In Russia any drink used to be called beer, but by the 14th century this word began to refer to an alcoholic beverage. The ancient chronicles mention beer, mead, home brew, kvass, as well as strong brew “perevar”, which became especially popular in the Middle Ages. Thick strong beer in Rus was called “ol”, “olovina”, and “olus” — the Slavs brewed it from barley adding hops and wormwood to it. Brewing was a popular pastime in Russian villages, with beer barrels in almost every house. Since the 11th century drinking establishments or taverns began to open in Russia — the trend later supported by Ivan the Terrible.
By the mid-19th century, more than a thousand industrial breweries using European technology had opened across Russia. Many of them were run by foreign specialists or Russian brewmasters who had studied in Berlin, Munich and Vienna. In 1885, a brewery was opened in Sergach, Nizhny Novgorod Governorate, by Genrikh Kornilovich Dick, a Russian subject from Simbirsk. The brewery was located in a stone house on Malaya Vladimirskaya Street, below the Kolody spring, a source of clean drinking water. According to legend, it was here, near the spring, that the town of Sergach, first mentioned in Russian chronicles in 1382, was founded.
At the factory belonging to Dick, the beer was brewed using pure spring water. The landowner built a well next to the spring and laid a pipe to its factory, on the condition that the well could be freely used by all the townspeople. Three cauldrons and nine vats, 40 000 kg of barley, 400 kg of local and foreign hops, as well as wood, stumps, brushwood, straw and husk were used to brew beer in Dick’s brewery. Beer production at Dick’s factory ran from October to March with the working day lasting 12 hours.
A bucket of Dick’s beer cost one ruble, which in modern terms is about 2,000 rubles. Dick’s brewery flourished until 1914, when due to the outbreak of World War I, trade in strong drinks was prohibited. The old water spring Kolody still exists in Sergach to this day. It is equipped with a font and enclosed plunge pools; there is a chapel and a pleasant place for recreation nearby.
By the mid-19th century, more than a thousand industrial breweries using European technology had opened across Russia. Many of them were run by foreign specialists or Russian brewmasters who had studied in Berlin, Munich and Vienna. In 1885, a brewery was opened in Sergach, Nizhny Novgorod Governorate, by Genrikh Kornilovich Dick, a Russian subject from Simbirsk. The brewery was located in a stone house on Malaya Vladimirskaya Street, below the Kolody spring, a source of clean drinking water. According to legend, it was here, near the spring, that the town of Sergach, first mentioned in Russian chronicles in 1382, was founded.
At the factory belonging to Dick, the beer was brewed using pure spring water. The landowner built a well next to the spring and laid a pipe to its factory, on the condition that the well could be freely used by all the townspeople. Three cauldrons and nine vats, 40 000 kg of barley, 400 kg of local and foreign hops, as well as wood, stumps, brushwood, straw and husk were used to brew beer in Dick’s brewery. Beer production at Dick’s factory ran from October to March with the working day lasting 12 hours.
A bucket of Dick’s beer cost one ruble, which in modern terms is about 2,000 rubles. Dick’s brewery flourished until 1914, when due to the outbreak of World War I, trade in strong drinks was prohibited. The old water spring Kolody still exists in Sergach to this day. It is equipped with a font and enclosed plunge pools; there is a chapel and a pleasant place for recreation nearby.
