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History of beer brewing in Havlíčkův Brod
During the 13th century Czech populations settled down on favorable locations alongside “Haberská” trail passing through frontier primeval forest and linking Bohemia with Moravia. Thus on the banks of the Sázava river a settlement sprang up bearing the name of “Smilův Ford” after its possessor. Under the influence of growing German population the settlement was later renamed to “German Ford”. It is more than certain that beer had been brewed and sold there since very old days.
In 1333 the king John the Blind of Luxembourg vested to the then possessor of “German Ford” Jindřich of Lipá a complex of rights of royal towns also including the brewing right for his settlement. Such right was an ancient privilege of towns, which vested a right to brew beer to citizens in possession of houses inside the walls of towns. Probably this was the first time such rights were vested to a liege town.
During restoration of the town, destroyed in 1422 by the Hussites breweries were also renewed. Gradually all rights were re-confirmed including the brewing right - at first by the king George of Poděbrady (1452), later by the king Louis the Jagiellonian (1520) and the king Ferdinand I. (1544. Last in 1637 when the emperor Ferdinand III. proclaimed “German Ford” a free royal town and vested to it a town heraldry and town rights of royal towns.
Originally every burgher used to prepare malt and beer on his own and also tap or sell it to a hired innkeeper. There were however only a few houses in the town with a complete equipment for beer brewing and malt production. Brewers therefore began to group and established larger breweries. Those could have been equipped better allowing all holders of the brewing right – brewers to produce beer. Not even “German Ford” avoided such proceeding.
In a large fire of the town in 1662 a brewery close to town hall was destroyed too. It was later renewed in 1673 when guild of maltsters was founded. By the end of the 18th century there were already two breweries in the town. Nonetheless in 1834 one of them was ostracized for the reason of lack of prosperity and the other one burned to the ground. On October 18th 1834 brewers therefore purchased knighthood house of “Bukovských” (today´s building of Rebel brewery tavern) including a small manually-operated brewery. This day became the day of foundation of our brewery. With growing production the capacity of the brewery could not satisfy demand. For that reason it was decided to carry out the first general reconstruction. The reconstruction was finished on October 12th 1880 when the brewery was also consecrated. The annual production counted up to 15 thousand hectoliters.
On the break of the 19th and 20th centuries another vast reconstruction of the whole brewery equipment was carried out thus making the grade of the most modern level in 1905. After decrement during the World War I. other modernizations were accomplished resulting in yearly production rise - from postwar 5 320 hl up to 30 639 hl in 1931. After World War II. bringing yet further decrement, beer production was going full blast again. The town was renamed to Havlíčkův Brod. Brewers came back to the brewery; unfortunately only for less than a three year period as in 1948 the brewery was nationalized.
During the period of 1948-1990 Havlíčkův Brod brewery belonged to the group of Horácké pivovary Jihlava, Havlíčkův Brod breweries and East-Bohemian breweries of Hradec Králové. Gradual modernization of the technology, commencing after the wildfire of malt-house in 1956 brought along an increase of the yearly production. It outreached to 78 800 hl in 1972; 84 000 hl in 1980 and 116 426 hl in 1989. In 1990 the brewery turned into an independent plant and remained such until 1995.
In 1995 a proprietary rights dispute of seventeen personal entities was solved and in 1995 the brewery returned into the hands of descendants of the original possessors, who founded a joint-stock company of Měšťanský pivovar Havlíčkův Brod, a.s. on January 24th 1995. Ongoing reconstruction of production facilities, especially erection of a new brew-house and cylinder-conical tanks (CKT) provided for an increase in annual production up to 150 thousand hectoliters in 1999.
In 2004 own malt production was discontinued for economical reasons. In 2008 situation changed and the malt-house was after necessary reparations and investments re-opened. Thanks to major portion of raw-materials from the closest surroundings of Vysočina REBEL beer acquired a certification trade “Vysočina – regional product”. In 2008 erection of a new keg beer filling line was finished and put into operation. It involved construction of a new hall and a keg beer warehouse as well as office premises for expedition. Havlíčkův Brod brewery thus nowadays belongs to the most modern ones with regard to level of technological facilities and in last three years REBEL beer has belonged to the most awarded beers in the Czech Republic. Havlíčkův Brod brewery also belongs to the last independent breweries to bear one of the oldest traditions in Czech – beer brewing.