Beer in Slovakia

Together with the neighbouring Czech Republic, with whom it has a shared and intertwined history, Slovakia has a number of breweries and a rich beer culture.

Brews in Slovakia usually range between 3.8 and 5.0% alcohol content, and are traditionally classified by their density, or specific gravity using the Plato scale.

Since the fall of communism, most large commercial breweries were privatized and subsequently bought by foreign multinational companies.

Modern historians agree that the consumption of beer in Slovakia started with the pre-Slavic inhabitants and was later continued by the arriving Slavic tribes.

Later, during the Middle Ages, the brewing of beer became a privilege that was granted mostly to townspeople, who were mostly members of the local City Council.

The most important brewing centres were mainly mining towns (Kremnica, Banská Bystrica, Banská Štiavnica), towns in the Spiš region (Kežmarok, Levoča), Bardejov, Prešov, Košice and the area south-west of present-day Slovakia (Trenčín, Trnava, Bratislava).

This turned out to be a good choice of location, as the region was a centre for the mining industry and over the years the brewery would find success selling to the miners that dominated the work force of the area.

The arrival and implementation of the Watt steam engine along with artificial cooling (Carl von Linde), as well as the work of Louis Pasteur saw significant developments in the production of beer.

Constantly increasing beer consumption created favourable conditions for the continued growth of brewing.

Gradually, the construction of new breweries began – Topoľčany (1964), Rimavská Sobota (1966), Veľký Šariš (1967), Hurbanovo (1969), Banská Bystrica (1971) and Trnava (1974).

In 1995, Heineken bought the company and started to move production of other Slovak beers in its portfolio to Hurbanovo.

Relocation of regional and long-standing beers away from their place of origin led to some enduring resentment against Heineken.

In 2013 ERB rejected repeated offers to export beer to Japan, Norway, Australia and Austria.

Owner Eduard Rada wants ERB beer to be linked to the country of Slovakia: "So tourists can say, I was in a country where they brew great beer.“ Types The tradition of brewing in the city of Banská Bystrica dates to 1501 with the arrival of new German and Jewish settlers in the city.

In 1524 the city gains official privilege to brew beer from King Louis II of Hungary.