Bakrevski Brewery - Bitola
First and foremost, we must highlight that the team at Kajak.mk is thrilled to have met Marjan Bakrevski, a professional musician by trade, who started his hobby of craft beer production together with his brother. Today, they produce over 5 tons or 10,000 bottles of beer per month. What excites us is the fact that through our team-building events, we can now support these local guys who are doing small things with huge significance for the development of tourism. This is yet another destination in Bitola that deserves attention from everyone.
Marjan says that together with his brother, who is a dentist by profession, they found a common passion and interest in brewing good beer. It all started with a simple 20-liter kettle and a mix of ingredients they stirred in the living room. After the first batch, they bought a second, third, and now they have a small brewery that produces enough beer to make many people happy.
Marjan has studied in various countries, starting in the USA, and later moved to Vienna, where he lived with a group of musicians who made homemade wine, brandy, and good food. Inspired by the fact that each of his friends made something unique and their own, he decided to start brewing beer at a time when there were no raw materials available on the market in Macedonia.
The first beer he produced was six years ago, and the reason he hasn’t stopped is, as he says: "Once you try good beer, there's no turning back. Here, you are always in search of a better recipe than the previous one. It’s something similar to music," he adds.
The brewing process involves soaking barley in water, boiling the water, adding hops, cooling it, and adding yeast, which matures into good beer within a month. More information can be obtained if you get in touch with the brewery and, of course, if you taste some great beers.
The beer they produce is called BAK, with the label and design by designer Darko Ristevski, who created a chameleon that changes color depending on the beer. They started with barley, IPA, dark STOUT beer, and wheat.
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