I never planned to open my own brewery, let alone build breweries for others. I simply wanted to brew my own beer.
It started with a kettle and curiosity
At a camp, a friend brewed beer in a pot over a fire. It caught my interest, and I wanted to try it too. There was no business plan, just curiosity about what would happen.
At home I started with a pot and a bucket. Gradually a bigger pot came, then another. Fifteen litres, thirty, eighty... I was hooked on brewing and with each new set I found out what I would like to do more comfortably and better.
A 3 × 10 metre passageway. Everything had to fit.
While renovating the house, I began preparing a passageway for a small brewery. It was three metres wide and ten metres long. The brewing equipment and everything needed to use it had to fit there.
I needed compact, affordable, well-built equipment that I could operate myself without limiting the beers I wanted to brew. I could not find an off-the-shelf setup that suited my space, budget and way of working.
I never planned to build breweries. Then I started.
I began developing my own equipment and built six different homebrewing systems. Today's design did not emerge fully formed; it took years of building, brewing and improving.
I studied energy, processes and ecology, so the technical side interested me too. A design that looked good on paper was not enough. I wanted to brew on the equipment myself and see whether it really made the work easier.
Gradually, other people with similar needs began to call. And Pivní dílna started to grow from the solution that was originally created for me. Today, I develop and produce brewing technology for others as well.
From homebrewing to my own brewery
As a homebrewer, selling beer never crossed my mind. Opening a brewery seemed far too complicated and distant.
The more I researched and spoke with people running breweries, the more tangible the idea became. Similar small breweries were already operating around the country. I was not the only one thinking this way.
I am now gradually opening a brewery using my own equipment. The idea is a weekend brewery: brew one or two days a week while keeping a hobby that might also earn something, without letting it consume all my time or lose its appeal.
It is still about the beer
It began with the desire to brew my own beer, and that desire has stayed with me. Along the way I also began designing and making equipment and finding ways to make brewing easier for myself and other homebrewers.
In this column I will share my journey: what motivated me, where I stumbled and what I would do differently today. I am still learning, especially about running a brewery.
If you are considering a brewery of your own, I am also preparing the series Own a brewery at home? No science fiction. It will address the questions you may have. This column tells the story of how I came to ask them.
What drew you to brewing beer? And if you haven't started yet — what attracts you to your own beer? Write to me.
Vojta
How Chaloupka got into brewing beer