Krönleins Brewery (Appeltofftska Bryggeri AB) is a Swedish brewery founded in 1836 by Anders Julius Appeltofft in Halmstad, Sweden.
History
Krönleins Brewery was founded on February 15, 1836 when grocery businessman Anders Julius Appeltofft bought an old half-timbered hospital, or "curhuset", at Stora Torg in Halmstad, Sweden, and converted it into an office and a bar. The beer was brewed in the building next door. For the first ten years he made Svensköl, a traditional sweet low-alcohol Swedish beer.
The brewing originally done by Krönleins was done manually. In 1849 new ground was purchased, situated a couple of hundred meters from the brewery. On the new ground there was an old bastion from the early 17th century, placed next to the old moat. The purpose of the bastion was to protect the town from enemies from the west - hence the name "Wester Katt". An ice cellar was built on the property. A malting for the production of malt was also built on the property. Below the bastion was a well with spring water, where many citizens in Halmstad fetched their water. The water was of very high quality. It is from this well that Krönleins has taken its water since the start in 1836.
Munich beer
Munich beer was first introduced by Frederik Rosenquist in Sweden in 1843. His brewery was called "The German Brewery" and was situated in Stockholm. The introduction of the Munich beer was greatly helped by, for the time, modern marketing methods and the fact that the Swedish Royal Court became one of the company's biggest customers. The Queen's mother, of German heritage, had until 1843 bought her beer from Germany. The new locally produced German beer became her new supply. After only ten years Munich beer was the most popular beer in Sweden. It is worth mentioning that beer in Sweden has fought a hard battle with aquavit since medieval times. The brewers had a monopoly of the very profitable aquavit production and were not too interested in selling beer of high quality. This trend was broken with Munich beer.
There are conflicting sources of information as to when Appeltofft started to brew Munich beer. According to one source it was brewed from the start, but that is not very likely given the above information about the introduction in 1843. Another source says it was in the 1850s but most likely it must have been in the late 1840s. Munich beer requires longer storage time than "svensköl" and we know that Krönleins had the possibility to store Munich beer in the ice cellar that was built in 1849. The fact is that the cellar was probably built for this purpose. In any case, Krönleins was well ahead in this respect compared to many other Swedish breweries. The local competitor "Östra Bryggeriet" did not start brewing Munich beer until 1863.
The Brewery into Ltd Co
The founder Anders Julius Appeltofft died in 1851 of pneumonia - caught on a cold September night at a local restaurant. His widow ran the business until 1855 when their son Per Gustav Appeltofft took over, being the oldest of 8 brothers and sisters. Krönleins was by now in need of capital so the brewery was transformed into a joint stock company in 1861, which is one of the dates that can be seen on the facade of the brew house. The same year it is noted that the staff consisted of one brewer, one book-keeper, one cellar maid, nine brewers- and two stable boys as well as two more boys for janitorial duties. The company board determined in 1867 that the cost of the water transportation by horse carriage could be lowered by building a pipeline from the well to the brewery. The project developed into Halmstad's first permanent pipeline with many subscribers to get water. The brewery also made an agreement with the fire department to always have the water reservoir filled with water in the event of fires. This was in 1870 – 15 years before the city itself would offer such service.
Pilsner beer
When pilsner beer was first brewed in Sweden in the 1870s, the market consisted of Munich beer that dominated the market, and a new kind of bottom-fermented beer called "Swedish lager". The original pilsner came from the city of Plzeň in the present Czech Republic where it had been brewed for a couple of decades. The pilsner filled a gap in the Swedish beer market. Pilsner was easy to drink, less sweet with a notable hop-bitterness and lighter in color than other beers.