Craft beer in Croatia: Pivovara Medvedgrad

Published: March 15, 2025

Craft beer boom hit Croatia in 2012-2013, and that was when the first microbreweries brewing modern craft beers were established. But did you know, that the oldest artisan brewery of the country actually just recently celebrated their 30th anniversary? In this post we introduce Pivovara Medvedgrad, an independent, family-owned brewery, that is specialized in craft lagers, but also brews a bunch of other beer styles in their large, modern brewery in Zagreb.

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The story of Medvedgrad brewery begun in 1994

The roots of Pivovara Medvedgrad are in a family restaurant business, and in the idea to bring home-brewn house-beers on the menu. The brewing started back in 1994, and the family restaurant in Zagreb turned into a German-style brewpub serving house-made lager beers. The mission of the brewery was to brew beer the traditional way, using only the best natural ingredients, to be served with hearty food.

When the brewery business started, the family already had four sons, and the first idea was to name the brewery after them to Četiri Dečka, which means Four Jacks. If this had happened, the first beers would have been named Tref, Herc, Karo, and Pik, meaning Club, Heart, Diamond, and Spade. However, as the founders wanted to focus on brewing Bavarian and Czech Lagers, they decided to follow an old Bavarian tradition of naming the brewery after the nearest medieval, fortified town. In Zagreb the closest such fortification is Medvedgrad, a medieval fortress built between 1249 and 1254, overlooking the city from the slopes of the Medvednica mountain.

The father of the family, a mechanical engineer, built different kind of steel vessels, and it was him who then also built the first brewing equipment of Medvedgrad, a 500-liter brew house, that was assembled inside the family restaurant. What started with a handful of Lagers in one restaurant, has evolved to brewing craft beers in dozens of different styles. Traditional Bavarian and Czech Lagers, brewed with top quality ingredients, are still today the specility of Medvedgrad, but since 2015 the second generation of the family, the ”four jacks”, has been eager to brew also more modern and experimental beers.

Medvedgrad is the largest microbrewery of Croatia

Since 2019 Pivovara Medvedgrad has brewed in a new, large and modern premises in Zagreb, with a yearly volume of more than 2 million liters nowadays. The restaurant business overall has grown a lot too, and there are three Medvedgrad restaurant pubs in Zagreb, and a Medvedgrad multitap pub called Fakin Craft Bar.

The new brewery is a wonderful beer factory, and the heart of it is the beautiful, hand-made brew house of 6000 liters. The Medvedgrad crew designed and built the brewhouse by themselves, so that it would meet all their needs and wishes they had. The copper details of the tanks are a reminder of the old beer-making tradition, but the technique is automated and super modern.

“We run a fully automated brewhouse with a capacity of 6-7 brews per day, which means we can produce 40,000 litres of beer every day.”

From the brew house the beer is then moved to conditioning tanks – Medvedgrad has a whopping 350 000 liters of fermenting capacity, with beer tanks of 3,000, 6,000, 12,000, and 24,000 liters. There is also a large cold room and a state-of-the-art laboratory, that is an important part of the brewery. Every day, physical, chemical, and microbiological analyses are done to secure the high quality level of the beers.

Nowadays roughly 35 % of the beer production is packed in kegs, of which around 40 % is then served in Medvedgrad’s own restaurants, and the rest in other restaurants and bars in Zagreb and elsewhere in Croatia. 65 % of the production is bottled, and sold in grocery stores, restaurants, pubs and bottle shops.

“To us, beer is a medium for helping, telling stories, and arousing emotion. Our labels bring back to life legends that have perhaps been forgotten. For decades, our pubs have been a place where friendships and memories are forged. We want our employees to have the benefit of a positive working environment because our success depends on them.”

Every summer, in June or July, Medevedgrad organizes a craft beer, rock and street food festival called Brundanje. Taking place in the yard of the brewery, this cheerful event gathers together a huge amount of friends of beer and music – if you are traveling to Croatia in summer, check this festival out!

Tasting Megvedgrad craft beers

Medvedgrad has a year-round core series of six beers, a Pilsner called Zlatni Medvjed (The Golden Bear), a Doppelbock called Grička Vještica (The Witch of Grič), a Hoppy Lager called Baltazar, a Hefeweizen called Dva Klasa (Two Spikes), a Schwarzbier called Crna Kraljica (The Black Queen) and an IPA called Fakin IPA. The six seasonal beers are brewed for a specific time of the year – Agram Stout, Novi Val (New Wave) IPA, Ljeto u Zagrebu (The Summer of Zagred) Witbier, Vragec (Little Devil) Session IPA, Crni Jack (Black Jack) Black IPA and Božićno Pivo (Christmas Beer) Dobbelbock.

In addition there are beers brewed for charitable purposes or in collaboration with events or bands for example. And then there is the Phantom series, a more experimental series of craft beers in different styles. When writing this post, the latest Phantom release was Fantom 45, a Maibock, that is a traditional Bavarian beer style that heralds spring. Furthermore, there are some special, strong and barrel-aged beers.

“We consider pale lager the greatest classic among beers and the hop their most magical ingredient. However, we don’t let that prevent us from brewing all the other beer styles. We believe that every person’s favourite beer hides in their diversity!”

In 2024 Medvedgrad brewed five 30th anniversary special beers, that told the story of the brewery. These special releases included for example a fruity, richly hopped India Pale Lager called 4 Dečka, after the four boys that nowadays run the brewery business.

Below you can see four Medvedgrad craft beers in different styles, Fakin IPA from the core series and three special beers – jump from the pictures or links to beer cards with more information about each beer and our tasting notes. In addition to these, we liked a lot for example Hendrix Session IPL and Crna Kraljica, the core series Schwarzbier.

Fakin IPA is a fruity, highly drinkable American IPA

4 Dečka is a refreshing, nicely bitter Session IPL

Pivo Svetog Martina – Cognac Barrel Aged 2023 is a sweet, complex BA Barleywine

Gavran is warming, intense Russian Imperial Stout

The best place to taste Medvedgrad beers fresh from tap is of course one of the Pivnica Medvedgrad pubs / restaurants: Pub Medvedgrad Ilica, Pub Medvedgrad Samoborska, Pub Mali Medo or Fakin Craft Bar.