Krugher & Brent Red Beer: Painting the Evening Red

Behind the label

For all the heraldry and old-fashioned lettering, the brewery’s own history begins in 1991, when the Laoj family started brewing in Ritiševo, a village near Vršac. By the brewery’s account, it was the first privately owned brewery in what was then Yugoslavia. The Latin motto beneath the crest, Non progredi est regredi, translates roughly as “not to go forward is to go back”. The older tradition lies in the beer: the brewery took its inspiration for RED from the beers of German monasteries.

That helps explain the doppelbock on the label—a strong, malt-rich lager. For its own version, the brewery combines several roasted malts with a special yeast and hops, a recipe it credits with producing the reddish colour. The result also has strength to match: 8% alcohol. The brewery says that strength has earned it a reputation as a beer that warms you up. I was drinking it on a January night, which seemed to be the idea.

What stood out when I drank it was the pronounced acidity. It reminded me less of other beers than of the apple-vinegar and black-vinegar sours I knew from Japan: fizzy drinks, usually made with shōchū, in which vinegar supplies the sharpness. The beer was unfamiliar. The sourness, oddly, was not.

A place for travellers

The beer was local; the café looked farther afield. KOTA 84 calls itself a putnički kafe—a travellers’ café—and includes Vojvodina craft beer among its drinks. Its interest in exploring places also takes the form of travel talks, film screenings and exhibitions. There is plenty to bring people here besides what is on the drinks list.

Inside, the travel theme left plenty of room for improvisation. A red helmet hung near a mirror ball. Below them, a head wearing sunglasses sat inside a loop of silver ducting. It was difficult to tell where the ventilation ended and the decoration began.