The oldest history

The history of Uhříněves begins in the first half of the 13th century. Beer, as one of the important medieval foods, was probably brewed in Uhříněvs as early as the end of the 13th century, when Uhříněvs was the seat of the Knights Templar (the so-called Commandery - the only well documented one in Bohemia, apart from the Old Town of Prague and the Moravian town of Čejkovice). After the liquidation of the Templar Order, Uhříněves changed several owners, including the Lesser Town Johanites, the Old Town of Prague and two noble families.

In 1579 the Smiřický family bought the former fortress and village of Aurzeniowes. Jaroslav Smiřický then built an estate around the fortress from the surrounding villages. The castle, completed in 1591, became its centre. This period is connected with the first written records of brewing beer in Uhříněves. Jaroslav Smiřický, in his will of 1594, refers to the right of the tavern in the surrounding villages (i.e. the right to tap beer):

"And as for the taverns in the village of Koloděje and the village of Hájek, they shall not brew any other beer in those taverns, nor bring it into them, except from the brewery of Ouřinoveský."

This brewery did not stand on the present site but probably somewhere between the castle buildings.

The Liechenstein family acquired the Uhříněves estate in the post-Blohegarian period. Soon afterwards, in 1639, during the Thirty Years' War, Uhříněves was burnt down by the Swedes and the castle was seriously destroyed. However, the brewing of beer was restored soon after the war, according to surviving records from the 1750s, when the weekly salary of the then parish priest included, among other things, beer.

Brewery in the current buildings

The reconstruction of the Uhříněves estate did not gain momentum until the beginning of the 18th century. In 1705, the brewery moved to the existing premises outside the castle buildings, where it continued to operate until its official closure in 1949. The year 1705 is therefore cited as the time when the brewery was founded, although the history of brewing in Uhříněves is considerably older.

The first preserved form of the new brewery comes from the map of Uhříněves (Klausner's plan) from 1715 and the brewery already has a square ring of buildings with a courtyard and a south-western gate. At the beginning of the 19th century, cellars and refrigerators were already built in the brewery on the plan from 1806. Records from the 1840s refer to the brewery fittings. At that time, it consisted of a malt house, a ramp for displaying beer, a heating house, a brewhouse and taproom, 2 ice-cooled fridges from Vodice Pond, 2 forecourts, 4 warehouses, a cask blessing room, a stables and a residential building. There was a fountain in the courtyard and a well in front of the brewery. The brewing capacity of the brewery was 37 barrels and 2 buckets (about 8 500 l). The output in 1874 was about 9 000 hl. Until this time, the fermentation of beer was exclusively top-fermented.

In 1877, a new phase of the Uhrněves brewery was opened. The new tenant was Alois Tichý, a respected member of the Society for the Brewing Industry in the Kingdom of Bohemia. In 1884, he bought the brewery from Jan II of Liechenstein. The buildings and equipment were in poor condition at that time.

The boom times

The change of ownership brought unprecedented development of the brewery. In 1885, the residential building was rebuilt and the production was gradually modernized. In the 1990s, the brewhouse was modified and a steam boiler room and a new refrigerator were added. Four years later, a new steam engine room is built. In 1896, due to the increase in production, the brewery's storage facilities, fridge and lager cellars were also expanded. At the turn of the century, the brewery was electrified and a new engine room was added. In 1904, a new cooperage and chalet were added. The period of Alois Tichý was one of the golden times of the Uhrenves brewery, at the time of the transition to steam production the annual production was 20,000 hl of beer. The brewery also won many awards during this period:

• Gold medals at the Jubilee Exhibition in Prague in 1891 and 1908 
• Silver medal of the Agricultural Council for the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1891 
• Gold medal in the international competition of breweries at the 1906 exhibition of culinary art in Vienna 
• Silver medal from the 1906 Munich Brewery Exhibition 
• Silver medal from the 1906 Hygienic Exhibition in Vienna

In the 1910/1911 season the production reached a record 23,000 hectolitres of beer.

Downsizing and consolidation of operations

The successful era was interrupted by the First World War. Reduced sales and a shortage of raw materials were partly replaced by the production of soda water and lemonade. Between 1913 and 1937, the number of breweries in the Czech lands almost halved from 648 to just 381.

In September 1916, the long-time owner of the brewery, Alois Tichý, died at the age of 73; moreover, in 1919, at the age of only 47, his son Alois Tichý Jr., who had reliably run the brewery since 1905, died.

In 1921, during the reconstruction of the economy and the transition to post-war production, Eduard Zeman, former director of the Pardubice Brewery, became a partner of the brewery. Together with Jaroslav Tichý, they registered a public trading company "Firma Tichý a Zeman, brewery and malting plant in Uhříněvs" in the Commercial Register in 1921. The production included a light ten-step beer, Uhříněveský granát (black ten), lager twelve and the famous Uhříněveský health Porter. The production volume was not restored to its pre-war level, but ranged between 9 000 and 12 000 hl per year. Malt was also an important commodity at this time, with an annual production of 50 to 60 wagons of barley malt, of which 20 wagons were consumed by the brewery itself and the rest was sold. The largest customer was Akciový pivovar na Smíchově.

Worse times and the end of the original production

During the war in 1942, the production of beer was officially stopped. This happened, among other things, under the influence of Felix von Ringhoffer, a prominent figure in the Protectorate brewing industry and also the owner of the brewery in Velke Popovice, for which beer was subsequently bottled there. The malthouse was no longer in production. After the war, the owners managed to start production again thanks to loans and the first exhibition was dated 1 June 1946. The brewery was quite successful even in the new conditions of the centrally planned economy and exceeded the established supplies in beer and malt. The incoming regime, however, first placed the company and all its assets under national administration with an assessment of 26 April 1948 and finally banned beer production with another assessment of 1949. The brewery machinery went silent on 15 February 1949. It seemed forever.

In the following years, until 1991, the whole area fell into disrepair, the ceilings of the refrigerators collapsed and some cellars were flooded. The building was used as a warehouse without basic maintenance. Most of the brewery machinery was taken away to unknown locations, only the steam brewhouse, the scrapping plant and the transmission were preserved from the original machinery. The engine house was demolished and replaced by garages.

New start

In 1991, the devastated building was returned to the descendants of the original owners, who began to save it as far as possible. By 2014, all the important buildings had been repaired to such an extent that the decision to resume beer production in the historic premises of the Uherine brewery could be made in that year.

As the main motto for our event we have chosen the slogan:

With respect for tradition. With respect for beer.