Craft beer in Croatia: Mlinarica brewery

Published: March 8, 2025

After visiting Pulfer Brewery, our microbrewery tour in Zagreb continued with a visit to yet another super interesting microbrewery, Mlinarica brewery and pub. The family-owned Mlinarica pub and restaurant was opened already back in 1998, and is known for its delicious, lovingly prepared local food. In 2016 Mlinarica brewery was opened right next to the restaurant, with a mission to brew unique artisan beers to be served with the restaurant’s cuisine.

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From brewing house-lagers to a creative, versatile artisan brewery

The idea to bring craft beer to the menu of the Mlinarica restaurant was of Edi Jendrić, son of the restaurant owners. Edi had already for several years brewed beers as a hobby, and in 2016, when the craft beer revolution of Croatia had been going on for a couple of years, it was time to build an actual brewery. Mlinarica brewery started with just two types of craft Lagers, a Czech Style Lager and a Schwarzbier called Black Widow, to slowly accustom the customers of the restaurant to a bit different beer than the usual industrial brews.

Mlinarica’s aim was to produce premium unfiltered and unpasteurized craft beers in different styles, without artificial flavours and preservatives. At first the restaurant customers were surprised by the aromatic, more full beers, but quickly noticed that these new options were actually delicious, and of good quality. In early 2017, Mlinarica brewed their first Ale and the first seasonal beer, a Rye Pale Ale. For some customers this new beer was “too fruity”, whereas the others loved it.

2017 was a year of quick development and growth. After the Rye Pale Ale, Mlinarica brewed their first APA and IPA, launched several seasonal beers and started to offer also darker Ales like Red Ales and Porters. In the same year, the brewery was expanded with new tanks, and the crew started selling the beers also outside the Mlinarica pub. In June 2017 the team also participated a craft beer festival for the first time, meeting colleagues from other craft breweries.

“Our main goal is to produce beer of constant quality, without large deviations. In craft brewing, that is a big challenge. We also want to show how big the world of craft beer is, and that only creativity of the brewers limits the creation of new beers.”

Nowadays Mlinarica has brewed over 100 different beers, in a plethora of styles, and keeps launching a new beer usually once a month. The brewery is still very small though, and majority of the production, that is roughly 10 000 liters per month, is sold in the Mlinarica pub restaurant. However, Mlinarica beers are also available in some other pubs and restaurants, as well as bottle shops like Goblet.

Mlinarica has a wonderful barrel program

What really makes Mlinarica stand out, is their wonderful barrel program! Mlinarica is specialized in Mixed Fermentation Sours, aged in wooden wine barrels. These special beers are often spiced with fruits during the ageing, and the results are sophisticated, complex, funky and tart.

The first mixed fermentation sour beer was made in 2019, and there has been no looking back since. These beers, that the Mlinarica team especially cherishes, are matured in a second location, a barrel storage or The Cave. The beers are aged in wine barrels, mostly from a nearby vineyard – usually they have been used five times for wine, which means that there is still flavors of oak leaf, but the wood has absorb the flavors and the yeasts of the wines. Edi and Dimitar are using different kind of fermentation methods, and grow themselves the yeasts used in the Wild Sours.

Mlinarica has a few different series for the Wild Ales; For the Duality series mixed fermentation and wine barrel ageing in Croatian oak barrels is the standard, and fruits are often added. Then there is for example the BrettCave series with different style beers turned into Wild Beers, and the PureBrett series with beers fermented solely by a brettanomyces strain.

Tasting Mlinarica craft beers

The core series of Minarica includes five craft beers; Czech Style Lager, Vienna Lager, Black Widow, American Pale Ale and Bitter Kiss IPA – all of these classics have been in the selection of a long time. The seasonal series is more about experimenting, with regular new releases in a great variety of styles.

“We are every day improving our beer offer, looking for new flavours, aromas and ingredients. In this way, you can be assured that with us in Mlinarica you will enjoy a large selection of seasonal beers throughout the year.”

Below you can see four Mlinarica craft beers in different styles, Bitter Kiss IPA from the core series and three seasonal / special beers – jump from the pictures or links to beer cards with more information about each beer and our tasting notes.