Female craft beer brewers make history in Croatia

Описание: (26 Mar 2025)

FOR MORE ON THIS STORY SEE: 4564173

RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Zadar, Croatia - 12 March 2025
1. Ana Teskera, co-founder of brewery, pouring beer into a glass
2. Ana Teskera tasting a beer
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Ana Teskera, co-founder of the brewery:
++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT; PARTLY OVERLAID++
“The story of our cooperative brewery starts almost 10 years ago, when I was still living in Zagreb, capital of Croatia, but then I decided to come here to work in one winery, because I'm originally a wine maker and oenologist. So, while I really loved the great quality wines, I kind of decided to have myself another hobby in a new city, where I didn't know anybody. So, I started home brewing. And in order to meet more people and get new friends, I asked my friend Maja, who lived in Zadar before, to come over and make beer with me.”
4. Various of the brewery and Ana working with her colleagues
5. Wide exterior of brewery
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Ana Teskera, co-founder of brewery:
++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT; PARTLY OVERLAID++
“Many challenges come just from society and how people respond to the fact that you make beer, or you do whatever it is that women should not do or is not supposed to do. So you go to the market, you're buying some pieces of equipment, you're trying to negotiate something. People react differently to women.”
7. Ana in brewery
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ana Teskera, co-founder of brewery:
++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT; PARTLY OVERLAID++
“I'm not doing it because I'm a woman. I'm just doing it because I like beer, because I love beer. I love the process of making it. I like doing things with my own hands. It's like, I think I have a need, an urge to do something.”
9. Man packing beers in brewery
STORYLINE:
Beer is often still perceived as a “man’s drink” in Croatia.

It is advertised mostly for men, seen as masculine, and beer brewing is considered a “man's business”.

In the coastal Adriatic city Zadar, two friends are proving otherwise and reclaiming women’s place in Croatia's brewing history.

In 2016, Ana Teskera and Maja Sepetavec started Brlog Brewery, named after the Croatian word for “den”.

It is the first brewery in the country run by women, and the first and only craft beer cooperative in the region.

What started as a hobby on the balcony of a rented apartment turned into a serious business.

Teskera and Sepetavec launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for professional brewing equipment. They collected $11,000 , enough to start the business and buy their first beer tanks.

They explored the benefits of cooperative businesses, which are owned and controlled by their members, and established the first such brewery in the region.

The female-run Brlog Brewery has succeeded in what is often perceived as a “man’s business” here in Zagreb.

However, for much of history, women have been responsible for supplying the world’s beer.

Ninkasi, the goddess of beer in ancient Sumeria, was worshiped some 6,000 years ago.

Teskera doesn’t feel disadvantaged as a woman in a male-dominated brewing industry – at least, not when she feels strong.
But she admits there are days when she sees the difference.

“Many challenges come just from society and how people respond to the fact that you make beer, or you do whatever it is that women should not do or is not supposed to do. So you go to the market, you're buying some pieces of equipment, you're trying to negotiate something. People react differently to women,” she says.









AP Video shot by: Relja Dusek



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