# Croatia

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

- Official name: Republic of Croatia
- Local name: Republika Hrvatska
- Caps in the collection: 123 (https://dacaps.imcoll.com/country_caps/11)
- Brands: 63

## Beer in Croatia

Croatia was a land of wine, and beer was a rare guest until the 18th century: one brewer is recorded in Zagreb in the 14th century, and the first brewers of any size came with German and Czech settlers and soldiers after the wars with the Ottomans. Osijek had three brewers in 1694, and its tax books of 1697 mention brewing. It is often said that the first Croatian beer was brewed there in 1664 by a Mr Bauer, but no source confirms it; the earliest documents are of 1694-1697. Small brewery inns followed in Valpovo (1724), Požega (1726), Zagreb (about 1740), Varaždin (1754), Bjelovar (1772) and Karlovac (a brewer in the tax books of 1779).

Industry came in the 19th century. Count Izidor Janković built the Daruvar brewery for his estate in 1840; Baron Nikola Vranyczany founded the Karlovac brewery at Dubovac in 1854; and Kajetan Šeper, trained in Bohemia and Austria, opened a steam brewery and ice works in Osijek in 1856. Nineteen small breweries still worked in 1885. With phylloxera and mildew destroying the vineyards, the Zagreb Joint-Stock Brewery and Malt Factory was founded on 19 May 1892 by Count Gustav Pongratz and Baron Petar Dragutin Turković and opened at Ilica 224 on 12 July 1893, in a garden lit by electric light fifteen years before the rest of the city. A Hungarian beer tax from 1899 and imports hurt it; under the Alexander family, who took over in 1912, it merged with the Sisak brewery in September 1926 and took in the civic brewery of Karlovac in 1928.

After 1945 the breweries were nationalised. The Zagreb brewery grew from 60,000 hl in 1952 to a million hl in 1969, and in 1971 it formed one enterprise, Zagrebačke pivovare, with Karlovac, Daruvar and the Lika brewery of Otočac; Daruvar left in 1977 and the Otočac plant closed in 1996. In Osijek the brewery moved to a new plant at Zeleno polje on 14 April 1979. The Panonska brewery was founded at Koprivnica in 1971 as part of the food company Podravka and brewed Tuborg under licence from 1972; the Istarska brewery at Buzet opened in July 1977.

After 1991 the big breweries passed to foreign groups. Interbrew bought 23% of the Zagreb brewery in 1994 and became its majority owner the same year; in October 2009 the shares moved to Cervesia Zagreb of StarBev, and Molson Coors has owned it since June 2012. Carlsberg became a shareholder of Panonska in 1994, opened a new brewery at Koprivnica in 1997, took the majority in 2002 and renamed the company Carlsberg Croatia in 2004. Heineken bought the Karlovac brewery on 1 April 2003. In 2020 the three held 72.6% of the market, Zagrebačka alone 40.7%. The Daruvar brewery, owned by its workers after 1991, was sold in 2005 and 2008, went bankrupt and was bought by the Kufner group in June 2010. Osječka pivovara has carried its present name since April 2009 and is wholly Croatian-owned, and in Lika Karlo Starčević built the Ličanka brewery at Donje Pazarište in 1997.

Pivnica Medvedgrad, opened in Zagreb on 22 December 1994, is counted as the oldest independent microbrewery in the country, and a craft wave followed from 2013: Zmajska (first beers in 2014), Bujska pivovara (San Servolo), Varionica (2014), Bura Brew in Poreč (2015) and the Dubrovnik Beer Company (2017). In 2020 the Brewers of Europe counted 98 breweries in Croatia, 84 of them micro; Zagrebačka answered with its craft brand Grif and the K Pivovari plant at Vukovar, opened on 22 August 2018. Consumption peaked at 92 litres a head in 2022 and fell to 74 in 2024. In 2025 Zagrebačka had revenues of 224.9 million euros, Heineken Hrvatska 148.9 and Daruvar 20.3; bankruptcy proceedings were opened over the Istarska brewery of Buzet on 31 October 2025, and it went on brewing in smaller volume.

Sources:
- [Skenderovic: Kako je pivo doslo u Hrvatsku, Hrvatska revija 3 (2002)](https://www.matica.hr/hr/327/KAKO%20JE%20PIVO%20DO%C5%A0LO%20U%20HRVATSKU/)
- [Kolar: Zagrebacka pivovara do 1945., Hrvatska revija 3 (2002)](https://www.matica.hr/hr/327/ZAGREBA%C4%8CKA%20PIVOVARA%20DO%201945./)
- [Wikipedia: Zagrebacka pivovara](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagreba%C4%8Dka_pivovara)
- [Wikipedia (hr): Osjecka pivovara](https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osje%C4%8Dka_pivovara)
- [Wikipedia (hr): Pivovara Daruvar](https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pivovara_Daruvar)
- [Wikipedia (hr): Karlovacka pivovara](https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlova%C4%8Dka_pivovara)
- [Wikipedia: Pivovara Licanka](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pivovara_Li%C4%8Danka)
- [Total Croatia News: The brewery that survived the crash, WWII and privatisation (2026)](https://total-croatia-news.com/news/brewery-zagreb/)
- [Total Croatia News: Croatian Beer Industry (2022)](https://total-croatia-news.com/news/business/croatian-beer-industry/)
- [Total Croatia News: Croatian Craft Beer Scene (2022)](https://total-croatia-news.com/news/business/croatian-craft-beer-scene/)
- [Carlsberg Group: Croatia](https://carlsberggroup.com/who-we-are/about-the-carlsberg-group/global-presence/croatia/)
- [AB InBev: ITW Croatia, Interbrew presentation (2004)](https://www.ab-inbev.com/content/dam/universaltemplate/ab-inbev/investors/presentations-pdf-archive/presentations/2004/040604_Interbrew_Croatia.pdf)
- [Lider Media: Jubilarians, the Croatian Industrial Revolution (2024)](https://en.lider.media/2024/03/31/jubilarians-the-croatian-industrial-revolution-on-the-side-and-domestic-drive/)
- [Lider Media: Cervesia Acquires Zagrebacka Pivovara (2009)](https://en.lider.media/?p=187206)
- [Taste of Adriatic: Karlovac, a Beer Town (2016)](https://www.tasteofadriatic.com/post/2016-05-20-karlovac-a-beer-town)
- [tportal: Hrvati piju sve manje, pivarima pada promet (2026)](https://www.tportal.hr/biznis/clanak/hrvati-piju-sve-manje-pivarima-pada-promet-evo-tko-stoji-najbolje-a-tko-najgore-20260610)
- [Archontology: Croatia, Polity Style 1990-2026](https://archontology.org/nations/croatia/01_polity3.php)
- [FOTW: Flag of the Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia](https://crwflags.com/fotw/flags/hr_habs.html)
- [Wikipedia: Flag of Croatia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Croatia)

## Breweries (19)

- [Agram Craft d.o.o.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/6380.md) — 1 cap, 2016–
- [Bujska Pivovara](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3457.md) — 3 caps, 2013–
- [Bura Brew d.o.o.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3960.md) — 1 cap, 2015–
- [Carlsberg Croatia](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1255.md) — 15 caps, 1971–
- [Dubrovacka Pivovara](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3958.md) — 1 cap, 2017–
- [Istarska Pivovara](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/6482.md) — 1 cap, 1977–
- [K Pivovari d.o.o.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/6381.md) — 2 caps, 2018–
- [Karlovačka pivovara](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1253.md) — 38 caps, 1854–
- [Lidl Hrvatska d.o.o.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/4544.md) — 2 caps
- [Pivovara Medvedgrad](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/6505.md) — 1 cap
- [Osječka pivovara d.d.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1258.md) — 9 caps, 1664–
- [Panonska Pivovara d.o.o.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/2970.md) — 3 caps
- [Pivnica Medvedgrad](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3656.md) — 2 caps, 1994–
- [Pivovara Daruvar](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/2966.md) — 4 caps, 1840–
- [Pivovara Licanka](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/428.md) — 1 cap, 1997–
- [Pivovara Osijek](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/2070.md) — 1 cap
- [Varionica d.o.o.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3967.md) — 2 caps, 2014–
- [Zagrebačka Pivovara d.d.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/140.md) — 25 caps, 1892–
- [Zmajska Pivovara](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3392.md) — 3 caps, 2013–