first barbecue in Croatia

[MattHollingsworth]

Well, not my first barbecue, but the first one I brewed for. Over the last year in Croatia, I've shared a lot of my beers with locals and have actually been surprised by the positive response. The reason I was surprised is that the market here is dominated by pretty flavorless beers. Sure, the market is like that everywhere. BUT, here in Croatia, you don't really see hoppy or very bitter beers and there are literally zero American beers here. And I'd say thus far that my Christmas Ale, which is bitter, strong and moderately hoppy has been the most popular. I expected people to like the more mild styles I brew, but that hasn't turned out to be the case.

Anyway, for May Day I brewed up 3 beers, a Weissbier, a hoppy and bitter American Amber and another rendition of the Christmas Ale. The Weissbier ended up a little short, so I had only 18 liters of that and then 22 liters each of the other two. I had expected the keg of Weissbier to blow first. I had a 2 tap system with the Amber and Weissbier on at the same time. And they blew at the same time after a few hours, which meant people were drinking more of the Amber. The Christmas Ale then lasted about 90 minutes. People were very excited about the whole concept of homebrew and were raving about the beer the whole day. When the first two kegs blew and I swapped them and put the Christmas Ale on tap, the tap wasn't working for about 15 minutes. I ended up having to swap the stem in the keg, guess it was clogged for some reason. But the funny part was that there was a crowd around the keg wanting my beer as I was struggling with the system. There was plenty of other beer at the party, so it wasn't just a case of drinking what was available.

Anyway, it's nice to see that the locals are embracing hoppy and bitter homebrew and have an open mind to try styles of beer that don't even exist here. I know some homebrewers here already too. So, who knows, perhaps it'll take root and grow into more of movement. Slow and steady. It'd be nice if it was more common.

And of course, this is certainly not the first time I've brewed for big parties. It's just the first time here. And it was a nice success.

 

[BBKing]

Thats awesome. Congrats!

What are you doing in Croatia if you dont mind me asking

 

[arturo7]

That's awesome news, Matt. Keep up the good work!

 

[JetSmooth]

Awesome! Bringing some enlightenment to a dark dark corner of the world.

I keed! I keed!

 

[MattHollingsworth]

Thanks guys!

Thats awesome. Congrats!

What are you doing in Croatia if you dont mind me asking

I work freelance for Marvel Comics, so I can live wherever I want if there's reliable internet. So I moved here. No particular reason, just moved here 3.5 years ago. Now I'm married here. I like it here well enough.

Awesome! Bringing some enlightenment to a dark dark corner of the world.

I keed! I keed!

I've seen The Wire! Baltimore is much, much darker!

;-)

 

[SumnerH]

I remember Tomislav Pivo being decent beer; a little more flavor than most of the local stuff, anyway.

I assume you know about this place (HopDevil Belgian Pub in Zagreb)? http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/18324

 

[MattHollingsworth]

I remember Tomislav Pivo being decent beer; a little more flavor than most of the local stuff, anyway.

I assume you know about this place (HopDevil Belgian Pub in Zagreb)? http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/18324

I'd say that Tomislav is the only locally made, mass produced beer that's really quite good. For those who don't know, guess it'd fit into the Baltic Porter category, very roughly. It's a strong brown lager, somewhere around 7.5% abv. It's produced by InBev, Interbrew or whatever the hell they're called these days. The best of the Croatian beers is Velebitsko Pivo, though, which is made by a small indy brewer. Good stuff.

As for Hop Devil, yes, I go there once a month or so. They have somewhere around 100 Belgian beers, which for Croatia is really amazing.

 

[replytonick]

Kako Si. Jell volish tamo? Zashto Zagreb? Ne na moreh. Man I am RUSTY, but spent near 2 years total all over there pre-war/Tito to post-Tito as a kid until HS. In SoCal 9 years now, family in NYC-area and fathers side still in Varashdin. Would love to show my wife around there again one day, life just hasn't co-operated.

BBQ doesn't do justice to what I know my peoples do over there. Had any good Chevapchichi lately, maybe attend an old style pig roast? Gotta get to the coast, I have very fond memories, maybe sail the islands out there one day, I remember taking those passenger ferries all over the place (Zadar, Toplice, I was young but we had family all over). Pop lived in Zagreb from age 13, then Paris 2-3 years, from small town near the river Drava, hit the US around age 26.

I was young, but no drinking age I remember, yet kids never got as loaded as here. It has been awhile, so things may be different. I'm not sure if you speak, but people if you rub them right and they take you in are about the most giving/spirited you'll find. Slivovitz I know flows more than beer.

My father's winemaking as a kid is what got me thinking on beer brewing (as much as trips to The Bruery), as I remember taking home brew wine around to house parties during my youth and it was pretty good, but what you can achieve with beer is much better as you are only limited by ability and not what grapes you get your hands on. We used to do 2 full barrels, my grandfather and pop, and now I'm getting into it and doing same thing spreading the cheer/dinner gifts with beer. All I need is a series of muscle cars, maybe a cafe racer bike, a sheepskin coat/fedora, but I'll never be as much a badass as pop.

 

[MattHollingsworth]

Heh heh. In my experience, people get just as wasted here as in the States.

I've been here 3.5 years now. Been all over but still have to see some areas. We go to the sea every year for a month or more.

And yeah, it's super common to run into homemade wine and rakija. Very, very rare to run info homemade beer, but I've found a little group of homebrewers who I hang out with once a month or so. So it exists.

Zašto Zagreb? Za mene, Dalmacija je lijepa ali imam puno prijatelji ovdje. And life there would be too slow for me, I think. The sea is beautiful, but I prefer this continental part at least for the time being. Besides, we go there every year anyway. It's very common for people to own 2 houses here, one on the coast for half the year or just the summer, and one inland where they're from. We don't even own one place yet, but who knows once we reach retirement (I'm 41, so a ways off)?

You in San Pedro? From what I know, it's one of the town's with the largest amount of Croats in the States.