The museum houses an old bottle made of colored glass. It was made to order for the Kargopol beer factory, so there is a three lines textured inscription on the vessel, which means:

Two capital letters “I.V.” and a fractional number are cast on the bottom. The letters mean the manufacturer of glassware. At the end of the 19th century, information about the manufacturer was often placed on the bottoms of bottles, but, unfortunately, even after studying the catalogs, specialists could not identify the I.V. manufacture.

The fractional number “1/20” indicates the capacity of a vessel. In the old days, bottles served not only as containers for storing drinks but also as a measure of volume: traditionally, containers for alcohol were made with a capacity of 1/20 of a bucket. There are about 12 liters in a bucket, so the volume of the bottle from the museum’s collection is easy to calculate — 0.6 liters.

The brewery in Kargopol was opened in 1881. After 1902, it passed to the merchant of the 2nd guild Nikolay Serkov. The entrepreneur rebuilt the enterprise, improved production and product quality. He also bought multiplying equipment for advertising and ordered branded bottles for packaging.

The merchant was actively engaged in the promotion of goods and brought the beer to Russian and foreign exhibitions. In 1905, in Paris, the exhibition jury recognized his barley drink as one of the best as it had no impurities. Serkov received a large gold medal. Judging by the image on the medal, it was an international exhibition of the Philanthropic Union of Cooking, Nutrition and Hygiene. In the same year, the Kargopol factory received the highest award in Brussels. In the following years, Serkov’s beer also won high awards. All of them are depicted on the merchant’s letterhead. His trading shops were located in Kargopol itself, as well as all over Kargopol Uyezd and the neighboring ones.

In 1909, the factory already had wooden and stone buildings. According to the data for 1913, 11 employees worked there. But just a year later, with the introduction of prohibition during the First World War, the owner suspended production. The making of beer and its sale stopped, and the finished products remained in stock. Under Soviet rule, the factory was immediately nationalized, but they could not put it into operation. From that time on, the factory worked no longer.