The brewery was established in 1845 by
Johann Evangelist Götz (1815-1893), a German beer maker born in
Wirtemberg, Joseph Neumann from
Austria-Hungary, and local Polish noble Julian Kodrębski. The first batch of beer was brewed on February 23, 1846. During the "
Rabacja", a Polish-inspired peasant uprising in Galicia in 1846, directed at Polish nobility and affluent merchants complicate to Austrian partitioners of Poland, Götz barely escaped with his life. He survived thanks to help from local friends and the fact that the workers of his brewery stood up in his defense, certifying that his business provided good pay and decent working conditions. In turn, Götz helped to save the life of Julian Kodrębski, who had partly funded his brewery, by hiding him in woods on the banks of the
Uszwica river in Brzesko, and providing him with food which was delivered over the course of ten days by workers from the brewery. After the death of Neumann, Götz became the sole owner of the brewery. He modernized the enterprise and expanded it, adding a
malthouse in 1875. In 1884 the brewery was visited by
J. C. Jacobsen, the founder of
Carlsberg brewery in
Denmark. After the death of Johann Evangelist Götz in 1893, his son,
Jan Albin Goetz, took over. Jan Albin further expanded the family business, married a Polish aristocrat, and changed his name to Goetz-Okocimski. The Götz family quickly assimilated into Polish culture, became Polish patriots and engaged in Polish politics. he was also a
philanthropist and a patron of the arts; his portrait was painted by
Stanisław Wyspiański and
Jacek Malczewski. . At the turn of the 20th century, the Okocim brewery was the largest brewery in the former
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (which had been partitioned by
Russia,
Austria and
Prussia at the end of the 18th century), and the sixth largest of roughly 1600 breweries in all territories of the
Habsburg Empire. By 1911 it was the fifth largest, with annual production reaching 380 thousand
hectolitres. After the fall of communism in 1990, it was transformed into a government-run business enterprise and subsequently auctioned off,
reprivatised and listed on the
Warsaw Stock Exchange. Since 1996 the brewery has been a part of
Carlsberg Polska,
Carlsberg Breweries A/S. The palace of the Goetz-Okocimiski family, which was also taken over by the Nazis and then nationalized by the communists, was also reprivatized and sold to the descendants of the family in 2007. In 2008 the palace was resold to a private couple who plan to transform it into a five star hotel and modern
spa, which would include the opportunity to bathe in the beer produced by the brewery. Today, there are at least three brewhouses in use. The brewery is well preserved and a classic site in the modern history of
beer-making, though recent additions have expanded it and seen the introduction of a few modern pieces of equipment. ==See also==