The world trend of craft beer gaining vast popularity has not bypassed Bulgaria. This country has got a relatively short brewery tradition – shorter than a century and a half – and this both hampers and facilitates the promotion of new beer tastes compared to the situation in the classical brewing countries such as the Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium and Britain.

A Belgian craftsman working in one of Bulgaria’s first craft beer breweries in the Balkan Range town of Tryavna was also the first who dared add to the beer a traditional Bulgarian herb, chubritsa (savory). The experiment was a success. With some delay one of the leading craftbrewers answered the challenge on the occasion of the first anniversary of bottled craft beer in Sofia, released a limited series with a mix of ingredients – radishes, beets, celery, rosemary and all-spice and won the praise of connoisseurs. In the meantime craft brewers continue with countless experiments involving a variety of local flora – from nettles and hips, to the use of wild yeast with blackcurrant. Believe it or not, the results have proved a nice surprise even to the experiments’ authors.

The picture would be perfunctory and incomplete should we miss to highlight one of the most serious brewing efforts of a Bulgarian national in one of the world’s undisputable beer centers, London. Rose Brew is a name that tells us a lot about its creator, Ivaylo Penev from the southern Bulgarian city of Stara Zagora. For years he has been living in London and selling rose water made in Kazanlak, Central Bulgaria, by a friend of his. Following short hesitation, he took up jointly with partners the challenge of brewing ale with rose water. Their brewery is among the few British ones fully certified as organic, which automatically positions it in a higher category, including pricing. They are among the few in the sector who let beer ferment in open vessels, not unlike in the Middle Ages, Ivaylo smiles.

“The whole thing is like a living system, a bit unpredictable. Sometimes it does not work – it has happened to me twice. We were brewing beer with normal sugar content, an extract, with temperature monitored electronically and yet it did not want to ferment on time!”

For the time being, the brewery manufactures three brands of ale with names that correspond to their styles: White Rose (wit), Pink Rose (IPA), Black Rose (stout). We tasted them in this same sequence and the rose flavour waned with every other sip. The amount of rose water varies – from a teaspoonful per bottle in the first case to half the amount in the latter one. Things however are not that simple.

„Rose water has the property of making taste more intense, if properly dosed. In the beginning I added much more rose oil, because I was sort of immune to its strong aroma.”

The first ale that is quite popular on St. Valentine's Day in Britain and is based on chocolate with roses is the chocolate stout. The very opening of the bottle releases a bouquet of aromatic roses and then…

„Things get balanced, but the story is elsewhere. As you sip from the bottle, the ale comes across different in taste, not at all boring, and every sip has a different taste. And it makes you feel better and relaxed, too. Besides it is good for the gut.”

Well, of course, rose has a much more romantic image than hop but in fact it does not add to the sweetness of beer – it works to increase its bitterness. For these properties it is equally praised by both the female and male halves of the beer-loving humankind. The reviews for Ivaylo’s rose ales in the world’s specialized beer-tasting websites are not unanimous. These range from top approval of the stout (18.5/20) to a comparison with the Turkish delight for the wit (12/20). This does not bother Ivaylo and he makes fun of it using some black Bulgarian humour:

„This is a matter of personal opinion. And besides, different people perceive different tastes differently. For some, I agree, the rose might be too much giving them the feeling they have been drinking shampoo.”

Ivaylo is lucky that a few ladies who usually do not drink much ale get in the know of its secrets with the rose acting as an intermediary. It seems that this distinctly Bulgarian connection in craft brewery in Britain stands a good chance of getting much more conspicuous.

English version: Daniela Konstantinova