I guess we should have a thread like this as well, as there were some sad news today - HumanFish. Brewery, the pioneer of modern craft beer in Slovenia - which basically means anywhere in ex-Yu as well, is closing tomorrow.
Starting off in Slovenj Gradec with a fantastic pale ale, in 2008, later on moving to Vrhnika where they opened their taproom, they were the first to release takes at many popular styles in Slovenia, paving the way for many who have followed whose fame eclipsed HF’s in these recent years - both in Slovenia and Croatia… Matthew (and Jaša when he was there) were frequent guests on many early Croatian homebrew/craft events, when it really counted. Haven’t had anything from them in a while now, sadly, as my visits to Slovenia have become way more rare and short than I’d like them to be, and I never got to visit their taproom, which I really wanted to… Sad to see them go - their impact was immense!
@MarkoNm - do you know of any other similar cases in Slovenia? Somehow, and thankfully, very few breweries closed in Croatia during COVID times and after - 2-3 of those with extremely limited distribution and internet presence which couldn’t find a niche locally in Zagreb fighting with stronger competition (despite some distinctly average ones thriving in the same market), and maybe, maaaybe one or two in poor areas with highly limited beer culture.
Yeah, it’s a sad news hearing about HumanFish. They’ve definitely paved the way to what craft beer in Slovenia is today.
As for other breweries that have stopped operating. In 2020 quite a few of the smaller ones closed their doors and a handful last year. But none of the big players, just the smaller ones.
Yeah, I figured it would be like that, so many really tiny, really niche breweries in your market, not all could float…
Could you please take a look at the list of Slovenian breweries and point out the ones which you know are closed? It would take a part of the weight off of me going through each and every one of them to recheck - and I’ll have more time to have a look at beer entry issues and pretty up the places as well.
That was my reaction as well… But at least Primož has been replaced by SAN Francisko.
I’m a bit depressed now, I’ve missed the full extent of some of these… Hm, I should probably go through Ljubljana for one day next time I’m traveling to Zagreb, or something.
The address is probably the same due to the fact that it’s only registered at that address, but located somewhere near. Not sure.
If you do make it to LJ sometime soon, hit me up. By the way, end of March is when LKBW is happening, so it might be a good excuse to come round.
And then make it a round through the best beer places around town - San Francisko, Lajbah, Sir William’s Pub, Craft Room, Pivoljub, Tektonix, Loo-blah-nah, Maister Pub, Postaja P3, Godec, … - still plenty of nice places
Will do! And hopefully bring some nice CZ stuff (or HR or both, depending on where I’m coming from).
Cleared up Ljubljana’s places entirely, there were more random lesser known places that needed to be retired, still, some good ones are certainly hanging on. Just not sure if the Tektonik brewery and Tektonix should be separate place entries…
