The long road to Croatia
We talk to Zagreb-based brewery, The Garden, about its hard-won acceptance and advocacy for craft, before beer was cool
Robyn Gilmour
Saturday 05 April 2025
This article is from
Balkans
issue 116
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The Garden Brewery in Zagreb has long been a favourite of Ferment, both for its beer and its general approach to brewing, business and life. When we think of the brewery today, our minds naturally go straight to its world-class taproom, which is both ground zero of Croatia’s thriving beer scene, and a beacon for what our buildings can be when we work in tandem with nature. Indeed, it’s easy to forget that this reality is the product of nine years’ hard work, or twenty years if you consider the lifetime of The Garden as a business, starting as a bar in Zadar in 2005. When co-founder David Plant took the first tentative steps to opening his brewery, Croatia was a very different place.
“When we started, beer was perceived as awful, macro liquid that was cheap, mass produced rubbish that would never be your first choice of drink,” says David. “Under socialism, beer was an essential for all and, as such, was kept mass market and basic; in a similar way that vegetable oil won over olive oil at that time. So, when socialism fell, people got excited by the increased variety of drinks and perceived international spirits and small domestic wines as exciting, but beer got stuck”
David says his mission was to get people to take beer seriously, and to do that, he needed drinkers to understand the product. “When we started we did all the classic stuff, you know, American Pale Ale, then a West Coast IPA, a milk stout, but we called these beers what they were. Our pilsner was The Garden Pilsner, our pale ale was called The Garden Pale Ale, and we consciously did that because people didn’t know what an IPA was, there’s no point giving the beer a different name when the basics haven’t been covered. We still did about ten specials a month alongside our core beers, but we really were starting from scratch when it came to getting people involved in the world of craft beer.”
The Garden also had to start out by targeting supermarkets, and other retail channels, because macro players were so aggressive about dominating taps in bars and restaurants across the Croatian market. “A year after we started, we started selling in chains of bars and cafes, and we did well,” says David. “But it would never be long before the big guys would come along and say to venue owners, ‘I'll tell you what; I'll give you 20 grand, 30 grand to get them out. Here's some umbrellas, loads of ashtrays, take them [The Garden taps] away’. So they aggressively came at us.”
As such, the young brewery had to pivot, and focus on the off-trade. “That was funny because beer was viewed as an undesirable product and canned beer was viewed as even worse than bottled beer. People were like ‘are you mad?! You’ve started brewing beer even though everyone hates beer, and now you’re making canned beer? Is this some kind of comedy art project?’”
It goes without saying that with time and patience, these attitudes changed. Croatian bars now acknowledge that they need to have a craft offering to be regarded as a desirable location, and drinkers are so familiar with craft beer’s many styles that The Garden feels it can begin a slow rebrand. David says the brewery is cutting down on the number of beers it offers — focusing on the quality of a core range as opposed to catering to every possible taste or interest — and getting more playful with how it brands its beers. The brewery has put in some hard yards, but feels like a time is approaching when it’ll be able to let its hair down a little.
“I think what's happened is that we had to go the long way to get to Croatia,” says David, a throwaway statement but one with profound implications. “I think, even though ‘craft beer’ is quite a modern concept, all along we’ve been trying to promote something that’s really quite analog, creating real-life, joyful moments away from the phone screen.”
Garden has always lived this philosophy, from a bar in Zadar, to throwing parties in woods and on beaches along Croatia’s spectacular coastline, to finally opening a brewery that prioritises time, care, and quality ingredients, as well as people and planet. It’s not been without its challenges, but I think David Plant would tell you it’s been worth it.
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