# Albania

Country page of DA Caps, a collection of beer bottle caps. Web page: https://dacaps.imcoll.info/country/al/info

- Official name: Republic of Albania
- Local name: Republika e Shqipërisë
- Caps in the collection: 26 (https://dacaps.imcoll.info/country_caps/204)
- Brands: 9

## Beer in Albania

Albania came late to beer: wine and raki were the drinks of the country, and beer was little known before the 20th century. The first brewery was founded in Korçë in 1928 by the Italian Umberto Umberti and Selim Mborja, a joint-stock company with 950,000 gold francs; building began in 1929, and before the war it brewed light and dark beer, about 10,000 hectolitres in 1939, besides ice and Kristal water.

The communist state nationalised the Korçë brewery on 11 January 1946 and rebuilt it in 1955, 1957 and 1965. In 1960 a second brewery was built with Soviet equipment in the «Ali Kelmendi» food combine of Tirana; Birra Tirana, brewed from 1961, supplied two thirds of the country and Birra Korça the south-east. Barley came from the Korçë plain and hops from Pogradec, and by 1984 Albania brewed about 161,000 hectolitres a year.

The end of communism opened the market to imported beer and to private brewers: Stela began in Tirana in 1994 with 500 litres a day, Kaon in 1995, and more than thirty private breweries were founded. The Korçë brewery was sold at auction in April 1994 and bought in 2004 by Irfan Hysenbelliu, who rebuilt it with Czech equipment; the Tirana brewery, on its own as Birra Malto, was privatised in 2001 and has belonged to the Hysenbelliu group since 2020. Alfa of Glinë, near Gjirokastër, brought out Elbar in 2015. The Korça Beer Fest has been held every August since 2007.

Imported beer keeps gaining: it had 42 per cent of the market in 2016 and 60 per cent in 2024, which the brewers blame on the excise. Stefani & Co, the maker of Stela, was sold to Eurolab in 2025 and renamed Iliria Brewery in 2026. Since the late 2010s craft brewers such as Pan's in Tirana (2021) have brewed ales, wheat beers and stouts beside the pale lager that still rules the market.

Sources:
- [Wikipedia: Beer in Albania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_Albania)
- [Wikipedia: Birra Korça](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birra_Kor%C3%A7a)
- [Wikipedia (sq): Birra Korça](https://sq.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birra_Kor%C3%A7a)
- [Wikipedia: Malto Brewery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malto_Brewery)
- [Wikipedia: Birra Stela](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birra_Stela)
- [Wikipedia: Birra Kaon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birra_Kaon)
- [Wikipedia: Birra Elbar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birra_Elbar)
- [Agna Group: ALFA Sh.A.](https://www.agnagroup.com/kompanite/alfa-sha?lang=en)
- [Albanian Daily News: Beer Industry in Difficulty, Imports Up (2024)](https://albaniandailynews.com/news/beer-industry-in-difficulty-imports-up)
- [BeerTasting: Pan's Microbrewery](https://www.beertasting.com/en/brewery/pans-microbrewery)

## Breweries (4)

- [Alfa S.A.](https://dacaps.imcoll.info/brewery/4294.md) — 1 cap, 2015–
- [Birra Korca Sh.p.k.](https://dacaps.imcoll.info/brewery/1875.md) — 6 caps, 1928–
- [Birra Malto Sh.A. - Birra Tirana](https://dacaps.imcoll.info/brewery/2203.md) — 12 caps, 1960–
- [Stefani & Co Sh.A.](https://dacaps.imcoll.info/brewery/4543.md) — 7 caps, 1994–