There is nothing better than having a cold beer with friends outdoors during the weekend. If beer is homemade, the pleasure becomes even greater. Time flies with stories about brewing that are worthy of being included in a book. One of these stories is that the founder of home brewing in Bulgaria was Hungarian poet and freedom fighter Lajos Kossuth, who, fleeing from Austria-Hungary, settled in Bulgaria’s Shumen. There, in 1850, along with several of his countrymen he started brewing beer. It is believed that this was the first beer brewed in Bulgaria.

BNR’s Joan Kolev met Dimitar Georgiev and Bozhidar Alexandrov for the first time at the Beer Relation Festival in the capital city’s "South Park," where he had the opportunity to try their homemade beer. They are doing it for pleasure and personal consumption with family and friends, but hope they will be able to develop production and register their own brand of beer. More about the problems and legal obstacles from Bozhidar Alexandrov:

“Home brewing started as a hobby for me but I have been thinking into turning it into a small business. I want to offer my beer in stores and restaurants. Unfortunately, the laws in Bulgaria do not allow this to happen. I say we are not allowed, because one needs to register a small independent brewery that must produce between 0 to 2 million liters of beer annually. As a home brewer I will produce 1,000 to 2,000 liters per year. Still I have to make investments for a big brewery. Add to this fire safety requirements, health monitoring, quality control, plus the fact that we need to register as a tax warehouse and things become very complicated for a small home brewer like us. We hope laws will change soon.”

Beers brewed by the two enthusiasts are various. Sometimes they are stronger, sometimes weaker, but always brewed with love. One of the types of beer produced by Dimitar Georgiev is Indian Pale Ale. England used to export this type of beer to its officers in India during colonization. This is a highly hopped beer, which was done in order for it to be preserved all the way from England to India, stored in barrels.

Long ago home brewing became something more than a hobby in Western countries – it is a profession and family business that has been constantly evolving.  In order for this to happen in this country, legislation should acknowledge the fact that in addition to large producers on the market there is room for small family breweries making craft beer. Such breweries can be provided access to the market through amendments to the law.  But until this becomes reality, we hope to have more beer festivals and events to promote the incredible variety of tastes and flavors of homemade beer.

English: Alexander Markov