The collection of the Rusanov House Museum includes a postcard featuring a brewery in Oryol.

According to the regional state archive, in 1867 the “drinking” industry of Oryol was represented by four malt factories and four breweries, one of which, built in 1865 on 5 Kurskaya Street (now Fomina Street), belonged to the businessman Ivan Andreevich Bonch-Bruevich. His beer was consumed mostly locally in the city, its quality was known to be far from perfect and the business did not bring much income to the owner. In 1875, a Prussian citizen, Carl Schilde, came to Oryol and offered Bonch-Bruevich a good price for the brewery. Having bought the enterprise, Schilde began to gradually expand production. Just a few years later, the factory began to produce 30,000 buckets of beer and 5,000 buckets of honey. Two factory beer shops were “newly renovated and luxuriously decorated” in 1906. They had electric lighting, visitors could play billiards, read various newspapers and magazines, and beer was sold until midnight.

On November 30, 1914, in connection with the prohibition of alcohol (known as the “dry law”), the City Duma decided: to allow the sale of strong drinks in three restaurants, to leave three beer pubs (selling beer only with the main course) in three parts of the city, and to keep three wholesale beer warehouses. All other establishments selling spirits had to be closed. The pubs that were permitted to continue working were mainly Schilde’s ones. And no wonder: by 1912, the product range of his company included about 10 types of beer, honey, mineral, fruit and berry drinks (lemon, orange, pineapple, etc.), and carbonated drinks (cranberry, raspberry, and violet). In 68 villages and towns settlements in different governorates of Russia, Schilde owned 26 beer wholesale warehouses, 23 pubs and 25 takeaway shops. The businessman paid his workers well and provided a guaranteed minimum of social benefits.

The products of the old brewery were in demand almost throughout Central Russia. Later the Raduga clothing factory was built on the site of the former brewery. The factory worked for many decades.