Looks like beer is haunting me as even though I don't like beer, I'm back again with a post about beer. This morning I went to see a beer exhibition at the museum located inside the fortress of Targu Mures. You may be wondering why would I do that if I don't like beer and your question would be legit. The truth is, this exhibition is the testimony of beer history, it is educational and one like me, who has no interest in beer, can learn a lot.
How To Get There
The museum is inside the walls of the fortress and it's a 5 minute walk from the city center. You can't miss it as the tower of the medieval church is visible with the naked eye, so you just have to go in that direction.
The building that is hosting the museum was once the castle's prison. I wanted to visit the area where the cells were but was told that's under construction and full of construction supplies, but in September or October, a new wing of the building will be opened and maybe then visitors will have access to that part too.
The entrance is not free, it's 12 lei for adults (2.5€) and 3 lei for kids (0.6€).
Beer - From Artisans To The Brewery
This is the title of the exhibition, which is open from Tuesday to Sunday every week between 22 July and 31 October. The exhibition has two sections, one of which is the Bürger Beer history, which is an old local brand that existed before the first world war. The rest is brought from Hungary and tells the story and the history of Hungarian beer making.
Albert Bürger's Beer
Before the first world war, Albert Bürger was considered the wealthiest citizen, a Jewish bourgeois and politician. Bürger's factory has been developed from a small factory set up in 1850. Bürger bought the factory in 1886.
This is a photo of the factory taken in 1893.
These are original beer bottles and beer mugs.
The Process Of Making Beer
Before visiting the exhibition I had a vague idea about how beer is made, but as I don't like it, my knowledge was really vague. This exhibition explains perfectly everything you need to know about the process of making beer and not only.
What you see here is a puzzle game, about the old volume measuring units. I've heard of almost all of them, but don't ask me how much are those in Liter as I have no idea. This puzzle explains it.
Ingredients for making beer hops, barley, malt, hop pellets, hop extract), stored in sacks and wooden containers, like it was done once.
Beer cups or beer mugs, I don't know which is the correct definition of these. Back in medieval times, beer was like water, there was no limit to drinking beer and they had no idea about the harmful effect of it. Therefore these cups were big and I suppose they were drinking several a day, like water.
This is a replica of a mashing cauldron and behind it, on the wall, the process of making beer.
More beer mugs, not only made of ceramics, but also of some kind of metal. I don't even want to imagine how it felt like drinking vine and beer from those metal cups. Must have been terrible.
This was a very interesting mock-up, a replica of a beer factory from 1880. How hard it must have been to make beer, compared to what we have today.
A spoon for eliminating the foam. Don't ask me what it means as I have no idea, but apparently this was used in the 20th century.
Beer was stored in wooden barrels and this is how the barrels were filled, liquid carbonic acid was used to operate this device.
Cooper's workshop.
This is the Bauernebl an Son's company sign, from 1920.
This was an interesting collection as the glass in the middle belonged to Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary.
Dreher is a well known beer company in Hungary and these are old products produced by Dreher, like fliers, coasters, bottles and bottle openers.
Kőbánya is a city in Hungary, famous for its beer.
A beer? Anyone? This was the place where you could take photos sitting at the table, drinking beer and looked like you're with the crowd on the photo.
I think you will never guess what this is. It's bottling device, this was used to fill the bottles. Imagine the level of productivity in those conditions.
When I see old tools or devices like this, I am always wondering what would those, who used to work with these devices say after seeing what we have today, how the industry is working today. Would be a shock to them for sure. This device is from 1920, which makes it 102 years old.
An old scene recreated. This is how a dinner table must have looked like a hundred years ago.
Imagine carrying those beer crates. Plastic was unknown back then and crates were made of wood. Loading up a truck, manually, must have been a nightmare.
This is how the 21th century looks like, in the beer world. Plastic crates and metal barrels.
These bottles look cool though.