Germany
Altenburg
Brauerei Altenburg
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The Brauerei Altenburg brewery was founded on September 28, 1871 in the form of a stock corporation by Mr. Hase, Lingke, Herold, Schmidt, Voretzsch, Reuß and Luckner. Construction of the brewery and malt-house took from December 1871 until June 1873. During construction time the planned storage capacity of 30,000 hl had to be extended to 50,000 hl.
Altenburger Braunbier, the first brew product, was produced in June 1873 following with the second product Lagerbeer Urtyp Hell in October 1873.
Within the first year expectations were fulfilled with an annual production of 30,000 hl growing to a total of 60,000 hl in the second year. To meet the growing demand the brewery had to be extended in 1875 with two new brew pans. This way an annual production of 130,000 hl could be achieved.
In 1896 the production capacity of 130,000 hl was reached which covered the following beer sorts: Bavarian Beer, Bohemian Beer, Lager Beer Urtyp Hell and the well known Braunbier.
The steady growing demand lead to another extension of the brew capacity. One reason for the high-growth was the fact that since 1904 bottled beer was not only sold to the catering industry but also to the general public. After one year of planning in 1912 one of the most modern European brewerys was built in 1913 and completed in 1914 which had a capacity of 230 hl per brew pan.
In 1921 the Altenburg Brewery merged with the Brewery Association of Gera and later on with the Leipziger Bierbrauerei Riebeck & Co. near Reudnitz.
This way one of the biggest German breweries was established at that time.
During the Second World War sales decreased from 70,000 hl to only 30,000 hl inclusive alhohol free drinks.
In July 1948 the East German government took control over the brewery and in 1971 it was merged with the Getränkekombinat Leipzig. Within these years until 1990 a total of 30,000 hl of beer and alcohol free drinks could be sold per year. Since the government had total control over the company quality cannot be judged for that time.
In 1990 the brewery was controled by the so-called trustees (Treuhand) which lead to a steady changing phase. First a contract was signed with the first Kulmbacher Aktienbrauerei. In May 1991 the brewery was privatized by the family Leikeim from Altenkunstadt.
After the takeover only a hopeless 10,000 hl was produced but quality standards could be improved through specific investment.
The reintroduction of the well known flip-top bottles played a main role for this success which made the Altenburg Brauerei brewery to one of the first companies in the Eastern part of Germany to revive this tradition again.
Following this tradition Altenburg does not only produce new products like Altenburger Premium, Altenburger Privileg, Altenburger Pils and Altenburger Bock Hell but also some of the traditional products like Lagerbeer Urtyp Hell and the Altenburger Braunbier.
In 1996 we were able to introduce another creation of the Altenburger "Radler" of course with the well known flip-top bottles at the so-called Skatbrunnenfest in Altenburg.
(Info from: Brauerei Altenburg, 2002)
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