Request by @Leighton here. Looking forward to future splits. Is this the way it should be done? 28 regions?
Copy and pasteable text list:
- Blagoevgrad
- Burgas
- Dobrich
- Gabrovo
- Haskovo
- Kardzhali
- Kyustendil
- Lovech
- Montana
- Pazardzhik
- Pernik
- Pleven
- Plovdiv
- Razgrad
- Ruse
- Shumen
- Silistra
- Sliven
- Smolyan
- Sofia City
- Sofia Province
- Stara Zagora
- Targovishte
- Varna
- Veliko Tarnovo
- Vidin
- Vratsa
- Yambol
3 Likes
Thanks very much @solidfunk and @LazyPyro
I will check in with some Bulgarians today to get their input on this breakdown.
1 Like
Sorry, but should we really split a country of 57 breweries on RB, 51 of which are active into 28 provinces?
This seems like extremely low priority, like, if we decide to regionalize every country in Europe.
Solid April Fools tho if April Fools. 
2 Likes
My two Bulgaria ticks need to be categorized!
4 Likes
Itās a country that exists, so yes 
1 Like
Whatās the cut-off for number of breweries or counties/provinces? We have done splits for countries with fewer breweries and fewer counties. Bulgaria seems like a good candidate in my view. I have spoken to a Bulgarian on the breakdown above and she didnāt raise any objections.
Just to check, which country with less breweries did we do a split for? Northern Ireland or Wales which were done just because the entire United Kingdom apparently āhadā to be done?
How many Bulgarian counties are there without a brewery?
We could do it, but I can name you a solid double digit number of countries that ādeserveā it more looking at brewery numbers, and thatās just in Europe. Heck, even Croatia is a better candidate for splitting, with breweries in every county/region and almost double the number of breweries and ābreweriesā despite being population-wise less than half the size of Bulgaria. And though itās my country, I never considered it a legit candidate seriously.
2 Likes
For some reason I feel like one of the Baltic states should be more eligible for splitting. I just feel like these are more ābeeryā countries.
But then again, Iām not the number one rater of Bulgarian beers (down there in 11th place 
).
1 Like
Yupā¦ looks like a priority
Austria: 485 brewers
Denmark: 437 brewers (heh)
Ukraine: 285 brewers
Portugal: 216 brewers
Hungary: 202 brewers
Slovakia: 191 brewers
Slovenia: 160 brewers
Croatia: 147 brewers
Estonia: 122 brewers
Romania: 115 brewers
Lithuania: 106 brewers
Greece: 103 brewers
Latvia: 100 brewers
Serbia: 94 brewerrs
Belarus: 76 brewers
Bulgaria: 57 brewers
Bosnia: 40 brewers
Iceland: 38 brewers
Georgia: 38 brewers
Moldova: 29 brewers
5 Likes
Guys perhaps I missed it, but what is the criteria for a regional split in a country, and how has priority been given? I have not made any claim that Bulgaria ādeservesā a split more than any other country; I have only requested the split.
Itās Northern Ireland. Wales actually has a fair amount of breweries.
Is there an issue with counties/provinces not having a brewery?
It was generally looking at rating numbers for a country from what I remember and/or number of breweries. Canāt say I followed all the discussions. Northern Ireland got the push for geopolitical reasons more than anything Iād guess, to round up the British Isles. Canāt think of any other reason why it wouldnāt be on a similar priority level as Bulgaria otherwise and I see what youāre trying to imply.
For a bunch of people regions without breweries ARE an issue from what Iāve gathered, there was always drama about Nunavut not having breweries or suchlike when there were 5 countries split up.
That said, though Iām not ultimately the one to decide on your request - I can just point out why it looks ridiculous right now for some of us.
āgeopolitical reasonsā - that got a chuckle!
If the High Council of Regional Splitters has an established framework that dictates the levels of priority, then naturally I defer to it. I only wanted to make one request that mighty Bulgaria get a split. Bulgaria beat Germany in World Cup '94 so deserve some respect.
As if beating Germanyās something special. First, second and third place @ world cup get priority.
Estonia is easy to split (15 counties), I can do the work. At the moment (I think) we have one county without brewer and one has only one retired gypsy breweryā¦ doesnāt mean it wonāt change in the future tho, we still have craft beer boom here (and one of the highest brewery per person ratio).
We shouldnāt split Latvia because they are planning big changes for regions. It is still not clear how the new regions will look like. I looked into how brewver split Latvia and I donāt think it is a good way, was actually even quite confusing why they did in that way (but ofc Iām not native, soā¦). Anyways I wouldnāt recommend doing Latvia at the moment. It can be done after they have approved the new regionsā law.
No idea about Lithuania.
3 Likes
I think the current decisions what to split have been a bit random and down to some people pushing specific countries.
From what I saw:
British Isles were mostly split because we have active admins there who where pushing it and were ready to put in the work (this is very important, is @Leighton ready to admin Bulgaria ?!).
I think the other 2 important questions should be:
Do most of the regions have at least one active brewery? No point of splitting a country that only has 1-2 active breweries (some African and Muslim countries for example).
Is there reasonable way to split the country? Denmark is a good example, many locals donāt see a point and/or reasonable way. See also my comment about Latvia (split may make sense, but not at the moment).
I have no idea about beer scene or counties of Bulgaria. I know that in the same region Hungary and to smaller degree Romania have craft boom, and may actually deserve the split.
1 Like
I am definitely ready to do the work!
I have checked and a majority of the Bulgarian provinces do indeed have a brewery, with concentrations in some of the major provinces (Sofia, Varna, Burgas, Plovdiv). I can also confirm that Bulgaria has seen meaningful growth in the craft beer arena during the past few years. I think COVID has slowed things down but I suspect we will see more new breweries opening up before too long.
As for the split, the 28 provinces do seem like the consensus way to divide Bulgaria. I have spoken to a few Bulgarians and also researched it online and havenāt encountered any alternative approaches.
2 Likes
And FWIW I would love to see splits for Hungary and Romania. I think doing these splits is a great way to get people interested in other countriesā beer scenes.
3 Likes
Then I definitely support splitting Bulgaria in the next batch!
1 Like
