>>I am more aware of the percentage of water in it :)
>
>Our beer is even lower in alcohol so people drink it almost like a refreshment because of the temperature. But it is cheap, especially if you buy it by the case and bring empties.

So that's functional beer, because it returns (the bottle), to differ from procedural, where nothing is returned (bottle goes to wastebasket).

>How about Serbian beer? I presume strong and dark (for thirst, of course).

The brewery in my hometown is older than Guinness: 1745. They even have a beer festival, usually whole last week of August. The last time they had good beer was about twenty years ago :). Their dark beer is actually good, and the last time I tried their regular Pilsner (aka bright beer - to differ from light beer, even though the word is the same) it was getting back in shape.

Just two weeks before coming here I had a birthday, and accidentally the beer week was starting. I rode my bicycle looking for dark beer... and ended up at brewery gate shop, where the reporters with cameras and mikes stood, sort of a welcome committee (not exactly for mee, they were waiting for the carnival to arrive). But I didn't want publicity, I wanted dark beer. And the lady in the shop said they haven't ran a batch of dark for months, because the sugar factory (which is just a mile away) didn't deliver what it takes for caramel.

And I already knew the background of the story: they weren't paying for that sugar for more than a year. No wonder.

I believe, from emails I'm getting from home, that several brands have reverted to the quality they upheld once. So yes, I'd like to see the normal, 0.5 liter bottle.