Croatia’s growing beer culture is expanding, as Slavonski Brod hosts its first beer festival.
With a symbolic opening of a huge bottle of Katarinsko Beer, the 1st Slavonski Brod Beer Festival was officially opened. The opening ceremony attracted a large number of citizens and their guests, fans of this popular beverage. In addition to the well-known beer producer Mario Bošnjak from Sičice and the House of Beer from Slavonski Brod, the festivities included many amateur brewers who offered their beers free of charge, reports Glas Slavonije on November 22, 2015.
After many problems during the preparations for the first edition of the festival, Mario Bošnjak was delighted. “This is the first serious, specialized festival, and I am proud that we were able to organize it with eight small breweries and a large number of amateurs”, said Bošnjak who especially for this occasion produced Katarinsko Beer. It is a strong dark ale with six percent alcohol, which cannot be bought in shops or bars. In addition to high-quality water, malt and hops, good beer requires a skill that comes with love and a lot of good will.
“In a short period of time we got to know each other. We realized that there were about 40 of us in the town, and we started spending time with people from Požega, Osijek, Zagreb, especially with the Society of Beer Lovers, whose advice helped us to start producing our own beer. Slavonski Brod, like all other major towns, deserves to have its own beer festival which I believe will become an annual tradition”, Dario Sojčić said.
Special attraction at the opening was a large barrel of beer, a gift from the owner of the House of Beer Željko Špalat, which was brought to the festival area on a horse-drawn cart. In addition to beer, the festivities included a presentation of a number of famous Slavonian culinary delicacies. For example, Tihomir Krijan, the chef of the Art Hotel, offered his homemade noodles with bacon and cream, homemade dumplings, stuffed cabbage, shepherd’s stew…
Members of the female singing group “Vesele Šokice” presented the making of “šokačka pogača” topped with hot fat, bacon and sausage. In addition to about a hundred tambourine players, numerous pop and rock bands will take turn on the stage and entertain the visitors until the festival is closed late on Sunday evening.
