Beer in Serbia and Montenegro: Encyclopedia - Beer in Serbia and Montenegro

Beer in Serbia and Montenegro

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Serbia and Montenegro's beer (Serbian language: пиво/pivo) isn't really well-known or famous outside of its national borders, regardless of its quality. This is mostly because Serbia-Montenegro breweries' only target the domestic market.

Beer in Serbia and Montenegro - Appearance

Beer for home consumption is mostly sold in half-litre glass bottles (if buyer doesn't have empty bottles he can almosty always pay a deposit, which is returned after returning the bottle to the retailer), 0.33L bottles are rarer. Cans are less common even if canned beer could be of slightly better quality. Recently, most breweries began packing their product in plastic Q-pack bottles of 1.5, 2 or even 2.5 litres. This beer is cheaper though equal in quality. It's worth noting that unlike in countries like Canada or United States where beer is sold only in specialty beer and liqour stores, beer could be purchased in regular supermarkets and grocery stores all accross Serbia-Montenegro.

In bars and restaurants beer is mostly served in 0.33 or 0.5L bottles, or poured (točeno).

Most beer that is produced is light beer. Dark beer is more rare (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 (0.5 euros) per litre while in plastic it could go as low as 35 dinars (0.4 euros) per litre. Beer in pubs costs around 150 dinars (1.7 euros) per litre. In addition to various domestic brands, majority of bars serve the usual foreign fare such as Heineken, Beck's, Carlsberg, Tuborg, etc.

Beer in Serbia and Montenegro - Availability and Market Presence

In recent years, Serbia has seen a boom in beer-related advertising. Catchy slogans, large bilboards and polished TV spots featuring local celebrities or folksy characters lurk at every turn. It's highly improbable that more than 10 minutes will pass on any Serbian TV station without a beer commercial. Similarly in print media, page-long ads remind readers of joys of beer.

While some believe in-your-face presence of brands like Lav, Jelen, MB, Weifert, and Atlas actually produces a reverse effect, marketing experts point to significant increase in beer consuption among Serbs as proof that this kind of advertising works.

Breweries making these brands also sponsor large outdoor concerts, sports and entertainment events that further raise their public profile.

Beer in Serbia and Montenegro - Quality

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

In a February 2004 online poll[1] 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 received 7% or less votes. Of these, Jelen is the best and has richer taste and especially smell than MB but causes significantly 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.

Beer in Serbia and Montenegro - Breweries and brews

Beer in Serbia and Montenegro - In Serbia

• • Apatin: Apatinska pivara (Apatin brewery)
    • Jelen pivo (Deer beer)
    • Pils Light

• • 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)
    • Atlas Pils

• • 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

Beer in Serbia and Montenegro - In Montenegro

• • Nikšić: Trebjesa brewery
    • Niksicko pivo
    • Nik Gold (Nikšić export brew)
    • Nik Cool (light beer)
    • Niksicko tamno (dark beer)

Beer in Serbia and Montenegro - Beer festivals

Beer in Serbia and Montenegro - Dani piva

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.

Beer in Serbia and Montenegro - Belgrade Beer Fest

Started in 2003, Belgrade Beer Fest (www.belgradebeerfest.com), is held annually over 3-4 days at the foot of Belgrade's Kalemegdan fortress. In addition to domestic and foreign brews at affordable prices, the festival features live music performances each evening.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Beer in Serbia and Montenegro", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki