1820 – Birth of Saku Brewery
After the abolition of serfage in the province of Estonia in 1816, landlords started to establish industrial companies at the manors. The most important ones were distilleries and breweries. The birthday of Saku Brewery is considered to be 1820, when the owner of Saku manor, German earl Karl Friedrich Rehbinder, also decided to establish a brewery at his manor. It has been proven with documentary evidence that the first production period at the Saku beer house was in October 1820.
Karl Friedrich von Rehbinder was born in 1764 as the son of Otto Magnus von Rehbinder (1727–1792), Chamberlain and secret advisor of Saxon-Weimar, and Sophie Katharina Dorothea von der Pahleni (1737–1768).
In addition to Saku manor, his father also owned the manors of Udriku, Imastu, Polli, Liigvalla and Vanamõisa.
1849 – New Lord of Saku Manor
While during the era of the Rehbinders the brewery did not get a lot of attention, then after the transfer of the manor to the Baggo family in 1849, reforms started at the brewery and beer production intensified. In the honour of Valerian Baggo, who laid a strong foundation to the development of Saku Brewery, legendary Saku Hele was made. It is a beer brewed following Saku’s oldest recipe and on its can stands the coat of arms of the Baggo family.
1871 – Fast development of Saku Brewery
At the end of the century the competition between breweries became more intense and in order to ensure the competitiveness of beer outside the manor territory and especially in Tallinn, it was necessary to increase the quality of beer and volume of production in Saku. As a result, Saku beer became a considerable factor on the beer market of Tallinn already in 1871. This proves that Saku no longer brewed poor tavern beer because in the tight competition conditions, it was necessary to send better quality beers to the restaurants and beer shops of Tallinn.Before the completion of the new Saku Brewery, the old brewery managed to make a lot of positive advertising. In 1875, a large agricultural fair was held in Kadriorg, Tallinn with numerous exhibits from many areas. A newspaper writes: “Horses were shown twice a day, the military brass band accompanied it, in the temporary beer pavilion the thirsty people found satisfaction from excellent Saku beer.” When awards were given, Saku Brewery received the bronze medal for beer. None of the other breweries were recognized in that way.
1876 – New brewery
At first the brewery remained in its old rooms but already in 1876 Valerian Baggo, the new lord of the manor, built a new brewery working on steam to replace the small brewery of the manor. The first brew in the new steam-powered Saku Brewery was probably made on October 4, 1877. Already three years later Saku Brewery sent its beer to an exhibition in Riga, where it was awarded second place and a bronze medal.
1899 – Saku Brewery railway
The establishment of railway connection with Tallinn in 1899 further facilitated the fast development of brewing. On September 28 of that year the first beer load from Saku to Tallinn arrived on the narrow-gauge railway – before that beer was transported with horses. It is worth mentioning that the Tallinn-Pärnu road was officially inaugurated only on August 1, 1901.
1899 - Public limited Company Saku Brewery
Meanwhile, competition between breweries continued to intensify. In order to gain control of the market of Tallinn, Harju County and other markets in the vicinity, major investments were required. Therefore, it was decided to expand the circle of owners in 1899 and establish the public limited company Saku Brewery. The owners of the company included the entire financial oligarchy of the local aristocracy lead by banker G. Scheel and distillers Rosen.
The venture was successful and already in 1900 in total 203,800 buckets of beer were brewed in Saku, while the main rival of that time Revalia (former Pfaff) was able to brew only 153, 000 buckets. The strong development of Saku resulted in the last brewery of Tallinn – Revalia closing its doors in 1911. After that, there has not been a brewery in Tallinn. Saku Brewery had gained monopoly in Tallinn and Harju County.
