Beer #61 - Laško Zlatorog (FYR Special!)

This is the last post of my FYR special and probably features the most ubiquitous beer in the region. Bit boring, sorry! The signature brew from the region's largest brewery, Laško Zlatorog is one of the very few beers that you’ll find on draft across the former Yugoslavia and is therefore quite a nice option in bars and restaurants that offer it. This picture actually comes from a previous holiday and was taken in an amazing pizza restaurant in Piran, Slovenia but I had a couple of pints of it in Skopje too. There isn’t a lot to distinguish this beer really but it does taste better on tap than from a bottle. Not bad, but not great. To be honest I’m quite looking forward to writing some posts on ‘proper’ beer again.

Brewery: Pivovarna Laško
Country: Slovenia
ABV: 4.9%

Beer #54 - Laško Club Export (FYR Special!)

Another one from the Pivovarna Laško stable. I normally associate something labelled ‘export’ with a premium strength lager however at 4.9% ABV this is the same strength as Laško’s standard Zlatorog lager. The brewery’s website states that they are proud to call it their ‘best’ but I’d have to disagree. It was pretty light with an unpleasant sweetness to it. I’d opt for their Dark or Zlatorog varieties over this one but I guess it was worth a try! As with Laško Dark it was widely available in Macedonian supermarkets but there are better beers available.









Brewery: Pivovarna Laško
Country: Slovenia
ABV: 4.9%

Beer #53 - Laško Dark (FYR Special!)

Pivovarna Laško is Slovenia’s largest brewery and at the fall of Yugoslavia was the largest brewery in the country at that time. I’m unable to ascertain whether it is the largest in the Former Yugoslav Republics but it’s beer is so widely available that I’d be surprised if it wasn’t. I’d previously tried Laško Zlatorog, the brewery’s signature lager and it’ll feature in a forthcoming post. Laško Dark was a new one on me and as I was keen on trying some more dark lagers on this holiday I was happy to see that it was widely available in bars and supermarkets in Macedonia. I enjoyed this one, it’s fairly smooth as you’d expect and made a very pleasant change from drinking light lager. I picked up quite a strong coffee taste which doesn’t really suit me ordinarily.

Brewery: Pivovarna Laško
Country: Slovenia
ABV: 5.9%

Former Yugoslav Republics Special!

I’ve just returned from an excellent week-long holiday in Macedonia as well as a day spent in Belgrade before my flight home. Naturally I took the opportunity to try as many beers as I could for the blog and managed to sample beers from Macedonia as well as Slovenia, Serbia and Kosovo.

Skopso ad, downtown Skopje

Variety is not something that Macedonians seem to appreciate when it comes to beer and I was only able to try a few from Macedonia itself. Pivara Skopje and it’s ubiquitous Skopsko dominates the market with its only real competition coming from Zlaten Dab, brewed by Prilepska Pivarnica. Fruit-flavoured lager shandy seems to have taken a hold in that part of the world with German-style Radler available in a range of different flavours.

Zlaten Dab ad, Bitola

I’ll be posting eleven or so different beers over the next couple of weeks from that part of the world. I also ate and drank so much that I feel like a need a detox so expect the blog to be dominated by Balkan lagers for the foreseeable! Annoyingly my phone went kaput so I lost pretty much all of the beer-related photos I had taken for the posts so most images will be lifted from the internet...(images in this post are my own).

Spotted outside a bar in downtown Skopje

In other, unrelated news Wetherspoons have released the beer list for their October 2013 beer festival and you can find it here. The list features some interesting stuff from American craft brewers as well as 40 real ales including decent sounding offerings from Bath Ales, St Peter’s and Purity that I’ll be keeping a keen eye out for..