On September 11, 1867, the Carl Kuntze steam brewery began brewing on Duderstädter Landstrasse in Worbis. The company founder, who was born in Großbodungen, learned the brewing trade "from scratch" and expanded his knowledge on his "Walz" (a journey to Russia), among other things.
The later change of name to "Brewery Neunspringe" is due to an old field name that allows for various interpretations. Popular belief tells of nine springs emerging there. Another interpretation, that a "new spring" - a new source - led to the name, is equally plausible.
In the early years of the brewery, a side farm with livestock was run. The horses and cows belonging to the brewery were used to transport the beer wagons.
It was not until the 1930s that horsepower was replaced by the purchase of a truck. The ice required to cool the beer was cut from the trout ponds at Büschleb’s Mill and transported to the brewery’s ice cellars by horse-drawn cart. After the death of the company founder Carl Kuntze, his sons Karl and Thilo took over the brewery. Under their leadership, the Neunspringe brewery’s distribution network was continually expanded.
Branches were established in Duderstadt, St. Andreasberg, Bleicherode, Nordhausen, Kelbra and other towns in the surrounding area. As the brewery’s records show, the “double caramel”, which was very popular with Neunspringe customers, was delivered as far as Hannoversch-Münden, Kassel and Eisenach. The expansion of production planned by the Kuntze brothers was inevitably “put on hold” with the outbreak of the Second World War.
On December 1, 1953, the Thuringian private brewery was converted into a state-owned company (VEB Brauerei Neunspringe). Production management of the nationalized company was in the hands of Ernst Egert, his successor was master brewer Koch from Niederorschel. (Source: brewery website)
In 1994, the company was sold by the Treuhandanstalt to Thilo Kuntze, a great-grandson of the company founder, and three co-partners. They renamed the company the Neunspringe Brewery. The company was thoroughly modernized. A new boiler house, a new cooling system and a new brewhouse were built. By 2002, around eight million German marks had been invested in the brewery.
In 2007, the Ehbrecht family from Duderstadt took over the company shares completely. Bernd Ehbrecht became the new managing director. From 2007, the Neunspringer Brewery's marketing area was expanded beyond Thuringia to Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg. In 2009, the brand rights of the insolvent Olbernhau brewery in the Ore Mountains were taken over and Neunspringer beer has since been supplied to Saxony under the brand names Olbernhauer Pilsener, Stülpner Starkbier and Böhmisch Hell. In 2015, the Neunspringe brewery acquired the "Vogelsberger" brand and the bottling plant for non-alcoholic beverages from the insolvent Alsfeld brewery in Hesse.[1] Between 2010 and 2019, the modernization was continued and largely completed.