Beer in Serbia

Old Jelen pivo bottle
Old Lav pivo bottle

Beer in Serbia (Serbian language: пиво / pivo) is not well known or famous outside of its national borders.

Packaging

Beer for home consumption is mostly sold in 0.5-litre bottles of deposit type (reused) and 0.33-litre glass bottles, as well as cans. Recently, most breweries began packing their product in plastic Q-pack bottles of 1.5, 2 or even 2.5 litres. In bars and restaurants, beer is either served in 0.33 or 0.5L bottles, or as "draught" (točeno).

Legislation

Serbia does not have legislation that limits liquor sales to specific licensed places. Hence beer (and any other liquor) can be purchased anywhere, including kiosks, supermarkets, grocery shops, gas stations and convenience shops, though sales to underage persons is prohibited.

Market

Pale lager dominates in Serbia, and dark lager, while being popular, is produced in smaller quantities. Some breweries produce kvass. Some European and American brands are distributed, while some are produced locally under license (mostly by its respective brand owners).

Quality

Which brew is the best, and indeed which brews are good or bad is, of course, a disputed subject.

Belgrade Beer Fest organizes opinion polls of its visitors. The results, per year, are:

Year123
2005[1]JelenTuborgMB
2006[2]JelenTuborgWeifert
2007[3]Jelen

In a February 2004, in an online poll conducted by krstarica.com, the largest Serbian search engine, 5304 visitors voted on what is the "best domestic beer". The winner was Jelen, with 30% of the votes, followed by MB (26%), and Nikšićko (16%) (produced in present-day Montenegro), while all other brews received 7% or less votes.[4]

Breweries and beers

In Serbia

Зајечарско пиво амбалажа
Niško

In Nemenikuce, next to Kosmaj, is the place of the first Serbian craft brewery that does unfiltered and unpasteurized beers like India Pale Ale, American Pale Ale, Belgian Blond, Porter and more, the name is Kabinet Brewery,[11]

Foreign brands brewed in Serbia

Beer festivals

Belgrade Beer Fest

Main article: Belgrade Beer Fest
Belgrade Beer Fest 2008

Started in 2003, Belgrade Beer Fest is held annually over 3–4 days at the foot of Belgrade's Kalemegdan fortress as a showcase event for various beer producers. In addition to domestic and foreign brews at affordable prices, the festival features live music performances each evening. It has quickly grown in size and popularity.[12] On 31 December 2005 British daily The Independent named it as one of the worldwide events to visit in 2006.[13]

Dani piva

Dani Piva (Beer Days) is a beer festival in Zrenjanin, started in 1985, organised by the Zrenjanin brewery (Zrenjaninska industrija piva).[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://2005.belgradebeerfest.com/sr/vesti.html#anketa
  2. ↑ "Belgrade Beer Fest - Vest". 2006.belgradebeerfest.com. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
  3. ↑ "Blic Online | Popilo se 600.000 litara piva". Blic.rs. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
  4. ↑ On-line "best domestic beer" poll, krstarica.com
  5. ↑ "Carlsberg Srbija". Carlsbergsrbija.rs. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
  6. ↑ "Beogradska industrija piva" (in Serbian). BIP. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
  7. ↑ Valjevska pivara
  8. ↑ "Zatvara se Pančevačka pivara". Pancevo.co.rs. 2008-10-18. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
  9. ↑ Pivara Bečej
  10. ↑ "regionalni poslovni portal". SEEbiz.eu. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
  11. ↑ http://www.kabinet.rs
  12. ↑ Belgrade Beer Fest, www.belgradebeerfest.com
  13. ↑ Where in the world will you be? The Independent, 31 Dec 2005.
  14. ↑ "Dani Piva". Danipiva.rs. 2012-09-23. Retrieved 2013-03-07.

External links

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