In 1501 the city magistrate and the mayor of Banska Bystrica requested that Vladislav II grant the city a new privilege. This request was satisfied later during the reign of Ludwig II and the privilege was granted on 7 August 1524. Until the granting of the privilege, the city magistrate permitted to brew pale wheat beer. The first mention of bottling beer is from 1516. Beer brewing was widespread in the 17th century. 80 breweries were established within a short time period. 20 Brewmasters’ articles which were issued in 1636 also bear witness of the development of a brewing guild. Industrial beer production in Banska Bystrica was begun during the second half of 19th century after the guild system broke down. According to archive documents a new city brewery was built on what is now known as Moyzes square in 1871. What was peculiar about the brewery was the fact that some of its parts, such as a cold store, conditioning cellar, racking facility and a fermentation chamber, were located in different places - behind the Hustak – Trosky quarter, close to the Radvan barracks and near the entrance to the city where there is a flyover intersection now.
Beer that had been brewed was transported in wooden vats from the square to Trosky for further processing. The brewery owned three ponds to get ice from in the winter. Equipment used was old-fashioned and all work was done manually. The brewery produced approximately 5,000 hectolitres of beer a year. Beer from Banska Bystrica had a good reputation which was especially true of Banska Bystrica’s Porter and Lager (20% and 16%). This beer was exported as far as Budapest and Vienna.
The brewery and the malt-house had been passed from one generation of the Heritz family to another until 1942 when they were taken over by a new owner, Jan Benus. He quickly renovated the brewery and racking equipment. In 1944 the brewery produced more than 20,000 hectolitres of beer which represented approx. 60% of its capacity. Despite the high quality of the beer, only 5% of produced beer was sold in the city and the rest was transported as far as 160 km away from the brewery. The city had beer storage, and beer traders who moved into the city brought with them beer from all the other breweries.
During the 50’s and 60’s the brewery produced 3,000 – 5,000 hl of beer per month and its assortment included 7, 10, 12% beer and the special 16% dark beer. The brewing industry built on the tradition of brewing Zlatopramen beer and a new modern brewery was built in Radvan – Kralova quarter, which was named URPIN. The cornerstone was laid in 1968, and after three years of construction the new facility with the capacity of 350,000 hl of beer per year started to operate.
