The history of brewing in Havlíčkův Brod

In the year 1333 the Bohemian king John of Luxembourg granted to Jindrich of Lipa, the then lord of Nemecky Brod, a royal set of rules for the town containing the right to brew beer. It concerned the time-honoured prerogative of the town allowing citizens owning a house inside the town walls to brew beer. It was probably the first time thet this right was accorded to a subject town.
During the rebuilding of the town, destroyed in the year 1422 by the Hussites, the breweries were also rconstructed. Gradually, all rights, including that of brewing, were confirmed: first by King Jiri z Podebrad (1452), then by King Ludvik (1520)and then by King Ferdinand (1544). This process was concluded in 1637 when Emperor Fredinand III declared Nemecky Brod a royal free town and awarded it a town badge and town charter as a royal town.
Originally every townsman prepared his malt and ever beer himself, and likewise drew it on his own or sold it to lease-holding publicans. Over time, there arose in the town an association of brew-masters, who established langer breweries. These could be better equipped and allowed the preparation of beer by all those who held the right to brew beer. The brewery in the town hall was destroyed in the great fire of 1662. It was subsequently renovated in the year 1673 when the guildof maltsters was also founded.
After the fire of 1834 the brew-masters bought the knightly Bukovky house ( today the brew´s administrative bulding ) where there was a small hand brewery. This was the day of the founding of our brewery. With the growing quantity of brewing, the capacity of the brewery ceased to meet the demands made on it. Therefore it wasdecided to undertake the first large-scale reconstruction of the brewery, which was completed on 12 October 1880, when thebrewery was opened. On this day, when the modern production of beer began, the latest phase of the history of the brewery opened.

Since then the brewery has undergone a whole series of reconstruction and modernisation work, has survived both times of war and of socialism. After the Second World War the name of the town was changed to Havlickuv Brod.Since World War II the brewery has constantly raised production levels. In 1995 a dispute among 17 physical persons was resolved and the brewery once again returned to the hands of the descendants of the original owners, who on 24.1.1995 founded the koint stock company Mestansky pivovar Havlickuv Brod a.s. The continuing reconstruction of the brewing equipment, especially the construction of a new brewing house and cylindrical-conical tanks (CCT), allowed the repeated raising of output to a level of 150 thousand hl. in 1999. After further investment in the year 2000 the brewery created the preconditions for the growth of capacity to 167 thousand hl. Therefore its production capacity places it in the category of small breweries with an annual output of up to 2000 thousand hl.

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