The brewery complex was built in 1839–1842 by Aloys II, Prince of Liechtenstein (1796–1858), from a project designed by Matyáš Čermák (1779–1854), an engineer in the building office of the prince’s local estate. The two-storey buildings in the north wing housed the brewery and those in the south wing housed a malt house, while the west wing, along the length of the road, was used for residential and office purposes, and through a passageway this wing opened onto a courtyard in which the entire complex of buildings was completed by the unusual octagonal building of the grist mill.
At the end of the 19th century, the brewery was leased by the brewer Jindřich Österreicher and, like many others in Bohemia, it was modernised and rebuilt on the basis of plans and supplies provided by the Ringhoffer engineering firm in Smíchov. A new kiln was built in 1890–1892 and a steam-powered brewhouse was built in 1896–1897, to which new fermentation rooms were added and the cellars were extended. (...)
A cooperage and a bottling plant were added to the courtyard after 1924, when the brewery was bought by a joint-stock company formed by innkeepers in the area. The brewhouse equipment, which has been preserved, dates from 1931–1932 and remained in service until 1987 as the property of the state.
The malthouse was closed in 1994. In 2001, the entire site was purchased from the town by a company named ‘Dej Bůh štěstí’ Ltd. (Czech translation of the phrase Da Deus fortunae and a traditional brewers’ greeting), and work then began on the gradual reconstruction of the buildings and the restoration of the original technology.
Since 2009, the company has operated a pub and microbrewery on the site and, most notably, the Brewing Museum, which collects and manages a collection of equipment from breweries and malthouses that have been destroyed and runs a large archive. As of 2018, the entire brewery site is listed, and work is under way to complete its structural restoration.
Českobrodská 17, 281 63 Kostelec nad Černými lesy, Czechia
