Description
Brewing in Gubin has a long tradition, the peak development of which falls on the times of the industrial revolution. In the nineteenth century, there were mainly eight breweries known in the city, of which the first three were the most significant from the region. They were Gubener Genossenschafts-Brauerei from 1870, Brauerei Herman Haselbach from 1875, Löwenbrauerei G. Kröll from 1862 and Brauerei Bunzel-Brauerei Keiler, Brauerei Dörfling-Brauerei Spörel, Brauerei Gräfe, Brauerei Matthies-Brauerei Güttler and Brauerei Lehmann.
Apart from the two administrative buildings of the Gustav Georg Kröll brewery located at today's Piwna 1 Str. (former Ger.: Acker Str.), one of the halls of Haselbach's brewery at 9 Lubelska Str., currently functioning as a fruit and vegetable warehouse, and the huge ruins of the Gubener Genossenschaft-Brauerei cellar embedded in the slope at Pułaskiego Str., none of the above-mentioned plants has survived.
The still existing main administrative building of the Gustav Georg Kröll brewery with the outbuilding on the eastern side were designed in an arcaded style (German Rundbogenstil), which is a German version of Neo-Romanism. The characteristic elements of the building are decorative double-arm arches around the windows. There are rare wine cellars in the complex. The special insulation used in the walls and ceiling of the cellars allowed the liquors stored there to be kept at the same temperature all year round. As the property belongs to "PKM Wioletta Poniatowska", which is a private company, the building can only be viewed from the outside.
The brewery building has been listed in the register of monuments since 1992.
Historical background
Beer weighing was, next to the production of textiles and fruit picking, one of the most important industrial branches of pre-war Gubin, of supra-regional importance. Gubin beers were produced for wholesale and for restaurants and, in the case of smaller breweries, for the local population. The largest beer factories, such as Gubener Genossenschafts-Brauerei, Haselbach or Löwenbrauerei, were created as a result of taking over smaller, local breweries and their relocation or expansion, which made it possible to use modern production and aging technologies at the time. These included i. e. properly designed cellars, multi-chamber peasants and machines for injecting carbon dioxide into the produced elections. Technological progress and the demand for flavored beverages were getting to know the owners of breweries by expanding their assortment with carbonated, alcohol-free drinks or wines.
The reputation of Guben beers was so great that many of them won awards at international beer fairs. These included Haselbach Pilsner and Haselbach Bär-Bräu, which in 1901 won respectively a distinction and a gold medal at the food and delicatessen exhibition in Cottbus (Ger.: Allgemeinen Ausstellung für Nahrungs- und Genussmittel der Spreestadt Cottbus) or a distinction at the Paris fair (Fr. Diplom d'Honneuravec Insigne et Médaille d'Or) in 1902.
