Beer in Serbia and Montenegro
Beer in Serbia and Montenegro (Serbian language: пиво (pivo)) is rarely mentioned outside of its state, and that is not without a reason. However, most of it is drinkable, and some of it is not bad at all. Beer is mostly being sold in glass bottles of half litre (empty bottles must be exchanged while buying or if not bottles must be bought with beer as well); cans are rarer and canned beer could be of slightly better quality. Recently, most breweries began packing beer in plastic bottles of 1.5 or even two litres. This beer is cheaper while equal in quality.Most beer being produced is light beer. Dark beer is rarer (almost every larger brewery produces dark beer but in such small quantities that it is hard to find it). Some breweries also produce kvass or similar drink.
Beer in glass bottles costs around 45 dinarss (0.69 euros) per litre while in plastic it could go as low as 35 dinars (0.54 euros) per litre. Beer in pubs costs around 100 dinars (1.54 euros) per litre. Of course, it is possible to buy foreign beer in better equipped stores, of these Heineken being most popular; but it is inaccesible to average citizens.
It is important to know a phenomenon caused by competition between breweries, most notably between breweries of Apatin and Belgrade. When one brewery starts making beer of higher quality, more and more people start buying it; because of high demand brewery begins hyperproduction of beer, and as a result of this its quality drops; meanwhile the other brewery, having low sales, improves the quality in order to atract customers; people switch back to it and the circle starts again.
Most people consider that the best beer in Serbia is Jelen, and the worst Old Gold.
Breweries and brews
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