BEER STORY
A brewery that almost wasn’t created
We would like to introduce the U Tomana Brewery, which is located on Náměstí Svobody (Freedom Square) and today delivers joy not only to the inhabitants of Brno. The idea to build a brewery came with the opportunity to buy and reconstruct the house U Tomana, which during the First Republic was known for making desserts and brewing good coffee. From the beginning, the owners intended to continue the tradition of the famous house and once again provide the city center with gastronomic operations and products of its own production. So the preparations were directed to three main directions – accommodation, restaurant and brewery. During the construction preparations, the owners found themselves left alone with the idea of a brewery when coincidentally the brewer and technologist Martin Hrubeš, who has been in the brewing business for a few years, got in their way. A quick telephone agreement was followed by even faster meetings, because time was pushing. After the consultations, the gentlemen arranged the completion of the construction work for the brewery themselves. The selection of the technology supplier was won by Nerez Grade, Němčice nad Hanou and the race against time began, as the opening date of the whole project was coming inexorably. When the "non-emergence" of the brewery ward off, the second question came - how to get good brewers for this brewery? A question that is as crucial for the future as a good supplier and consultant in the brewery construction. A tender was prepared where the main criteria were reliability, seriousness and, above all, a philosophical view of beer production. Nowadays, almost impossible requirements.
But we were lucky! Brewer Jan Křišík with his personality fully met all the demands for this position. We found him right in time because the brewery was almost finished and he became immediately involved in the preparation of the future character of our beer. The agreement and the idea of the owners with the brewer M. Hrubeš was that the new brewer will have the opportunity to prepare beer recipes according to his own ideas but under his supervision. However, the cooperation of both brewers exceeded expectations. Both of them had the same view of how beer is supposed to be brewed and how beer should look. The last member of the brewing team, Martin Smolík, came a little later as a longtime friend of Jan and the brewery team's triumvirate was finished. And because all three gentlemen understood each other professionally and humanly, this reflected in the taste of produced beers, for which we do not have to be ashamed of. The portfolio of beers consists of light 10 ° and 12 ° and dark 11 °. The names of beers are the names of former residents of the house. In order to revitalize the permanent assortment, other special beers are also brewed, which brings joy not only to ourselves but also to our guests.
We use raw materials for Czech type beers from Bohemia. Malt from Moravia and hops from Žatec. For so-called specials we are looking for raw materials from all over the world. The brewery is built in such a way that the lying and maturing of the beer can be long and does not have to be shortened. The honesty of the craft is the subject to everything and the brewers are constantly discussing how and what to improve, where are reserves and what has emerged new in the brewing world. The fact that they understand each other is also evidenced by the time they spent together after working hours, where the language revolves around beer as well.
This is a brief introduction to how it all began and what our vision is. In the future, we believe that we will bring joy, good mood and pleasant moments with our great beer.