Zagreb drinks

Concluding my beery adventures in Zagreb today, the first leg of a four-city trip I took last month.

Arguably Zagreb's top beer bar is Craft Room on Opatovina, the pedestrianised thoroughfare in the old town which brands itself "Beer Street". A festival run jointly between the various Opatovina pubs had just come to an end and we caught the tail end of the list.

I began with one from Serbian brewery Zebrew: Sansho, an IPA with sansho peppers. It's a hazy orange colour and sweeter and thicker than I would expect for a mere 5.5% ABV. First impression is of unfermented wort: a bit sticky and cloying, going big on jaffa orange from the hops. There's no spice as such, just a mild tannic dryness, combining with hop fruit for an earl-grey sort of vibe. There's maybe a kick of white pepper towards the end of the glass, but that's as spiced as it gets. It's hard work and not terribly enjoyable.

Beside it is a double IPA from Slovenia's Green Gold Brewing, in collaboration with their countrymates Lobik, called Demolition Coalition. It's 8.8% ABV and gives off a classically American aroma of grapefruit and marijuana. The texture is thick and the flavour offers a heady mix of sage, basil and herbal cannabis. I was poised for a bitter piney spike on the end but it never came: this is smooth mellow sippin' all the way through. I've never encountered such a relaxing version of the style.

It was back to Zebrew for round two. I'm such an optimist. This one was better, if a tad weird. Lollihop is presented as a straightforward New England-style IPA with Citra and Simcoe, at 7% ABV. Rather than soft and juicy, however, there's a sharp pithy bitterness from the get-go, followed quickly by a herbal/floral mix, somwhere between summer meadows and "Summer Meadow" fabric softener. Apricot skin and pink peppercorns enter the picture too. It finishes dry in a very unNew-England way, reminding me more of a witbier or saison. While it's certainly unorthodox, it was fun to explore.

Not everything on tap was Balkan, and I also got to try Stone's Fear.Movie.Lions double IPA, this one at 8.5% ABV. A clear copper colour, it smells massively of burnt caramel with some bitterer liquorice thrown in. The flavour is lighter -- aniseed and barley sugar -- and the texture is surprisingly light too. It's a little two-dimensional overall, a crisp edge on that caramel being the only nod to complexity. Stone's hallmark balance and cleanness of flavour is all over it. I think I prefer something with a bit more welly.

Conveniently close to where we were staying was The Beertija. I eventually discovered that it does have an indoor bit, but on those balmy September evenings all the action was centred in the huge beer garden with its outdoor bar and beer fridges. The range available is vast, if leaning towards the very mainstream brands from around Europe. I did get to tick off a few local offerings, though.

First up: Brundelweiss from Zagreb brewery Pulfer. It's a straight hefeweizen at a typical 5.2% ABV and I wasn't expecting anything exciting from it. I was charmed, however, by its huge spicy clove flavour, much more than you get from most of these and all the better for it. There's a little banana behind that, and a fun pink-bubblegum effect. It's a frivilous, slightly silly, take on the style but I really enjoyed it.

The sullen orange lump beside the handsome weiss is GRIF New England IPA. GRIF, I just discovered, is an undercover MolsonCoors label. It had only a token level of murk, not looking the part at all. The aroma is fruity but with some unpleasant sweaty overtones, while the flavour is dull and dry, like a puff of bath salts. New England IPA needs oomph of some sort or another; this is completely lacklustre and boring.

In my ignorance I followed that with a GRIF Pilsner, one which tries to walk the walk with its slight haze and mild grassy aroma. The flavour falls flat, however, offering little beyond some light lemon curd and spongecake. "Not massively different from industrial lager" say my notes, perspicaciously. MolsonCoors are definitely trying to pull a fast one with this lot. Beware.

Things are rather more unambiguously craft at Valhalla, a poky metallers' bar on a steeply sloping old town street. Seeking sour, I picked Lolita, a fruited Berliner weisse from Bevog in Austria. It arrived a murky pink colour topped by a thick layer of foam. It's not very tart at all, showing instead a strong raspberry sherbet character before finishing on carbonic mineral water. Complex this ain't but at least it's not a jammy mess so it gets a pass from me.

The other beer is Mlinarica Vienna Lager, Mlinarica being a brewpub in outer Zagreb I never made it to. There's a light and breezy coffee aroma, like the atmosphere in a café with poor air conditioning. Cookie-like Vienna malt blends pleasingly with the nettle greenness of noble hops to create something both filling and refreshing. I'm never sure exactly what archetypal Vienna lager tastes like, but if it's this there should be more of it. Great work; no nonsense.

So much for the bars. I also made an early excursion to the local supermarket for some hotel room beers.

MolsonCoors are at it again with the Hoppy Lager released under their mainstream Ožujsko brand. It's 5% ABV and the standard clear shade of gold. With what variety the extra hop flavour was achieved is not stated on the can, though I question whether it was real hops at all. It tastes very artificial, a concentrated syrupy lemon and lime flavour; a little bit cold-remedy and a little 7-Up. It definitely does not push my hop buttons or convince me that Ožujsko is worthy of attention. Maybe some macro drinkers will appreciate the gimmick but like GRIF above it won't lure anyone away from independent Croatian beer on grounds of taste. This will not be the last mainstream brand going "hoppy" that we'll meet on this trip; seems all the big guys are at it.

Stout 4.2 is from the 5th Element range of Pivovara Daruvar. It's an extra stout at 7.5% ABV which I bought in a Zagreb Spar. The bitterness is very strong in this one, full of burnt liquorice, super-strong dark chocolate and retsina. The texture is full and greasy, which suits the style well. There's also a brown-mushroom umami savoury quality; odd but not unpleasant. Overall this works as a big and very grown-up stout -- no flowers or pastry, all is dark and hard. I liked its uncompromising nature. If you don't like it, that's on you.

Another dark beer to follow that: Zmajska Porter. Zmajska's playful dragon branding is fairly ubiquitous around Zagreb. This was a bit of a struggle to pour, fizzing out busily and taking a while to settle. It's a little strong at 6.5% ABV but hits all the right porter beats: dry cocoa, cola nut, and just enough heat and thickness. It's missing any unique characteristics to raise it above the level of perfunctory, but a perfunctory porter makes for damn decent drinking. That's what this is.

From the same brewery's "Brewer's Concoction" series comes Bunny Sour, which I picked up at the beer and hot sauce shop Spicy Days. It's 4.2% ABV and kettle soured, with added lime and, oddly, carrot juice. It totally works. The overall effect is one of those health-food juice cocktails designed to energise or detox or whatever. The lime gives it a citrus spritz while the carrot provides an earthy wholesome quality. There's no ginger in it, but it tastes enough like the sort of thing that would have ginger that a wholly imagined spice adds to the character. The sourness is present but not harsh, allowing the ingredients to do most of the work. It's a fun experiment: producing something interesting and drinkable but not too outré. In this case I don't mind paying to do the brewery's R&D for them.

That's it for Zagreb. Three hours after we left the central station we arrived at the second part of the adventure: Slovenian capital Ljubljana, up next.