Laško pivo

Laško pivo, Laško beer, comes from the small Styrian spa town of Laško, where beer has been brewed since 1825 at what is now Slovenia’s largest brewery. Its flagship lager, Zlatorog, is named after the golden-horned chamois of Slovene legend, and in Slovenia the town’s name has become almost another word for beer.

Key facts

Origin
Laško, Savinja valley, Slovenia
Brewery founded
1825, by Franz Geyer
Flagship beer
Zlatorog, a pilsner-style lager
Owner
Heineken (majority since October 2015)
Sister brand
Union, of Ljubljana (bought 2002)
Festival
Beer and Flowers Festival, Laško, every summer since 1964

Two centuries of brewing in Laško

Laško sits on the Savinja river in eastern Slovenia, in the historic region of Styria. In 1825 Franz Geyer founded a brewery there and brewed stone beer (Steinbier); both the brewery’s own history and Wikipedia’s account of it begin with him. The Slovenian beer article on Wikipedia calls Laško the country’s first lager brewery.

Under a new owner from 1838, Heinrich August Uhlich, the beer began to travel overseas, and the brewery was rebuilt in 1867. After a bankruptcy in 1889 it was revived by Simon Kukec, whom the company calls the father of Laško beer; Wikipedia credits him with introducing a thermal beer, made with the help of the town’s warm springs.

From Yugoslav giant to Heineken

In the 20th century the brewery grew into one of the biggest in Yugoslavia. Wikipedia records that by 1991 it was the largest of the country’s 28 breweries, and that it lost much of that market when Slovenia became independent. The company says its sales returned to one million hectolitres a year in 1994. In 2002 it bought Union, the beer of the capital, Ljubljana; according to Wikipedia, Union is drunk mostly in Ljubljana and Laško mostly elsewhere in the country.

On 13 April 2015 the Dutch brewer Heineken agreed to buy a majority of Pivovarna Laško at 25.56 euros a share; ESM Magazine reported that it had outbid private equity firms including KKR and Bain Capital. The purchase of a 53.43 per cent stake was completed on 15 October 2015, and in 2016 Laško and Union were formally merged as Pivovarna Laško Union under Heineken’s ownership.

Zlatorog, the golden-horned chamois

Laško’s best-known beer is Zlatorog, a pilsner-style lager sold in green cans and bottles. The name belongs to one of Slovenia’s best-loved legends: Zlatorog, or Goldhorn, a white chamois with golden horns that lived on the heights of Triglav, the country’s highest mountain.

In the story, as told by Wikipedia and by RTV Slovenija, a young hunter sets out to win back a girl who has turned to a richer suitor. He shoots the chamois, but magic flowers spring up where its blood falls; the animal eats them, regains its strength and runs towards him, and the hunter, dazzled by the golden horns, falls from the cliff. Karel Dežman first published the tale in the Laibacher Zeitung in 1868.

A town of beer and flowers

Laško’s thermal springs were famous before its beer: RTV Slovenija notes that their healing powers were known long before large-scale brewing, and Wikipedia records that the spa opened in 1854 as Kaiser Franz Josef Bad. The same RTV Slovenija guide, written by In Your Pocket, notes that in Slovenia the name Laško has become almost another word for beer.

Each summer since 1964 the town has held the Festival of Beer and Flowers (Pivo in cvetje), organised by the local culture and tourism centre, STIK Laško. The festival is known for its flowers, with concerts on four stages, a street parade, the ceremonial opening of a beer barrel and fireworks. RTV Slovenija’s 2018 guide put the crowds at some 150,000 visitors a year. In Emblem World, Laško pivo sits in the Slovenia drink collection, where people discover and rate local food, drink and music.

Sources

Checked by Emblem editorial on 9 October 2026.

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