The history of beer brewing

Beer has been brewed in Nový Jičín since the town was founded. There were a total of 45 houses with the right to brew beer in the town, 28 of them were on the square and the remaining 17 were located in the neighbouring streets radiating from the square. There also used to be a wooden brewery brewing barley and rye beer in the middle of the square.

However the old wooden brewery became out-dated and was consequently demolished. A new location for a brewery was needed after the brewery was torn down, which is why the brewers purchased the corner building on the northwest side of the square (the yellow-green house on the corner of the square) in 1590 and spent the next three years building a brewery here. The brewery burnt down in the massive fire of 1768, but was immediately rebuilt. In the middle of the 19th century the brewery no longer met operating requirements, beer ceased to be brewed here in 1834 and the building continued to be used as a taproom only. The building then served as a hotel and pub (Axman).

Another brewery was established in 1869, when Leopold Kudielka established one at the farming settlement of Bocheta not far from Nový Jičín. The enterprise originated next to an old merchant road called the Imperial Road and the company belonged to the Kudielka family until 1945. The brewery was equipped with modern equipment and filled beer into barrels and bottles, which were distributed not only throughout the town but also throughout the surrounding area. The enterprise also included a malt house for processing barley. In January 1947 the brewery became part of the Moravian Silesian Breweries enterprise. During the post-war period approximately 25,000 hectolitres of beer were produced here per year. The brewery brewed a light ten-degree beer (Loučske výčepní světlé) and a light twelve-degree beer (Bochetský kozel). The volume of beer brewed increased to 72,000 hl per year at the end of the nineteen sixties. The light Ostravar lager was also brewed at the Bochet brewhouses “under licence” at that time. At the beginning of the nineteen seventies the local brewhouses shut down for good and beer from Loučsko was replaced by beer from Nošovice in the pubs.

In the middle of the nineteen nineties the brewery tradition was revived in the town for several years. A dark unfiltered twelve-degree beer called Baron was brewed in the National House building. The micro-brewery ceased operation in 1997.