon, it’s bound to be a great summer beer:
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/mbc-slawoner-pivo/343920/

Two more collectives from Dalmatia plan to open up commercial micros of sorts. An all-female outfit who call themselves Brlog Pivovara is planning to start a brewery in Zadar:
https://www.facebook.com/BRLOGpivovara?fref=ts

And plans are largely in motion for Barbarossa to open his own brewery:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/BarbarossaGarage-Brewery/712806015495847?fref=ts

The scene is exploding and I’m damn proud to be a part of it. I’m just sad that I wasn’t able to attend a seemingly great festival in Belgrade that was on at the same time as the one in Mostar.

Hi all.

I will be going to Rijeka from 9th to 14th of August, are there any recommendations? I am especially looking for a decent shop where I can buy some interesting beers.

Originally posted by Sebilinz
Hi all.

I will be going to Rijeka from 9th to 14th of August, are there any recommendations? I am especially looking for a decent shop where I can buy some interesting beers.

Thanks for the answer. Perhaps I will go to Pula to visit a friend. Are there any decent bars in Rijeka, which are not mentioned in the places?

Beertija and King’s Cafe should have good selections of Croatian craft beers, not sure about Flumen, maybe.

Already planned to visit Kings Café maybe also the other two. Will try to go to Pula.
Thanks for the advise.

I’ll also be in the Rijeka-Krk area from 10 july and 2 weeks onward. I’ve heard you should be able to buy Zmajska’s beer in a store called Fabian, somewhere in Rijeka. Apart from that I haven’t found anything interesting that’s not mentioned here already. Any tips would be appreciated! I might have access to a rental car for a few days, so if there’s anything worth visiting that’s not too far away..?

Is there anyone located in Rijeka or nearby during that time that’d be interested in some bottle swapping?

I’m planing a trip in April next year to some cities in that area, starting with Zagreb-Sarajevo-Podg orica-Pristina-Tir ana-Thessaloniki-S ofia-Skopje-Belgra d. If I can make it Bucarest, Chisinau, Tiraspol and Odessa via train from Sofia or Belgrad. It will be a short beer trip with only few tourist stuff. I will be in most cities only for some hours and will have to make a good plan where to go.