Craft beer in Slovenia: Reservoir Dogs and Pelicon Brewery

Published: July 5, 2025

Our craft beer tour in stunning Slovenia continued from Kamnik to the southwestern part of the country, the historical region of Goriška, close to the border with Italy. In this beautiful region between the Alps and the Adriatic Sea, we had a pleasure to get to know two great breweries; Reservoir Dogs brewery from Nova Gorica and Pelicon Brewery from Ajdovščina.

Reservoir Dogs Brewery brews bold beers with passion

Reservoir Dogs Brewery, operating in the town of Nova Gorica right on the Italian border, is among the most internationally recognized Slovenian breweries. Exporting to about 30 countries, Reservoir Dogs is particularly known for its richly hopped IPAs and delicious barrel-aged Imperial Stouts, but the brewery makes various beers across a very wide range of styles.

The Dogs say that they are quenching their passion for craft beer and loving it to death – they unleashed the craft beer hobby in 2014, starting first as a gypsy brewery and establishing an own brewery in 2017. Reservoir Dogs craft beers are brewed with a 4000-liter Slovenian-made brewhouse, roughly 350 000 liters a year, using quality ingredients. Dogs use a lot of domestic hops, especially Styrian Wolf from Savinja Valley, that has been in the brewery’s hop selection since its first harvest in 2015.

The beer selection of Reservoir Dogs is delightful; they brew a lot of hop-forward IPAs in different styles, but also for example Sours, Lagers, Blonde Ales, Stouts and Barleywines. Their barrel-aged series includes wonderful, strong and dark beers as well as sophisticated, modern BA Wild Ales.

Reservoir Dogs sells a notable amount of their beers in their stylish taproom restaurant and beer garden, adjacent to the brewery. It is a great venue to taste the beers super fresh from 16 taps, and to pair them with with delicious Pinsa Romanas and focaccias! You can also find Reservoir Dogs beers elsewhere around Slovenia, and furthermore, a lot is exported abroad. Italy is just a steps away from Nova Gorica, but that’s just one of 30 countries the beers are shipped to – that is a lot for a relatively small Slovenian brewery!

We had a pleasure to taste a wide range of Reservoir Dogs craft beers, and liked all of them, but we listed some of our favorites below. Jump from the links to beer cards with more info and tasting notes.

The Apocalypse series, with the four horseman of the Apocalypse in the labels, is all about heavily hopped IPAs and Pale Ales. It includes Conqueror Session IPA, Warrior Pale Ale, Grim Reaper American IPA and Starvation Black IPA. It’s hard to choose a favorite among these great beers, but if we’d have to, I think we’d name Starvation. It’s an aromatic, roasted and bitter Black IPA with a balanced combination of hoppy, fruity flavors and roastiness with coffee, crowned with a bitterish, herbal finish.

Of the barrel series of Reservoir Dogs, we got to taste both Wild Ales and the dark stuff; Imperial Stouts, Quadruple and Barleywine. Again it’s pretty hard to judge these delicious beers and choose favorites, but ended up giving the best ratings to Seere, wine-yest-fermented, matured Wild Ale with sour cherries, to Black Hole #50 Imperial Stout aged in Caribbean rum barrels and to The Last Bourbon, Imperial Stout aged in 3 different bourbon barrels for one year.

Of the lighter beers of the Dogs we liked a lot for example the Cum Grano Salis Gose with Karst juniper berries and the Mediterranean salt. Furthermore, you should check out the Sister -series, with delicious IPAs in different styles.

If you are traveling around the border of Italy and Slovenia, a warm recommendation to head to Nova Gorica, and to visit the Reservoir Dogs taproom restaurant, that is open daily from 3 pm until late, in the weekends until midnight!

Reservoir Dogs Brewery and Taproom
Industrijska cesta 1H, Nova Gorica
https://reservoir-dogs.beer
https://www.instagram.com/reservoir_dogs_brewery

Pelicon Brewery is one of the craft beer pioneers in Slovenia

Pivovarna Pelicon from the small town of Ajdovščina, just 30 km east from Nova Gorica, is one of the first microbreweries of the country. Pelicon has been bringing delicious craft beers to the market since 2013, focusing on quality and creativity.

The co-founder and head brewer of the brewery, Matej Pelicon, started with home-brewing when craft beer was still a very new phenomena in Slovenia. After getting good results, he moved in to commercial brewing, operating with small kettles and fermenting vessels, and spreading the word of the world of modern artisan beers. The market started to grow, and soon it was time for an expansion, and the current, locally-made 1000-liter brewhouse was taken in use.

Their first Pelicon brew, called Pally Pale Ale, was launched in November 2013, and shortly after The 3rd Pill IPA came to the market. This beer, that is still one of the core beers of Pelicon, won two silver medals a year later, and was named the best Slovenian beer on RateBeer. Since then, Pelicon has been a well respected and awarded microbrewery that brews artisan beers that are full of taste, the kind of beers that the small crew likes to drink themselves.

The unfiltered, unpasteurized beers of Pelicon come in many flavors, and there is something for everyone in the selection, from light and easy brews to strong and heavy artisan beers. Pelicon has a small barrel series too, with intensive, strong beers aged different types of barrels. Furthermore, the Pelicon crew also makes delicious alcohol-free drinks, like a citric, hoppy craft soda called Hoppy Collins, that works super well as mixers in cocktails!

The stylish black-and-white labels are a a kind of trademark of the brewery – they want to stand out from the common “a-little-bit-of-everything-with-a-bunch-of-colors” label style. The labels are designed by the brewery’s co-founder, Anita Lozar, who is also responsible also for customer service and tastings, as well as product development.

Pelicon offers wonderful Beer and Cheese packages, pairing craft beers with delicious cheeses by Golden Ring, a small boutique cheese factory from Sinji vrh, right above Ajdovščina. We had a pleasure to taste a few beers with different cheese, and the flavour combinations were fantastic!

In the tasting we got to try Walter W. American Wheat paired with young White Valley cheese, Yes Boss Pale Ale with English-style Cheddar cheese, Quantum Double IPA with Sinji vrh Herb cheese and The Leaking Barrel Bourbon Stout 2021 with cave-aged Vipava Valley Colby cheese. Delicious!

Out of the Pelicon beers that we tasted, our favorites were the Pelicon classic The 3rd Pill IPA, the fruity and balanced Quantum Double IPA and the delicious, intense The Leaking Barrel – Bourbon Stout 2021 (jump from the links to beer cards with more info and tasting notes), but we also liked a lot their lighter Ales and Lagers.

Should you travel to the beautiful Vipava Valley, a recommendation to taste craft beers by Pelicon Brewery! Their brewery shop in Ajdovščina is open on Thursday and Friday afternoons, and you can find Pelicon beers in a bunch of pubs and restaurants around Slovenia too.