Laško Brewery () is the largest

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of b ...

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. It is located in

Laško Laško (; ) is a spa town in eastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Laško. The area is part of the traditional region of Lower Styria, Styria. The municipality is now included in the Savinja Statistical Region. The town is locate ...

and named after the town.The brewery was founded in 1825 by Franz Geyer, a

gingerbread Gingerbread refers to a broad category of baked goods, typically flavored with ginger root, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a moist loaf cake to forms nearly ...

baker and

mead Mead (), also called honey wine, and hydromel (particularly when low in alcohol content), is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water, and sometimes with added ingredients such as fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The alco ...

producer. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

ended in 1945, Laško was the fifth-largest in

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

, and by 1991 it was the largest among 28 Yugoslav breweries. It lost much of the Yugoslav market in 1991 after Slovenia declared independence and during the resulting

Ten-Day War The Ten-Day War (), or the Slovenian War of Independence (), was a brief armed conflict that followed Slovenia's declaration of independence from Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991. It was fought between the Slovenian Territorial Defence together wi ...

, although sales rebounded during the 1990s. In 2016 Laško and Union were formally merged into ''Pivovarna Laško Union d.d.'' under the Owner

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer (), or simply Heineken (), is a Dutch pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 February 1864, ...

History of brewing in Laško

In 1825, the physician and lecturer Franz Geyer set up a craft brewery in the former Valvasor Hospital (1st location – today's Hotel Savinja), where the first brewer in Laško probably brewed stone beer (

Steinbier Steinbier (, German for ''stone beer'') is a type of beer that was predominant in Carinthia until the beginning of the 20th century. It was also common in Scandinavia, the Baltics, Franconia and south-western Germany. Steinbier is not mashed in ke ...

), which was otherwise known in Carinthia, for thirteen years. However, it is not known whether he did not know how to make technologically more demanding Bavarian beer as well. In 1838, the brewery was bought by Heinrich August Uhlich, who gave Laško beer a real reputation. As the owner of the bathhouse in Rimske Toplice, he served his beer to foreign guests and, due to his origin in Trieste, drove it to Trieste, a commercial center with connoisseurs of good food and drink. He also proved to be an enterprising wholesaler, as his beer was drunk even in Alexandria and Calcutta. The next owner, Anton Larisch, built a new brewery in 1867 at the foot of St. Kristofa and Šmihel (2nd location – former Volna), which at the time was the largest in

Lower Styria Styria (, ), also known as Slovenian Styria (; ) or Lower Styria (; ) to differentiate it from Austrian Styria, is a traditional region in northeastern Slovenia, comprising the southern third of the former Duchy of Styria. The population of St ...

. He was famous for the fact that he personally controlled the quality of the beer and even improved it, and he also increased the capacity of the brewery. In 1889, the brewery was bought by Simon Kukec, a brewer from Žal, a strongly Slovene-oriented nationalist. Because he was a good organizer, financier, businessman, and on top of that he was particularly fond of innovations, he is considered the most important figure in the history of the Laško brewery. He established a new type of beer and the first beer brand – thermal beer, which still lives today in its derivative form. Through many experiments, he found that thermal water improves the taste of beer. As a good entrepreneur, he was aware of the need to attract customers with unusual innovations. Therefore, he started to brew thermal beer as light and dark, and in both cases it was also stronger than ordinary beer.

Brands

;Laško *Zlatorog *Eliksir *Dark *Light *Jubilejnik *Club *Trim *Malt *Radler ;Bandidos *Cuba Libre *Ice *Tequila *Sun ;iC Cider ;Oda water The brewery participates in the annual summertime Festival of Beer & Flowers (''Pivo-Cvetje'') in Laško, one of the most popular events for tourists in the country.

References

External links

Laško Brewery
Heineken brands Breweries in Slovenia Beer brands of Slovenia Slovenian brands {{slovenia-stub 1825 establishments in Europe

Brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of b ...

Beer in Slovenia