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Jurgis Kudlinskas from Kaunas boils home-made beer in one of the patios of Žaliakalnis, the beer is heated in an old ash tub, the water is heated by adding stones heated by the campfire, the beer is made in the tub through oak chips and juniper twigs, just like the ancient Lithuanians did. He believes that everyone can make beer and is happy to contribute to the preservation of this Lithuanian tradition.
– How did you come up with the idea of making beer?
– I had no relatives who would have made beer in the old days, because the whole family has been townspeople for a long time. We had free time while we studied at the university, so my partner and I decided to find something to do. We are both prone to folklore, traditions, but we can’t dance or sing, so somehow we decided to brew beer. The friend’s grandfather was a brewer, and my friend and I started, and I was very fascinated by beer production.
– How was your first beer born?
– Eight years ago we had a lot of trouble finding beer ingredients and information in Lithuanian, now there are more. That first beer was very simple, canned malt extract bitter, usually in the kitchen, there was nothing impressive about it, but the process itself was a lot of fun because I was able to make such a thing myself. I’m very fascinated by the weirdness of the process itself, as most people don’t even imagine that making beer at home is possible and how easy it is.
– Why do you like to make beer?
You have to delve into chemistry, and brewing requires a lot of that knowledge.
– Because it is an old historical tradition that is related to the history of European nations, including Lithuania. One of the first sources of income for the Hanseatic League was beer and beer malt: their trade was based on the export of beer and malt, they invented many technologies, one of them was the drying of the malt without the use of heat. . Brewing itself is an invention of the Stone Age, the Neolithic, and that technology has not changed, and in medieval Europe the process was improved. Brewing is one of the hallmarks of European identity.
When I started brewing beer, I delved into infinite areas: history, chemistry. If you want to know what you are doing, do it more efficiently, correct mistakes, improve taste, win contests, then you have to dig deep into chemistry, and brewing needs a lot of that knowledge. I myself am a humanist, gifted in languages rather than exact sciences, so I didn’t study much chemistry in school. Another area is biology. For example, when growing hops, it is important to know what processes take place in plants, what substances those plants have. I myself grow seven different varieties of hops.
It is a matter of curiosity. And from a gastronomic standpoint, it’s nice to be able to make many different types of beer based on the traditions of individual nations. Many beers consider it just alcohol, a low-class beverage just to drink. In fact, beer can be refined and noble. The brewing process itself is also very enjoyable and important to me. I started brewing beer in the kitchen on a gas stove, but then realized that I was happier to brew beer the traditional way, when I put in as much manual work as possible, so I decided to use traditional tools on the stove. brewing, found a hot tub and restored an old keg.
– Was beer part of the gastronomy in the history of Lithuania?
You have to delve into chemistry, and brewing requires a lot of that knowledge.
– The history of beer in Lithuania is quite tragic. We had a fairly rich beer tradition, just like in Western Europe it was produced with different ingredients and extracting different flavors, but this tradition began to fade with the arrival of vodka. In the interwar period, local historians were already roaming the villages and trying to write down the dying tradition of making real beer.
– And what kind of beer culture is there in Lithuania today?
– Traditions of alcohol as gastronomy do not exist in Lithuania, many Lithuanians see alcohol, unfortunately, as a means of drinking. Ironically, the ban on the advertising of alcoholic beverages hurts big factories and homebrew, on the contrary, helps.
Photo by Kipras Rimavičius
– Is making beer a hobby? What else do you do in life?
– I used to work both in offices and in a brewery. I studied political science and I have more hobbies than I can dedicate to them. I do aquarium studies, look for antiques with a metal detector, go hiking with the Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) hiking club, where I met my wife.
– Are those around you surprised to learn that you make beer?
– Everyone really wonders how easy it is to make beer at home and how rare that tradition is. Everything is surprising and always fascinating, I had not met a person who did not like the idea.
– Do many people in Lithuania produce homebrew?
– Yes, it is a fast growing thing, the brewing community – communicative, always ready to help and teach. Since the interwar period, a hop has been growing in the Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) Botanical Garden, where several rare and Lithuanian hop varieties are protected. Homebrewers gather here every year and can pick hop cones because they are not needed in the Botanical Garden. Then a meeting of all the brewers takes place. The community is curious, they are interested in learning, reviving traditions, which makes it a lot of fun.
– What is he preparing for you?
– I do not want to answer trivially that it is the preservation of traditions – after all, it creates new traditions and improves them. In general, can it be said that it is about the preservation of a tradition if that tradition has almost disappeared? You still recreate it your way. The thing is, we Lithuanians do it, so there is some continuation. For me, brewing is the continuity of my community’s culture, the resurrection of tradition and its enhancement to make it unique.
– Where to start a person who wants to make beer at home?
– First of all, it is necessary to make sure that there is enough space for this and that the home does not oppose it, because the main problem is usually that the home does not like smells. Also, this hobby requires a lot of free space, for example, you need to have a place to ferment beer, there must be the right temperature, the cellar is the best. Space is also needed to store bottled beer. The most important thing is whether you will enjoy the activity yourself and you do not need to make a large investment.
Photo by Kipras Rimavičius
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