Beer in Serbia and Montenegro

Serbia and Montenegro
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Beer in Serbia and Montenegro (Serbian language: пиво/pivo) is rarely talked of outside of its state, regardless of its quality.

Contents

1 Appearance 2 Quality 3 Breweries and brews 4 Beer festivals 5 External links

Appearance

Beer is mostly sold in half litre bottles (empty bottles must be exchanged while buying or if not, bottles must be bought with beer as well); cans are less common and canned beer could be of slightly better quality. Recently, most breweries began packing beer in plastic bottles of 1.5 or even two litres. This beer is cheaper though equal in quality.

Most beer that is produced is light beer. Dark beer is rarer (almost every larger brewery produces dark beer but in such small quantities that it is hard to find it). Some breweries also produce kvass or a similar drink.

Beer in glass bottles costs around 45 dinars (0.69 euros) per litre while in plastic it could go as low as 35 dinars (0.54 euros) per litre. Beer in pubs costs around 100 dinars (1.54 euros) per litre. Of course, it is possible to buy foreign beer in better equipped stores, of these Heineken being most popular; but it is inaccesible to average citizens.

Quality

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

In an on-line poll[1] (http://www.krstarica.com/eng/poll/index.php?anketa=125) conducted by the largest Serbian search engine Krstarica.com, 5304 visitors have voted on what is the best domestic beer. The winner was Jelen with 30% of the votes, followed by MB with 26%, and Nikšićko with 16% while all other brews have 7% or less votes. Of these, Jelen has richer taste and especially smell than MB but causes signifficantly worse hangover; while Nikšićko is a class of its own, being about 50% more expensive than other brews.

It is important to know a phenomenon caused by competition between breweries, most notably between the breweries of Apatin and Belgrade. When one brewery starts making beer of higher quality, more and more people start buying it; because of high demand the brewery begins hyperproduction of beer, and as a result of this its quality drops; meanwhile the other brewery, having low sales, improves the quality in order to attract customers; people switch back to it and the circle starts again.

Breweries and brews

• In Serbia
  • Apatin: Apatinska pivara (Apatin brewery)
    • Jelen pivo (Deer beer)
  • Bečej: Pivara Bečej www.pivara.co.yu
    • Old Gold - light and dark
    • Gerber's - light and dark
  • Belgrade: Beogradska industrija piva (BIP) (Belgrade Beer Industry) www.bip.co.yu/fpuppivo.htm, in Serbian
    • Bg
    • Bip (БИП)
    • Premium Pils
    • Ruski kvas (Russian kvass) - kvass
  • Belgrade: Kasina - brewpub
  • Čelarevo: Pivara Čelarevo (Brewery Čelarevo) www.carlsberg.co.yu
    • Lav pivo (Lion beer)
  • Jagodina: Jagodinska pivara (Jagodina brewery)
    • Jagodinsko pivo (Jagodina beer)
    • Simbol (Jagodina export brew)
  • Niš: Niška pivara (Niš brewery)
    • Superior
    • Apel (only in 0.33l bottles)
  • Novi Sad: Pivara MB (Brewery MB)
    • MB Premium
  • Pančevo: Pivara Pančevo (Pančevo brewery) www.weifert.co.yu
    • Pančevačko ekstra (Pančevo extra)
    • Standard
    • Weifert
  • Peć: Pećka pivara (currently operating in Belgrade)
  • Peć: Biere e Peja (operating in facilities of Pećka pivara)
  • Ritiševo: Pivara Ritiševo (Brewery Ritiševo)
    • Krugher & Brent
  • Valjevo: Valjevska pivara (Valjevo brewery) www.valjevsko.co.yu
    • Valjevsko pivo (Valjevo beer)
  • Vršac: Vršačka pivara (Vršac brewery) www.vrsackapivara.co.yu, in Serbian
    • Šampion (Champion) - light and dark, plus two varieties
    • Zoffman
  • Zaječar: Zaječarska pivara (Zaječar brewery)
    • Zaječarsko pivo (Zaječar beer)
    • Pils plus
    • Nikola Pašić - dark beer
  • Zrenjanin: Zrenjaninska industrija piva (ZIP) (Zrenjanin Beer Industry) www.zip.co.yu
    • Rooster Beer
• In Montenegro
  • Nikšić: Nikšićka pivara (Nikšić brewery)
    • Nik Gold (Nikšić export brew)
    • Nik Cool (light beer)

Beer festivals

Dani Piva (days of beer) (www.zip.co.yu/dani_piva.asp) is a beer festival in Zrenjanin, started in 1985, organised by the Zrenjanin brewery Zrenjaninska industrija piva.

Much younger, but larger, is the Belgrade Beer Fest (www.belgradebeerfest.com), which is being held in Belgrade, in the Kalemegdan fortress. In addition to all domestic and various foreigns brews at affordable prices, the several day long festival has live music concerts each evening.

External links

• Site about beer in Serbia (http://www.cyber-pivo.co.yu) (in Serbian)
• Address book of most breweries in Serbia and Montenegro (http://www.serbiafood.co.yu/directory/pivo.htm)