Croatia’s craft beer revolution continues, now exanding in Slavonia.
In early December, the first craft brewery in Osijek, Black Hat, will start its production at the premises of the Bios business incubator in Osijek. The project has been launched by Igor Ilić, a graduate of electrical engineering, and Danijel Božurić, an owner of a private company, reports Glas Slavonije on November 25, 2015.
These beer lovers say that the idea for launching a craft brewery occurred a year ago when they decided to turn their hobby into a business. One of the reasons was the fact that in recent years in Croatia there has been a growing interest in craft beers. Also, Daniel from an early age had a vision of opening his own private brewery. Initially, they started producing beer at home and trying out recipes with the addition of grapefruit, honey and other ingredients. After that, they began working on plans to invest and start large-scale production. They have founded a so-called “company for 10 kuna”, Ilić managed to get financial incentives which the state offers for self-employment, and they have also taken advantage of benefits offered by entrepreneurial incubator Bios in Osijek.
The opening ceremony of the Black Hat brewery is planned for 9 December, when the first batch of their beer will come on the market. At first, the production capacity will be 4,000 litres of beer per month, with plans to reach a capacity of at least 8,000 litres a month in the near future.
“The first beer that we will produce is Blond Ale, which is most similar to the beers that people are used to in this area. It is a light beer of golden colour, with a slight aroma of hops. All our beers will consist of barley malt, water, hops and yeast, and, depending on the style of beer, there will also be some herbs added. We are planning to make smaller batches of beer that we will, depending on the interest of the buyers, later start producing in larger quantities”, Igor and Danijel say.
It is interesting that these young entrepreneurs purchase their malt in Nova Gradiška, hops in Slovenia, and yeast in Belgium. They plan to distribute their beers first to restaurants in the area of Osijek and the entire Slavonia and Baranja. In the last year, about a dozen craft breweries have been opened in Croatia.
