Croatian Beer and Wine

upforit101

Heading to Croatia (Zadar) and surrounds in a few weeks time.
Just wondering if anyone had any recos on good Croatian craft Beer to look out for.

Any good craft beer pubs around Zadar?

Also are there any Croatian red wines similar to the Spanish Ribera del Duero (smooth, deep, fruity, no acidity)

Thanks

BeerNut

Croatia only has one small red wine producing area. The wines are passable but nothing special in my experience. I doubt you'll find much craft beer. The dark macro lagers are marginally nicer than the pale macro lagers.

neamhspleachi

Tomislav Pivo & Velebitsko Tamno Pivo are about the best to be had, dark dunkel type beers with an ABV of 6-7%

adamski8

I find croatia has some of the best wines ive ever had. Ive been around some of their vineyards last summer and visiting them again this year. Prices are keen too. Excellent reds/whites and they also specialise in ice wines although im not a fan of them.

Craft beer wise you can find oharas in big supermarkets there now and leffe is served in alot of pubs. They have virtually no craft beer to speak of except in a few brewpubs of the same chain in zagreb. Nearly all lagers everywhere else. Zadar is quite small and i dont remember seeing anything special there. Lasko dark isnt bad but rare enough and its actually slovenian. Tomislav dark is also ok.

They have loads of versions of radlers now but i would go with osjusko lemon, very nice on a hot day. If i had to pick one of their lagers id go with karlovacko which happens to be the biggest domestic available. Avoid PAN and FAVORIT, two of the worst beers ive had.

Mister Sifter

Anywhere in Dublin sell Croatian beer?

Ravelleman

Mister Sifter wrote: »

Anywhere in Dublin sell Croatian beer?

From the above, I can't imagine why anyone would.

adamski8

Mister Sifter wrote: »

Anywhere in Dublin sell Croatian beer?

Never seen it and don't think we ever will either.

slowharry

I was in dubrovnik about 10 years ago and I mainly drank this stuff. I remember liking it a lot but then agin that was back when I was still drinking budweiser

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/karlova269ko-pivo/9372/

adamski8

slowharry wrote: »

I was in dubrovnik about 10 years ago and I mainly drank this stuff. I remember liking it a lot but then agin that was back when I was still drinking budweiser

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/karlova269ko-pivo/9372/

Yeah i mentioned that as the best of a bad bunch of their lagers but as you see it got a 9!

Saruman

upforit101 wrote: »

Any good craft beer pubs around Zadar?

I was in Zadar the other week. No craft beer of any description to be found. Not even fake craft beer like Blue Moon.

Best pale lager by a long shot is Karlovačko. You can even get it in 2 litre plastic bottles for 24k (about €3.20).

adamski8

The old 2 litres are good alright. Also you get refunds for bringing back glass bottles there so it might seem a good bit more expensive for them. I usually dont bother returning them and leave them beside bins for peope that search the bins for them.

Saruman

Yeah, not sure how much you get back though wikipedia reckons .50k (half a kuna?) which means it would take 48 bottles to make up 24k which is the cost of a 2 litre bottle beer.
Our scuba group went through a lot of beer. We left it in the apartment for the landlord as the money will be much handier for him than it is for us!

In Michigan, you bring your bottles and cans to supermarkets and put them in reverse dispensing machines. You then get receipts which you can either use to pay for your shopping (more beer ), or get cash. It's a .10c refund.

BeerNut

Saruman wrote: »

In Michigan, you bring your bottles and cans to supermarkets and put them in reverse dispensing machines. You then get receipts which you can either use to pay for your shopping (more beer ), or get cash. It's a .10c refund.

Same in the Netherlands. Brilliant system. The machines will even take an entire crate of empty beer bottles.

BaZmO*

BeerNut wrote: »

Same in the Netherlands. Brilliant system. The machines will even take an entire crate of empty beer bottles.

I don't understand why we don't do the returns system over here. I take it that the bottles are cleaned and reused in other countries. I know that's the case in Germany. We have free bottle bank returns but the bottles are just smashed up for recycling.

Saruman

Didn't we have that once upon a time? I vaguely recall we had it when I was in school, unless that was a school thing where schools got money for returning bottles and/or cans.

BaZmO*

Saruman wrote: »

Didn't we have that once upon a time? I vaguely recall we had it when I was in school, unless that was a school thing where schools got money for returning bottles and/or cans.

Definitely did with soft drink bottles. I remember returning TK lemonade bottles for a refund of my next purchase of sugary goodness.

Pubs also did it, not sure if they still do, but I was talking more about the general public returning bottles.

Saruman

Actually, I believe pubs have to pay for bottle recycling for some reason. They are not allowed to use domestic bottle banks.

irish_goat

Saruman wrote: »

Actually, I believe pubs have to pay for bottle recycling for some reason. They are not allowed to use domestic bottle banks.

They could brass neck it and use a local bottle bank but with the amount of bottles a pub goes through it would be a hassle.

Saruman

Best solution is to give them away for free to homebrewers.

irish_goat

Saruman wrote: »

Best solution is to give them away for free to homebrewers.

Aye but the likes of Miller, Bud bottles and non-returnable soft drinks etc are no good to anyone.