Yugoslavia was everything but a Soviet Sattelite. It had the most liberal form of socialism of all Eastern block countries. It departed from Stalin and the Soviet Union in 1948. Tito, the leader of Yugoslavia until his death in 1980, was loved and still is loved by many people in the region. Yugoslavia balanced to maintain good relations both with the East and the West and was always in between these two blocks. In short, some (including my parents) say it was the best place on Earth. You had free education, almost no unemployment, free healthcare, all other social and workers' rights typical for communist states, ability and enough money to travel all countries of the world, but at the same time you had access to Western culture, you had rock n roll, Hollywood movies, jeans, Coca Cola... Yet, if you spoke against the regime, you would surely face problems. In short, we had a system and it functioned. Everyone had enough and were satisfied, much more satisfied and fulfilled than today in the era of neoliberalism and capitalism.
Anyway, politics is complicated as there are more sides to every story.
As for beer, Slovenia is renowned for their hops production. We obtain mostly Slovenian hops and they have all the usual sorts + their own (Styrian Goldings, Aurora...). Serbia also had great hop plantations and a developed hop industry until 10-15 years ago. When foreign corporations privatized once state-woned breweries they stopped buying domestic hops which lead to complete disappearance of hop production. Some enthusiasts are trying to relive it and there are some plantations that are producing the first crops. Emerging craft breweries support them so I am convinced they will succeed. Also, before the WW2, almost every village in the northern part of Serbia, Vojvodina, had a small brewery, usually owned by the Germans who settled there during the Austro-Hungarian rule. After WW2 they mostly fled the country and in the post-WW2 process of urbanization and industrialization these small breweries gradually disappeared.
Now, in the time of small and medium enterprises, this craft is reemerging.
