An overview of recent beer producers in Dalmatia.
We are always delighted when readers of Total Croatia News write to us with additional information. And so it was when Marko Ožegović sent us more details on the recent Dalmatian beer story. Grab a beer and read on.
On December 15, 2015, we reported that LAB was the first Split brewery since Jadran Brewery was founded and that there had been no other beer produced commercially in Split or Dalmatia till Vunetovo opened on Hvar. It turns out that is not strictly true.
Jadran Brewery, while also knows as Split Brewery, technically was actually outside Split city limits. Meanwhile in Split itself, several small breweries came and went. There was Nautilus with Bedem dark and Ren pale. The same equipment was later used by Mini Brewery MK, which
sadly also ceased production around 2007. Just outside Split, in the close neighbour city of Solin, Regent brewery ceased production in 2006. A little further north along the coast, St Martin beer was brewed by Brewery Rastovac near Tisno, and in Unešić in Split’s hinterland a small brewery also operated for a while. Sadly by the end of 2007 none of the small breweries were in production any more and by 2010 Jadran had also made its last batch..
However, all was not dry in Dalmatia. Mini Brewery IMO Pilsner in Donji Proložac near Imotski kept working until they too brewed their last batch in 2014. At the same time Vunetovo started commercial small batch production on Hvar. So the beer production in Dalmatia never completely ceased.
To keep the whole story connected up, it turns out that LAB Brewery, the subject of our article, bought the brewing equipment from IMO PIlsner, and actually made its test batches in the original IMO brewery, before moving to Split. So the circle is complete!
Dalmatia today has two breweries we know about, Vunetovo and LAB. We know a couple more are in final throes of getting going. We would love
to hear about any others whether running, or still fermenting!
