Each larger farm or smaller estate had to have its own economic facilities, usually including a yard, a sheepfold, a water mill and also its own brewery. The forced purchase of the nobility's beer by the subjects brought the estate owner a considerable profit, and often the profit from the sale of beer was the most profitable business activity. This was also the case in 1713 on the Dolní Břežany estate. However, let us return to the oldest written sources that record the existence of the brewery in Břežany. The description of the fortress from 1580 also contains a mention of a brewery and a malt house where hopped beverage was brewed at least once a week. At that time, beer was still made from wheat malt. It is very likely that the original brewery was located right next to the courtyard of the fortress (or chateau); at the latest at the beginning of the 19th century, a separate brewery building was built opposite the manor's vegetable garden, which in 1850 also included the forester's flat (No. 11), loosely connected to it were the purgrave's dwelling (No. 12), the wine cellar (No. 56) and a potash processing plant.
The quality of the beer has always been influenced by the water used, which is why, as early as the end of the 16th century, it was piped from the 'living spring' via oak pipes to the malthouse and brewery: '... the living water from the spring is piped to the fountain in the courtyard of the fortress, which is well made of oak wood and is under the roof in a special closure, and from the fountain the water goes to the malthouse and brewery.'
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Klizerda Spring was a source of excellent drinking water. The manor also grew hops itself, the first hops farms were established by Anna Voděradská of Hrušov in 1580. More hops were grown than the brewery consumed, which is why it was able to sell them. Old maps from the beginning of the 19th century show that hops were then grown on the land around the brickyard on the road to Ohrobec. Firewood was also an important commodity - for brewing the beverage itself, but also for drying the malt. The wood was procured from the local estate forests.
However, brewing in Břežany was not always successful. The building of the brewery fell into disrepair during the Thirty Years' War, as its then administrator complained in the estate's memorial book: "The brewery, which was similarly ruined in every way, was full of soldats and manure from the quarrying in it and in the malt house, which was brought back to its former state with the great expense of a carpenter, a cooper, a blacksmith and a mason, with the help of many days of peasant workers. "
Probably the youngest detailed description of the brewery before its demolition in the 1960s comes from the infamous period of nationalisation in 1948. At that time beer was no longer brewed there, and the condition of the single-storey, six-room stone building was described as very poor. The former brewhouse was used as a warehouse, the ground-floor rooms consisted of stables with an arched vault, a fodder store, a granary and two cellars.
In June 2015, they began to write a new history of brewing in Dolní Břežany - in the immediate vicinity of the HiLASE laser research centre, they built a modern brewery that will produce traditional Czech beers, which are the unique Dolnobřežanská 10° and Laser beer - a classic Czech pale lager brewed to honour its name. In addition to these Czech classics, we also brew a range of top-fermented specials - semi-dark York, wheat Gari, black stout Theodor and aromatic India Pale Ale.
At the brewery you can sit in the restaurant, where you can taste the local beer, or you can check in and enjoy a beer spa and massage.