Slovak Beer
It took me a while to develop a taste for beer. As a young adult going out with my friends for occasional social drinking in California, I chose beer over other kinds of alcohol because beer isn’t as strong as wine or most mixed drinks. I got used to the taste of beer, and though I never particularly cared for it and hadn’t really developed a taste for it, I stuck with it. But those ambivalent feelings towards beer changed for the better when I moved to Slovakia.
When I first moved to Zlaté Moravce in western Slovakia, I knew no one. It took me about three months, but finally, I met a really cool bunch of people from the same town and they were happy to include me amongst their number. My American roommate called them my “frisbee friends” because they played ultimate fisbee. When we met up in the evenings, nine times out of ten it was at the local pub Smädný mních—The Thirsty Monk. It was at this pub that I gained a lot more experience with beer, specifically with Slovak beer.
I learned that there are two kinds of beer you can typically order in a Slovak pub, svetlé or tmavé—light or dark beer (light refers to the color, it’s not a diet version). Light beer is your typical pilsner beer, with a slight bitter taste. Dark beers are sweeter, and according to my “frisbee friends”, “dark beer is for women”. Well, being that I am a woman, I though it would be a safe bet to go with the dark beer, and it was. Dark beers are, well, delicious. There is no bitter taste, which I can’t stand, just a rich flavor, not heavy, that leaves you looking forward to you next sip. That’s how it was for me, anyway.
I also learned that even after I had built up a tolerance level (several months of regular practice), I couldn’t drink more than one and a half pints without getting very tipsy. That was my absolute limit. Oh, and did I mention that beer in Slovakia is strong? It’s much more potent than anything I had ever drunk in the U.S. You have to pace yourself with Slovak beer. The strength of beer is measured by degrees, but some brands display the number with a with a percentage sign. This measurement isn’t the amount of alcohol in the beer, but rather the amount of malt extract used in the brewing process. The average strength of Slovak beer is 12°, but it’s hard to specify how much alcohol that equates to. A 12° beer from one brand can have a lower alcohol content than a 10° from another brand, depending on the strain of yeast and the brewing process. Anyway, Slovak beer ranges from 10° to 16°, with 10° and 12° being most common.
My favorite beer is the dark Šariš. I’ve heard Šariš is the sweetest, and maybe that’s why I like it. My “frisbee friends” preferred light Zlatý bažant and that seemed to be the choice of many of my friends and acquaintances who drank beer.
Here are some tips for ordering beer in a Slovak pub or restaurant:
1) The waiter or waitress will want to know two things about your beer preference: color and size. Svetlé alebo tmavé – light or dark, and malé alebo veľké – small or large. A small is .3 liters and a large is .5 litres. Actually, a veľké pivo, translated as “large beer”, is considered to be the regular or standard size.
2) Don’t take a drink until everyone at your table has been given their beer.
3) There will almost always be a toast, so be sure to make eye contact when you are clinking glasses with someone.
4) In Bratislava, which is the higher end for prices, average prices for beer are 38 Skk ($1.58) for a large and 28 Skk ($1.17) for a small.
The following is a short dialog to help you out when ordering a beer:
A. One beer, please.
A. Jedno pivo, prosím.
B. What kind?
B. Aké?
A. What kind of light beers do you have on tap?
A. Aké svetlé pivá čapujete?
B. For light beers, we have Zlatý bažant, Corgoň, and Kelt.
B. Zo svetlých máme Zlatý bažant, Corgoň a Kelt.
A. Zlatý bažant, please.
A. Zlatý bažant, prosím.
B. Regular or small?
B. Veľké alebo malé?
A. Regular, please.
A. Veľké, prosím.
B. I’ll bring it right away.
B. Hneď to prinesiem.
Some of the best memories I have in Zlaté Moravce were at the pub, making new friends, learning about Slovak culture and realizing that young Slovaks have many of the same interests as young Americans (who knew you could find die-hard ultimate frisbee fans in Slovakia?). I also discovered that I truly love beer, particularly sweet, dark Slovak beer.
