Bosnia’s story with alcohol is a little more truncated than most. A fascinating clash between Slavic peasantry, remnants of an Austrian empire and the Muslim world to the East makes Bosnia one of the most interesting countries in Europe to visit. Its nightlife remains partly non-alcoholic as a result, as crowds gather around courtyard cafés to drink coffee and smoke shisha, an act which is so enjoyable in the right environment we almost feel like we should include those places. However, until we find a mind-blowingly good venue, we won’t. Unfortunately many of the bars serving alcohol sway between unwelcoming looking smokey corner bars and being very poor facsimiles of what they believe Westerners are doing. The latter places are generally loud, brash, unstylish (in a tacky way) and serve poor drinks. It’s a template you will become familiar with the longer time you spend in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia. However, Sarajevo’s main brewery happens to be a transplant from the Austro-Hungarian empire, meaning it still churns out decent enough lager, the sort that still tastes of beer rather than being chemically sterilised to the point nothing remains except a mineraly flavour. Their brewery tap is a fascinating blend of Ottoman and Germanic stylings, even giving off echoes of medieval galleried pubs. The locals are justifiable proud of it, and they export unpasteurised tank Sarajevska across the city and outlying areas. Don’t despair about the bar scene however, as there are some spectacular and cool individual places to be found that singularly prove a diversity of character that is not immediately apparent in the more mainstream venues. In particular, the Ottoman period, Austro-Hungarian rule and Socialist era has given Sarajevo a fondness for the nostalgic, invariably resulting in cute antiquey bars (not to be confused with Tiki bars). No nation in Europe has resisted the allure of the independent brewing craze and Bosnia’s own range of beers has expanded tenfold due to new small operations in Sarajevo, Mostar and Banja Luka, where finding local beer, good or not, has suddenly become a viable proposition. This inevitably has put a rocket up the local bar scene which – in the Balkans – is much needed. Yes, some may veer too close to the now familiar and dull Craft template, but in this part of the world that still constitutes a drastic improvement. Aside of beer, expect to see plenty of rakija being drunk, the thousand-flavoured drain cleaner that you too will inevitably be coerced into trying.