Croatia's oldest craft brewer celebrates birthday milestone with new brewery opening

Croatia's oldest craft brewer, Pivovara Medvedgrad, celebrates 25 years in the game this year. They will be celebrating the milestone with several events, such as the Fakin Craft Fest on 7 and 8 June at Fakin Craft bar in Zagreb and the MedvedRUN fun run around Sljeme on June 16. Perhaps the most significant occasion in the celebrations though is the opening of their huge, new brewery premises, which is located at Huzjanova 36 in Gajnice, on the western outskirts of Zagreb city.



The new brewery is the result of a fundraising campaign undertaken by the brewery which collected a million euros in nine days, from 292 investors emanating from 26 different countries, including all brewery employees. The new brewery site will enable Medvedgrad to brew up to 40,000 litres of beer in a day. The completed product will now sit in a cellar with a capacity of almost 500,000 litres and the brewery machinery is able to fill up to 5,000 bottles in one hour.

At 25 years old, Medvedgrad is considerably older than any of the other craft beers that have begun to emerge in Croatia over the last decade, with the Lika-brewed Velebitsko and Staročeško, which comes from Croatia's second oldest brewery, located in Daruvar, its only true peers in terms of age. To further mark the 25th birthday, Medvedgrad have announced that this year they will be brewing no less than 25 seasonal special ales.



The new Medvedgrad brewery was opened at a press launch on Friday 3 May. There will be a public launch party with live music, revelry and, of course, plenty of beer on Saturday 11 May.