# Lithuania

Country page of DA Caps, a collection of beer bottle caps. Web page: https://dacaps.imcoll.com/country/lt/info

- Official name: Republic of Lithuania
- Local name: Lietuvos Respublika
- Caps in the collection: 495 (https://dacaps.imcoll.com/country_caps/29)
- Brands: 107

## Beer in Lithuania

Beer is Lithuania's oldest native drink: farmhouse brewing is first mentioned in chronicles of the 11th century. Writers of the 16th and 17th centuries name the household god Raugų Žemėpatis, who was given the first sip of beer or mead from the barrel, and Rūgutis, a god of sour and fermented foods; it is often said that Ragutis was the old god of beer, but no source confirms it. Hired brewers, the aludariai, were called to weddings and christenings, and around Biržai they still are. From the 16th century towns and manors brewed under a ducal permit, and in 1857 there were 103 breweries.

The industrial breweries grew from the manors. Gubernija began in 1665 beside the royal manor of Šiauliai, served the royal table until 1795, had a steam engine from 1890 and a railway from 1895. Biržų alus traces itself to the brewery of the Radziwiłł estate of Biržai (1686), Švyturys began in 1784 in Klaipėda, then Memel, with the merchant J. W. Reincke, and Rafailas Volfas built a steam brewery in Kaunas in 1853. The Vilnius brewery that became Tauras followed in 1860, and Albert Foight brewed the first beer of the later Kalnapilis in Panevėžys on 1 January 1902. Between the wars Lithuania had 15 breweries in 1924-25 and 11 in 1939, brewing 1.8 million decalitres; the owners of the large ones founded the Lithuanian Brewery Union in 1924, and Volfas, merged with Engelman in 1928, held about 40 per cent of the market.

After the war output grew from 0.7 million decalitres in 1945 to 3.0 million in 1950, 9.0 million in 1970 and 15.3 million in 1980, with five large breweries in the 1970s: Vilnius, Kaunas, Šiauliai with a branch in Mažeikiai, Klaipėda, and Panevėžys with a branch in Biržai. The Kaunas combine of 1959 took the name Ragutis in 1967, Švyturys was among the first in the country to pasteurise its beer in 1973, and the new brewery at Utena began in 1977.

After 1990 the state breweries were privatised and foreign brewers came in. Kalnapilis was privatised in 1992 and formed a joint venture with Baltic Beverages Holding in 1994; Tauras was privatised in 1992 as Vilniaus Tauras and bought by the Danish Brewery Group in 1999, which took Kalnapilis too in 2001, and the two became Kalnapilio-Tauro grupė in 2003, now owned by Royal Unibrew. Švyturys was privatised in 1994, sold to Carlsberg in 1999 and merged with Utenos alus in 2001. Ragutis in Kaunas went to Pilsner Urquell in 1997 and to Olvi in 1999, and took back the name Volfas Engelman in 2011. Gubernija, privatised in 1996, bought the Gurten brewery in Switzerland in 1999, moved its equipment to Šiauliai and began to brew wheat beer. There were soon more than 200 breweries, and in 2015 still 75 active ones, 32 of them micro, among them Jovarų alus in Pakruojis, Joalda in Joniškėlis, Sakiškių alus and Genys Brewing in Kaunas; the north around Pasvalys, Pakruojis, Kupiškis and Biržai keeps its sweetish, malty farmhouse ales.

Lithuanians drank about 90 litres of beer a head in 2021, nine tenths of it brewed in the country. In 2025 shops and venues sold 186 million litres, 3.2 per cent less than in 2024, and 18 companies held beer production licences. Švyturys-Utenos alus, brewing in Klaipėda and Utena, is the largest brewer, with a revenue of 103.3 million euros in 2025; Volfas Engelman holds about 30 per cent of the market; none of the three biggest brewers is Lithuanian-owned (Carlsberg, Royal Unibrew, Olvi), LRT wrote on 26 July 2026. On 30 January 2025 Genys Brewing bought AB Kauno alus, the Kaunas brewery that traces itself to 1846.

Sources:
- [Archontology: Lithuania, Polity Style 1918-1940](https://archontology.org/nations/lithuania/01_polity1.php)
- [Archontology: Lithuania, Polity Style since 1990](https://archontology.org/nations/lithuania/01_polity4.php)
- [Wikipedia: Flag of Lithuania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Lithuania)
- [Wikipedia: Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_the_Re-Establishment_of_the_State_of_Lithuania)
- [Wikipedia: Beer in Lithuania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_Lithuania)
- [VLE (Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia): Alus](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/alus/)
- [VLE: Alaus pramone](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/alaus-pramone/)
- [VLE: Aludariai](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/aludariai/)
- [VLE: Raugu Zemepatis](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/raugu-zemepatis/)
- [VLE: Gubernija](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/gubernija-1/)
- [VLE: Svyturys-Utenos alus](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/svyturys-utenos-alus/)
- [VLE: Kalnapilio-Tauro grupe](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/kalnapilio-tauro-grupe/)
- [VLE: Volfas Engelman](https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/volfas-engelman/)
- [Lituanistika: Zemaiciu lokys Mazeikiuose ir Amerikoje (Samogitian Bear in Mazeikiai and America)](https://www.lituanistika.lt/content/116937)
- [Kalnapilis: Our story](https://www.kalnapilis.lt/en/about-us/our-story)
- [Orkla: BBH sells Kalnapilis to Bryggerigruppen (2001)](https://www.orkla.com/media/press-releases/2001/ork--bbh-sells-kalnapilis-to-bryggerigruppen/)
- [Motieka: Advised Genys Brewing on the acquisition of Kauno alus (2025)](https://motieka.com/news/bridging-tradition-and-innovation-advised-genys-brewing-on-the-acquisition-of-kauno-alus/)
- [LRT: Beer and vodka lose ground to kombucha and energy drinks (2026)](https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/3000193/beer-and-vodka-lose-ground-to-kombucha-and-energy-drinks-as-lithuanian-producers-adapt)
- [Visit Birzai: Butautai manor](https://www.visitbirzai.lt/butautai-manor)

## Breweries (27)

- [Alsteka](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/2904.md) — 2 caps
- [UAB Astravo](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3282.md) — 1 cap
- [UAB Aukštaitijos bravorai](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1216.md) — 2 caps, 2000–
- [Bear & Boar Brewery](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/6073.md) — 1 cap, 2018–
- [Birzu Alus](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3028.md) — 1 cap, 1682–
- [UAB Butautu Dvaro Bravoras](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3219.md) — 1 cap
- [Daiga Brewery](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3283.md) — 1 cap, 1990–2005, closed
- [UAB Empl](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/6074.md) — 1 cap
- [Endless Alus](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3279.md) — 1 cap
- [UAB Genys Brewing](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3763.md) — 1 cap, 2015–
- [AB Gubernija](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/659.md) — 12 caps, 1665–
- [UAB Joalda](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/5768.md) — 1 cap, 1994–
- [JSC Volfas Engelman](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/2783.md) — 39 caps, 1853–
- [AB Kalnapilio – Tauro grupė](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/515.md) — 101 caps, 1902–
- [AB Kalnapilis Alus (Maxima LT - VP Market)](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1087.md) — 3 caps
- [AB Kauno Alus](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1198.md) — 12 caps, 1846–
- [UAB Mažeikių Lokys](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1196.md) — 7 caps, 1932–2012, closed
- [Pasvalio Alus](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3277.md) — 1 cap
- [Ponoras Alaus Darykla](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/416.md) — 2 caps, 1991–
- [Brewery Rinkuškiai](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/6066.md) — 14 caps, 1991–
- [Sakiskiu Alus](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3280.md) — 1 cap
- [UAB Sirvėnos Bravoras](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3278.md) — 119 caps, 2010–
- [UAB Švyturys - Utenos Alus](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/236.md) — 155 caps, 1784–
- [UAB Tarusku Alaus Bravoras](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3117.md) — 2 caps
- [UAB Ultrapramogos](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/2663.md) — 1 cap
- [UAB Vilkmerges alus](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/173.md) — 5 caps, 1993–2015, closed
- [UAB Vilniaus alus](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/172.md) — 7 caps, 1999–