To trace back the beginning of beer brewing at Nymburk and its neighbourhood is for us from the historical point of view very diffcult. We cannot say exactly and unequivocally when, where and who began brewing beer in these places. Undoubtedly, it can be said this happened at the time of foundation of the town. The establishment of the brewery at Nymburk commenced a new era of beer brewing at the town of Nymburk based on previously learned experiences and long-term tradition of beer brewing at our town. Our brewery was established by a decree of the Imperial and royal county court at Mladá Boleslav, decree No. 2064 dated April 29th, 1895 and was constituted as "Brewery of Nymburk, Ltd." ("Nymburský pivovar s.r.o."). The first brew was made at the newly built brewery on 19th March 1898. In the first year of beer brewing, an output of 21 075 hectolitres of beer was reached.
First indirect records on beer brewing are contained in a document of King John of Luxemburg dated December 26, 1327, by which the King restores some privileges, this document was burnt and destroyed in an unknown time during a raid by a regional wrecker John of BiberÜtejn. One of these privileges was so called "one mile right". This was a privilege enabling a town to keep its monopoly for beer brewing and prohibiting other people within one mile around the town to brew and dispense beer or other beverages without the approval from the town council (one Old-Bohemian mile was about 11,25 km).
The Thirty Years War significantly did harm in both Bohemian countries and in whole Europe. So did it in brewing industry. Hardly one could brew beer to a larger extent at that time when there was lack of cereals as basic foodstuff.
Shortly before the Thirty Years´ War, a complete reorganization of town beer brewing took course. Cheap country beers pushed out its town´s competitors out of their original places of sales. This resulted in liquidating small private breweries and establishing of one Burgess Brewery.
The Nymburk Burgess Brewery... ...and activities of the Burgess Committee with beer brewing rights With effect from Januar 1st, 1785, the Burgess Brewery was established and managed by the Burgess Committee with beer brewing rights and deciding on whom the brewery will be rented. Usually, the tenant obtained the brewery with the malting plant for a period of four years for a price of 1 300 gold coins and, in addition, he had to pay other fees to the royal chamber. The Burgess Council with brewing rights, being aware of its rights as well as profits, protected the Nymburk town against other foreign beers. The competition of cheaper beers from the breweries at Dymokury, Kovanice, Lysá nad Labem, Poděbrady and Ronov (recently a chateaux and seat of New Ronov demesne, today local part of Hrubý Jeseník) represented for Nymburk burgesses with brewing rights not only a decrease in profits but also a threat for the future that they would not be able to stop such stream and the own town market would be threatened. First attempts to break a centennial monopoly of sales of beers brewed in Nymburk were done in the twenties of the nineteenth century, wenn the officers of the newly established station, barracks of which were at the place called "Rejdiště" exacted that in the military taproom of Charles Libotovský, beers from other towns can be on tap, too. The definitive breaking of the town market came in January 1847 when the municipality allowed other beers from other towns to be on tap at Nymburk, under one condition only: the beer must be tasty. About fifty years later, first negotiations on cancelling of the Burgess Brewery took place which lost its competitiveness under managing of the Burgess Council and a move for establishing of a new joint-stock company of the Nymburk brewery was made.
The Nymburk Brewery, Ltd. … since the master brewer Čeněk Ruck on November 1st, 1895, wants to make the brewery over and gives up other activities so that the brewery can be run at its own cost. For this purpose, so that the brewery could be reconstructed, 250 shares of 400 gold coins each should be issued, being equal to a capital of 100 000 gold coins.
Negotiations dated July 14th, 1894, on brewery extension still being in the possesion of burgesses with brewing rights. In July 1894, preparations for establishing a joint-stock company began. As we can learn from this report on brewery extension still being in the possesion of the burgesses with brewing rights at Nymburk, first steps led to the issuing of 250 brewing shares of 400 gold coins each. At the beginning of 1895 JUDr., Václav Krouský, a lawyer and important regional politician, proposed the Nymburk Brewery to be converted into a limited company. This was odne by a decree of the Imperial and royal county court in Mladá Boleslav under Nr. 2064 dated April 29th, 1895, and the Nymburk Brewery, Ltd. was established.
Since that time, a new era of beer brewing in Nybmurk was started. In the first year of beer brewing, when the brewery was brewing the beer at its own cost, an output of 21 075 hectolitres was reached. Increasing beer production necessarily represented a need to extend export possibilities of the brewery. Thanks to a smart and aggressive policy of the management committee, the Nymburk beer was dispensed by a great number of pubs in the region. The finacial problems of publicans as well as far-sighted business policy of the brewery contributed to the fact that the brewery itself became the owner of couple of tens of pubs. The successful and promising beginning of beer brewing at Nymburk was broken by errupting of the World War I. Requisition of barley for army needs together with lack of hops and malt caused perhaps the biggest decrease in beer production in the several hundred years history of beer brewing at Nymburk. In the campaign from 1916 till 1917, the output was 600 hectolitres which, when comparing with the pre-war output of 25 000 hectolitres and more, really looks scary. Only in 1925, the volume of beer brewed was stabilized on the pre-war production figures. Around 1927, after increasing the output and finding out that the thirty years old machines did not fit any more, the management committee took the necessary steps for machinery overhaul. This attempt was successful and in the business year 1928 to 1929, a volume of 30 000 hectolitres of beer in a year was exceeded for the first time. In 1931, the board of directors of the brewery succeeded in the brainwash to establish a bottling and racking plant in Kolín, where 1 695 hectolitres of beer were bottled and racked. When considering the impact of the economic crisis from 1929 to 1933 on beer brewing, based on documents available, we can find a small decrease only. When considering the fact that the total decrease in beer production was 10 % in 1932 till 1933 as a statewide average (at the peak of the crisis), in Nymburk it was 4,4% only. It could be said that beer brewing at Nymburk passed passed through this crisis victoriously. When looking at the figures of the Czech Statistical Institute from 1927 according to the quantities brewed, the Nymburk brewery occupies 69th position of the total amount of 331 breweries, 47th position of 320 breweries in 1935 and 48th position of the total amount of 309 breweries being in operation.
World war II... ...meant, as all other wars did, a big affliction in the beer brewing industry. Yet in November 1939, limitations for original gravity which after several modifications resulted in a decree that from June 2nd, 1940 it was not allowed to brew beers with original gravity higher than 8° and the total yearly production could not exceed 80 % of pre-war production. In the same way of thinking, other restrictive measures of the German Imperial Protectorate of the Ministry of Economy. When the World War was stopped, the brewery was nationalized and put under state ownership. Till the time of the communist putsch in February 1948, the function of the brewery manager was performed by František Hrabal, who was the father of world-famous writer, Bohumil Hrabal, who lived at Nymburk from his childhood.
Since 1948 the brewery became part of the association of local companies first, and then it was included in "Polabské pivovary Kolín, n.p." ("Polabské Breweries Kolín, n.p."). Also this organization was not in existence for a long time, since several months later, a national company "Nymburské pivovary" ("Nymburk Breweries, n.p.") was establisehd and included breweries of Nymburk, Dobrovice, Dymokury, Brandýs nad Labem and Mělník.
In 1955, when the existing organization showed to be disadvantageous, the Nymburk brewery became part of "Kolínské pivovary Kolín, n.p." again. The brewery took its firm position in the Czechoslowakian brewing industry in 1958, when the brewery became part of "Středočeské pivovary n.p., Velké Popovice" ("Breweries of Central Bohemia, n.p., Velké Popovice"). Within this association, the beer production of the brewery exceeded 50 000 hectolitres / year in the 1960s and in 1975, an output of 100 000 hectolitres was reached. In the course of changes in the society and economy at the end of the 1980s, "Pivovary Velké Popovice, n.p." ("Breweries Velké Popovice, n.p.") were transformed into "Pivovary Velké Popovice, s.p." ("Breweries Velké Popovice, s.p.").
After 1989, the Nymburk brewery became part of "Pivovary Bohemia, a.s., Praha" ("Breweries Bohemia, a.s., Praha"). The joint-stock company also included breweries in Podkováň, Kutná Hora, Benešov, soft drinks factory in Příbram and can filling and malting plant in Kralupy nad Vltavou.
At present time, the brewery Nymburk, Ltd. is a fully independent company and is a member of The Association of Small Independent Breweries.