# Bulgaria

Country page of DA Caps, a collection of beer bottle caps. Web page: https://dacaps.imcoll.com/country/bg/info

- Official name: Republic of Bulgaria
- Local name: Република България
- Caps in the collection: 230 (https://dacaps.imcoll.com/country_caps/186)
- Brands: 93

## Beer in Bulgaria

Beer came late to Bulgaria, a country of wine and rakia. The Czech railway engineer Jiří Prošek, who arrived in 1873, noted that the Shopi of the west brewed a rough harvest-time beer from soaked, germinated barley and wild hops. The first small breweries were opened by foreigners shortly before 1878: the Frenchman Ducorp, a railway engineer near Sofia in 1873-1876, opened a small one at Knyazhevo, and the Swiss Rudolf Frick and Friedrich Sulzer built the brewery on the Kamenitsa hill in Plovdiv, which dates its brewing to 1881 (other sources give 1876, 1882 or 1883) and made the first Bulgarian dark beer.

Czech brewers set the pattern. Franz Milde founded the Shumen brewery with local merchants in 1882 and, on 26 October that year, the Bulgarian Brewing Association. The Prošek brothers opened their Sofia brewery in 1884 (later Vitosha and Ariana); its beer won a gold medal at Antwerp in 1891. Varna got its first brewery in 1884, the Hadjislavchev brothers brewed in Veliko Tarnovo from 1892, the Czechs Malotin and Hozman built the Lom brewery in 1894, and in 1902 Dr Konstantin Kozhuharov opened the Stara Zagora brewery that became Zagorka. After the First World War there were 18 breweries.

All of them were nationalised after the Second World War. The Prošek brewery became Vitosha in 1947, and in 1978 its central Sofia site closed in favour of a second plant at Gorublyane. The first beer called Zagorka was brewed in Stara Zagora in 1949 and the present brewery opened in 1958. New plants followed: Ledenika at Mezdra in 1964, Pirinsko at Blagoevgrad (a bottling plant from 1967, beer from 1971), Pleven from 1973, and Astika at Haskovo in 1980.

Privatisation began in 1994, and within ten years three groups held the big breweries. Heineken took Zagorka in 1994 and Ariana in 1997; Interbrew, later InBev, bought Kamenitza, Astika and Burgasko in 1995 and Plevensko in 1997, and moved the Burgas brewing to Haskovo in October 2001. Carlsberg became the majority owner of Shumensko and Pirinsko in 2002 and merged them as Carlsberg Bulgaria in 2004, the year the Ariana brewery closed and its brands moved to Stara Zagora. Kamenitza passed to StarBev in 2009 and to Molson Coors in 2012; in 2015 it closed the Plovdiv brewery and moved all of its brewing to Haskovo. Bolyarka of Veliko Tarnovo (named so in 2000), Lomsko pivo and Ledenika, which stood idle from early 2012 and was sold in 2013, stayed independent.

Craft brewing grew from home brewers after about 2010. The first microbreweries came in 2013: Glarus near Varna, Pivovarna 359 (Divo Pivo) near Sofia and the White Stork Beer Co of Sofia, with the Jägerhof brewpub in Plovdiv (25 May 2013) and Rhombus of Pazardzhik among the first. In April 2019 Kamenitza opened a microbrewery on part of its old Plovdiv site. In 2026 the Union of Brewers counts 42 registered producers: three large companies with over 92% of the output, seven small and medium ones and 32 microbreweries. In 2025 they brewed 4.42 million hectolitres and sold nearly 5 million, 5% less than in 2024, or 76 litres a head; non-alcoholic sales rose 53% to 122,780 hectolitres and grew another 14% in the first half of 2026. Carlsberg Bulgaria leads with 47% of the volume.

Sources:
- [Wikipedia: Beer in Bulgaria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_Bulgaria)
- [Wikipedia: Kamenitza](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamenitza)
- [Wikipedia: Ariana Brewery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariana_Brewery)
- [Wikipedia: Zagorka](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagorka)
- [Wikipedia: Bolyarka](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolyarka)
- [Wikipedia: Shumensko](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shumensko)
- [Zagorka: History of Zagorka](https://zagorkacompany.bg/kompaniyata/istoriya?locale=en)
- [Carlsberg Group: Bulgaria](https://carlsberggroup.com/who-we-are/about-the-carlsberg-group/global-presence/bulgaria/)
- [inside.beer: Kamenitza builds microbrewery on former brewery site (2017)](https://www.inside.beer/news/detail/bulgaria-kamenitza-builds-microbrewery-on-former-brewery-site)
- [Lost in Plovdiv: The forgotten saga behind the Kamenitsa brewery (2026)](https://lostinplovdiv.com/en/articles/the-forgotten-saga-behind-the-kamenitsa-brewery/)
- [In Your Pocket: Kamenitza Microbrewery](https://www.inyourpocket.com/bulgaria/plovdiv/venues/kamenitza-microbrewery)
- [FFBHAM: Interbrew moves Bourgas beer production to Haskovo (2001)](https://www.ffbham.bg/en/post/interbrew-moves-bourgas-beer-production-to-haskovo--158997581793237)
- [Capital: Ledenika is now owned by Litex Commerce (2013)](https://www.capital.bg/biznes/kompanii/2013/08/08/2119359_ledenika_veche_e_sobstvenost_na_liteks_komers/)
- [Brauwelt: Craft brewing in Bulgaria, a journey](https://brauwelt.com/en/topics/beer-brewing-history/646773-craft-brewing-in-bulgaria-a-journey)
- [Beer52: Bird is the word, White Stork Beer Co](https://www.beer52.com/ferment/article/1914/bird-is-the-word)
- [BTA: Bulgarian Brewing Industry Invests EUR 831 Mln Since Privatization Began in 1994 (2026)](https://www.bta.bg/en/news/economy/1170304-bulgarian-brewing-industry-invests-eur-831-mln-since-privatization-began-in-1994)
- [The Sofia Globe: Sales volume of beer in Bulgaria dropped 5% in 2025 (2026)](https://sofiaglobe.com/2026/07/21/sales-volume-of-beer-in-bulgaria-dropped-5-in-2025-y-y/)
- [BeerAdvocate: Breweries in Bulgaria (2026)](https://www.beeradvocate.com/place/list/?c_id=BG&s_id=0&brewery=Y)
- [Archontology: Bulgaria, Polity Style 1878-2026](https://archontology.org/nations/bulgaria/01_polity.php)
- [Wikipedia: Flag of Bulgaria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Bulgaria)

## Breweries (31)

- [Ariana Brewery (Heineken Int)](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1322.md) — 6 caps, 1884–2004, closed
- [Pivovaren Zavod Astika](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1880.md) — 2 caps
- [Boliarka VT](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/4545.md) — 2 caps
- [Brothers Brew Team](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/4497.md) — 1 cap
- [Carlsberg Bulgaria](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/4682.md) — 2 caps, 2004–
- [Glarus Craft Brewing Co.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3285.md) — 3 caps, 2014–
- [InBev Bulgaria](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1546.md) — 4 caps
- [Jagerhof Hausbrauerei](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3583.md) — 3 caps, 2013–
- [Kamenitza AD](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/859.md) — 40 caps, 1881–
- [Ledenika i MM AD](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/2114.md) — 12 caps, 1964–
- [Lomsko pivo SA](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1320.md) — 14 caps, 1894–
- [Brewery Metalhead](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/6367.md) — 1 cap
- [Pivo Invest BG AD](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1732.md) — 1 cap
- [Plevensko Pivo AD](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/2197.md) — 9 caps, –2005, closed
- [River Craft Beer](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/6370.md) — 1 cap
- [Brewery Rocket Fuel](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/6644.md) — 0 caps
- [Shumensko pivo AD](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/285.md) — 41 caps, 1882–
- [Shumensko pivo AD (Carlsberg Bulgaria)](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/6800.md) — 4 caps
- [Pivovaren Zavod Varensko Pivo](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1839.md) — 4 caps
- [Brewery Varnensko Pivo](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1698.md) — 3 caps, –2004, closed
- [Pivovaren Zavod Zagorka AD](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/427.md) — 29 caps, 1902–
- [Ариана АД (Heineken Bulgaria)](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1547.md) — 7 caps
- [Ах Бирена Работилница](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/4068.md) — 1 cap
- [ВТ АД Болярка](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/118.md) — 11 caps, 1892–
- [Бритос](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/4537.md) — 1 cap
- [Брънч Фемили ООД](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/4514.md) — 1 cap
- [ДСО Българско Пиво](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/2690.md) — 2 caps
- [Новарто Инвест ООД](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/4524.md) — 2 caps
- [Пиринско Пиво (Carlsberg Bulgaria)](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1545.md) — 21 caps, 1967–
- [Пивоварна София](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1616.md) — 1 cap
- [София Брю ООД](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/6645.md) — 1 cap