#seventeenth-century

2025 / Breweries and placesBreweries and placesПБП

Breweries and places12 min

The Dojlidy Brewery: What the 1628 Radziwiłł Estate Inventory Reveals

What did a brewery on a seventeenth-century magnate estate look like? An inventory of the Radziwiłł family's Dojlidy estate, dated 17 November 1628, offers a remarkable glimpse into its brewing operations, including a copper brewing kettle, malthouse, malt-drying facilities, barrels and grain-storage buildings. We examine this historical document to discover what it can — and cannot — tell us about brewing technology, production and the estate economy.

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2025 / Related drinksRelated drinksПБП

Related drinks10 min

Moonshine in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth: A History of a Fiery Spirit

The history of harelka (gorzałka) and grain-based distillation in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, based on Gabriel Rzączyński's 1721 work. Discover how strong spirits were produced, which grains and spices were used, why Gdańsk's anise-flavoured spirit became an export product, and what role distilled beverages played in the culture and medicine of our ancestors.

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2025 / Beer History / ResearchBeer History / ResearchПБП

Beer History / Research21 min

Beer in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Work of Gabriel Rzączyński

What was beer like in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the 17th and 18th centuries? Drawing on Gabriel Rzączyński’s 1721 work, this article explores beer varieties and prices, the grain trade, brewing centers in Belarus, Lithuania, and Poland, the importance of water, and historical beliefs about beer’s properties.

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2025 / Related drinksRelated drinksПБП

Related drinks7 min

Honey Lakes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century sources describe extraordinary quantities of honey in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and neighbouring lands — including tales of honey-filled traps, bears, and a peasant rescued from a hollow tree by a frightened she-bear.

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2025 / Culture and everyday lifeCulture and everyday lifeПБП

Culture and everyday life4 min

Further Notes on Our Pagan Spring Ritual

A source from 1700 preserves a detailed description of a pagan spring ritual involving beer, also known from the chronicle of Maciej Stryjkowski. A priest drank beer from a vessel without using his hands and then threw it behind his back. The text explicitly mentions Lithuanians, Ruthenians and other peoples of the region.

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2025 / Beer History / ResearchBeer History / ResearchПБП

Beer History / Research4 min

Our Beer and Mead in 17th-Century Medical Literature

This article examines three seventeenth-century medical sources that describe beer and honey-based drinks, their properties, and their effects on health. Particular attention is given to references to Lithuania and the eastern lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as regions associated with brewing and traditional mead making.

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2025 / Beer History / ResearchBeer History / ResearchПБП

Beer History / Research2 min

“Beer Festivals” of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th Century

In 1659, Andreas Cellarius described an unusual noble hall in Danzig where distinguished townsmen could pay a fixed fee and drink beer until the evening while listening to instrumental music. What did this place look like, and how closely did it resemble a modern beer festival?

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2025 / Sources and documentsSources and documentsПБП

Sources and documents9 min

Orbis Pictus: How a Seventeenth-Century European Textbook Introduced Noble Youth to Brewing

In 1658, Jan Amos Comenius published Orbis Sensualium Pictus, a famous illustrated textbook that included a chapter on brewing. This article examines how the book circulated in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, what its brewery illustration actually showed, and why an alembic appeared alongside the brewing equipment.

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