The city of Stara Zagora (Central South Bulgaria) is popular with both its linden trees and its beer. One of the biggest and oldest beer breweries is situated in this city. The Beer Museum in Stara Zagora which is part of the brewery is one of the most visited tourist attractions in that place.

A tourist trip across the production sites and the exposition which follows the road of one of the most popular beer brands in Bulgaria can become an amazing and unusual experience for all fans of beer. Why this is so? Let us start from the end of the tour which takes us to the tasting hall where one can drink a pint of local beer. The hosts strongly recommend guests to taste their live beer, because it can not be found anywhere else. Before you have your first sip of this foamy beverage, which makes you dizzy and boosts your tonus, the hosts will acquaint you with the history of the beer brewing industry in the city of Stara Zagora. It started back in 1902 when young Bulgarian doctor Konstantin Kozhuharov returned from abroad and built the first local brewery named Budashnost under the Czech system of beer brewing. The initial success was followed by a bankruptcy. Later, in 1921 it was brought back to life again by the Zlatev brothers who established the Trakia JSC to the participation of share-holders from all parts of Bulgaria. Their efforts ended with a great success. Shortly after it was launched, their beer started to sell across the whole Southern Bulgaria and became the most popular beer brand among the Bulgarian citizens who were mainly known for their love towards wine and rakia brandy. Here, vicissitudes of history had its say as well, because the production was suspended again after the end of WW1 and the whole machinery was sold out. The brewing factory was turned into a storehouse and the nearby land was cropped with grain. This process lasted until the mid 1950’s when the new socialist government started to build a new brewery on the same place and named the factory Zagorka. The citizens of Stara Zagora were extremely happy with their new brewery. In the first months of its existence the factory literally flooded the market with 10 million liters of beer and its production doubled in the next several years. Today Zagorka is part of the Dutch company Heineken and is one of the most popular beer brands in this country. What else can guests learn from the only in Bulgaria certified museum of beer?

“The personal belongings of the pioneers of this beverage production are on display behind special windows. Visitors can see what beer labels looked like in the past”, the keeper of the Museum of Beer in Stara Zagora Svetla Dimitrova explains. “The museum keeps the first beer bottle from the Budastonst period, as well as many advertising materials from the 1980’s. Some books from Andrey Brashovanov’s library, who was the first beer brewer in Bulgaria, are also on display there. The exposition also contains some devices from the laboratory where all products are tasted. The interest is big. People can visit the exposition on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, because it is situated on the premises of the current brewery. There are many foreign visitors from Japan, England, the USA, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, etc”

Over 2,000 tourists visit the Beer Museum per year. When the hosts acquaint the guests of the museum with the collection of 130 authentic exhibits and offer them a glass of local beer, they send them home with a company glass which will later remind them of their trip in the world of the Bulgarian beer.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov