Return To The Balkans: Craft Beer Pub Crawling Zagreb

Just before noon I woke up to the sound of my alarm. It had been ringing for the past three hours. I had missed my morning classes with a student. Fortunately, he was a regular of mine. He understood my jet lag, traveling exhaustion and late night.

I checked my Whatsapp. There was a confused message from The Oracle.

“How did I end up in Mandlova Street…the place where the trams sleep?”

Guess he drank more than I did last night.

It still felt early. It was May 29^th – summer was beginning – so the sun would be out until around 9pm. And it was Saturday, so everything was open. Plus, the Croatian Ministry of Health had just eased up on Covid-19 restrictions and extended working hours for all bars and restaurants to 11pm. Even if I couldn’t travel to the rest of Europe, Croatia was all mine.

Next weekend I planned craft beer trips outside the center of Zagreb. This Saturday I wanted to stay in the heart of the city.

Too Lazy To Leave The Heart Of Zagreb

Here are five places for an easy one-day pub crawl of Zagreb:

The Beertija
Harat’s Beer Boutique
Medvedgrad Brewery’s Pivnica Mali Medo
Valhalla Beer Bar
Craft Room

I had already dined at Mali Medo the night before. I figured the night would finish at Craft Room again. The staff had been fun. Besides that, a special Ginger was expecting me too.

The Beertija was the furthest away. I started there. As is the case for many Americans, European distances are far smaller than expected. Within 15 minutes I came to an expansive, brick-walled beer garden.

Truly, The Beertija does not have a craft beer selection. However, it is a student cultural center, and the right atmosphere for any music lover. You enter the garden under the watchful eyes of Nick Cave and David Bowie. Inside, the garden is decorated with cast iron statues of music legends: Lemmy Kilmister, The Ramones, Amy Winehouse, The Beatles, and some of Croatia/Yugoslavia’s music icons, like Dino Dvornik.

To start the afternoon easy, I ordered a crisp pilsner from a local brewery, Grif. Later, I learned that they are an imprint of a major Croatian industrial brewery. But that does not take away from the fact that it was clean, hoppy, and deserving of its Gold International Beer Award. Although it was still two days before June, intense summer heat had already arrived, so a light, drinkable pilsner was perfect.

A short walk across Josipa Strossmayer Park brought me to Harat’s Beer Boutique. They are a craft beer spinoff of Harat’s, a franchise of Russian-owned “Irish pubs” located in major cities in The Balkans. They had a selection of 12 taps and several more in bottles and cans. I tried a new American IPA from Nova Runda Brewery, the (W)ash, (R)inse, (P)olish (A)nd (R)epeat… the WRPAR, named after the celebration of a clean beer glass. It was juicy and peachy; on par with their flagship IPA, the C4.

Nova Runda WRPAR IPA =

Wash, Rinse, Polish And Repeat

Harat’s was not busy. Consequently, the bartender, Marko, and I had a long discussion typical in The Balkans. Croatia is crazy, Serbia is crazy; we don’t have enough money, don’t have enough work; but we drink too much, eat too much, women are too beautiful, etc… One beer followed another – plus a round of rakija. Suddenly, I realized I had to get to both Valhalla Pub and Craft Room before they closed.

Radiceva, Tkalciceva And Opatovina: The Beer Streets

Valhalla Beer Bar is on Radiceva Street, just one block over from touristy Tkalciceva. The old cobblestone street inclines slightly, so I had to keep my balance as I sat down at one of the tables outside. It looked like a true craft beer heaven: 12 rotating taps, 12 new bottles/cans and an additional selection of import and national beers.

I chose a style which I normally do not like: a Session IPA. It was called Bitter Hug from Mlinarica, one of Croatia’s few brewpubs. Brewpubs are still a new concept in the region, and it is rare to find a place that serves both their own food and their own beer. I made a note to visit Mlinarica soon.

The Bitter Hug Session IPA was a surprise. It was full of flavor, with grass and pineapple tones and enough hoppiness to make me think it wasn’t a low-ABV session. I killed it and ordered a stronger brew: Zmajska Brewery’s Dream Valley NEIPA. Coconut and Orange Dreamsicle hit me first, then a hoppy smooth bite.

Croatian craft beer has improved in the three years since my last visit.

Not Closing Time at Craft Room

It was almost 11pm. I worried I wouldn’t make Craft Room before closing time. But as I learned, Croatia, despite its European Union ascension, is still Balkan. When I arrived at Craft Room, it was closing, technically, in 15 minutes. But as long I paid in cash, they could be “open all night.” This is the trick for anyone who stays out late. Employees must close out their registers at closing hours, but if you bring cash to pay (and don’t behave like a drunken idiot) many bartenders will be happy to keep serving you.

Such it was at Craft Room.

There was one other person at the bar: an Irishman. He was – as Irishmen go – drunk. Although I reckon I was in no better shape. We fell into chatting and kept Craft Room serving us until 2am. The boss filled me up with new beers he had added to his refrigerator. He was particularly proud of Positive Brewing, a name which rang a bell from my last visit to Zagreb. The brewer was a different Irishman who I had gone three sheets to the wind with before.

While trying the brews, I chatted with the lovely bartender from the previous night. Although she described herself as “ginger,” a Slavic redhead is not quite like a wild Irish rose. What made her different was that she was from – as they say in The Balkans – a “mixed marriage.” She was half Serb and half Croat. She was going to work on Krk Island for the summer and told me to come see her.

Many foreigners only come to Croatia for the seaside. Once, on my first visit in 2010, I went to Split and Dubrovnik. Yet I’ve never visited any of the islands. Certainly, if I was in the company of a nice girl, all the better.

Probably, there wouldn’t be much good beer on the islands. But, as I soon learned, Croatia has very fine wines.