Craft beer in Slovenia: Bevog and Lobik by the Austrian border

Published: July 14, 2025

The last destination on our craft beer tour in Slovenia in September 2024 was the north-easternmost corner of the country, the traditional region of Southern Styria by the Austrian border. Styria is known for its white wine, especially Ljutomer Riesling, but also home to rich brewing tradition. Styria, on both sides of the border, is home to modern craft breweries too – in this post we introduce Bevog, a true pioneer of Slovenian craft beer, although operating on the Austrian side of the border, and the small, talented Lobik brewery from Ruše, close to the beautiful city of Maribor.

Bevog Brewery - Slovenian origin brewery in Austria

Brauhaus Bevog is a wonderful microbrewery from Bad Radkersburg in Austria, by the Slovenian border. It is in fact an Austrian brewery, but as it has roots deep in the Slovenian soil, and can be considered as a craft beer pioneer of Slovenia, we introduce it as a part of our craft beer in Slovenia series. So how did this happen? Let’s start from the beginning.

The founder of the brewery, Slovenian Vasja Golar, started small-scale brewing when craft beer was basically non-existent in Slovenia. He managed to create tasty beer, and the hobby captivated him so much, that he decided to start his own brewery. This was in early 2010’s, when founding a microbrewery was not common at all, and Vasja soon found out, that the brewing legislation in Slovenia was built around large breweries only, and the process of establishing a brewery involved a seemingly endless amount of bureaucracy.

The Bevog team tried to negotiate, but the process of starting a brewery simply was too slow, difficult and expensive. Meanwhile across the border in Austria, the legislation related to opening a brewing business was way more straightforward. As a result, the team ended up building a brewery in the Austrian side of the border, and Bevog was born in 2012. Soon after, the establishment of Bevog helped to push the wheels of bureaucracy forward in Slovenia as well, and the regulations related to setting up a brewery were eased.

The aim of Bevog as a microbrewery is to push the boundaries to reach the highest level of quality and to offer the best beers to individuals who refuse to settle for the ordinary. Bevog crew states that their focus is on exceptional quality of the products and services, while the brewery also aspires to be a green and accepting company, that is kind to people, animals and the world around us all.

“We strive to make beer more than just a means to plain indulgence, and want to inspire others to live a fulfilling life by discovering great things, places, people and food. For us this is what life is all about, and we show that in the beers we brew and the way we run our brewery.”

The Bevog crew embody a pioneering spirit and are driven by the desire for freedom, independence and a thirst for new experiences. Their artisan beers come in a plethora of styles, from light and easy beers to heavily hopped IPAs and intensive, barrel-aged Stouts and Barleywines. A notable peculiarity is their “Extinction is forever!” range, a limited series of beers that are only brewed once, dedicated to animals that are in danger to go extinct.

Of the Bevog beers that we tasted, some of our favorites were the core series American IPA Kramah, that is a pleasantly bitter and juicy hop-bomb. Of the more special beer range, we simply loved the barrel-aged Stouts and Barleywines.

Wolgor Blend 1123 is a thick and silky BA Russian Imperial Stout with an intense, dark aroma with bourbon and sweet notes of licorice and molasses. It’s an intense, warming beer with flavors of licorice, dried fruits, coconut, dark chocolate, bourbon and oak. Aisla is a rich, thick and roasted Barrel Aged Imperial Stout with whopping 15 % ABV and sophisticated notes of vanilla and whiskey. Hagger Blend 0422 is a blend of selected barrel aged barley wine, mostly aged in bourbon barrels. It has a delicious flavor profile with dried fruits, caramel notes and coconut, wrapped in a layer of bourbon notes and vanilla.

Bevog still delivers a big part of their production to Slovenia, and naturally a lot is consumed in Austria too, but their beers can be also found in several countries around Europe. The best place to drink them super fresh is of course the taproom right next to the production area in Bad Radkersburg. There you can taste beers from eight taps, and in the brewery shop there is a wide selection of cans and bottles to choose from.

Brauhause Bevog
Brewery and Shop
Gewerbepark B 9, Bad Radkersburg, Austria
https://bevog.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bevog_brewery/

Lobik is an energetic, innovative brewery from Ruše

Just 40 km south-west from Brauhause Bevog, lies the second largest city of Slovenia, Maribor. Continuing further wast along the sceneic Drave River, you’ll reach Ruše, a small town that is home to the youthful Lobik Brewery.

Lobik is a small independent brewery, founded by a group of childhood friends. They started with home-brewing as teenagers – the story tells that decision to make own beer was born of the desire to buy beer for a refreshment after rowing trainings, but being unable to do to being underage. And so these 15-year-olds took action and started home-brewing. Slowly the hobby bore fruit, and after eight years of studying, brewing, experimenting and hard work, they opened an actual brewery and turned the home-brewing hobby into professional brewing.

The brewery was named after the silver carp, a fat fish roaming the rivers and lakes of Europe. The crew humorously states that the shape of the resembles the body of one their our brewers after he quit rowing. The first two years of operations were hard and required a lot of unpaid working hours, but the beers started to get attention, and Lobik was recognised as one of the best breweries in the region.

“The goal of the brewery from the very beginning has remained the same. It means making the beers we like to drink. Admittedly it means they are a bit heavy on the alcohol and complex with its tastes. Consequentially it means we use the highest quality of ingredients. Anyway, enough about us. We just hope you like our beers and drink them with the joy we do!”

Since 2017, Lobik has brewed with a relatively small, 500 liter Skrlj brewhouse, and they keep creating and launching new beers remarkably often. The crew mostly focuses on hop-forward Pale Ales and IPAs, but they also do a lot of Wild Ales, for example Lambic style fruit beers, and a bunch of other styles too. Most beers are brewed, canned and labelled manually, so this indeed is craft beer. Lobik invests in quality, and their beers, to which beer enthusiasts tend to give excellent ratings, really are delicious.

Of the Lobik beers that we tasted, some of our favorites were Galaxy, a tropical, highly enjoyable NEIPA and Et Tu Brööte, juicy, moderately bitter, hop-heavy American IPA. Also Lobik lager beers are delicious – when visiting the brewery we tasted a Vienna Lager from the fermenter, what a creamy, pleasantly hoppy beer that was!

What is more, nowadays Lobik also has a winery! As the crew wanted something else to think about than only brewing, they bought an old vineyard, and now produce delicious natural wines under the brand Lobik Wines.

Lobik beers can be found in craft beer venues in Slovenia, but big part of the production is exported to elsewhere in Europe. In March 2025 Lobik opened a beer and wine bar called Lobic Beer & Wine in Maribor, in collaboration with Matic Wines winery – check this place out if your travels take you to beautiful Maribor, we sure will when we return to Slovenia!