Bojan, who is also a professor of Montenegrin language, as well as a motorcyclist and a member of the band “Rudolf”, said only a part of his collection of 1,000 glasses and a couple of hundred bottles are exposed. "The items are from all over the world, from every continent except Australia. They have been brought to me by people from Georgia, Britain, Uruguay, China, Russia, France, America, and from the Balkans which I do not even have to talk about. My friends know I love glasses, so they remember and bring them back when they go somewhere. It is interesting to note that there are plenty of Montenegrin beers among them," says Minić
Minić PHOTO: Dragana Šćepanović
Every glass and bottle, which visitors to the "Beer Museum" could see, has its own story. Among the most interesting glasses are Weheinstephan beers, made in one of the oldest active breweries in the world, which has been working since 1040. Also, the attention of the visitors was attracted by the rather rare Nikšić beer liter mug as well as glasses marked by an important date or event.
"Some of the exhibits have an interesting background in the way I got them or the way they passed through to get to me. What is important to emphasize is the fact that they are glasses of all possible shapes and types - mugs, pints, sniffers, cups, wheat beer glasses, pilsner glasses, so-called flutes, velvet, lilies and other special types of glasses. Each has a different shape, and thickness of the glass in relation to the purpose and type of the beer which is drunk from them, the material from which they are made (glass, clay, wood ...). Their function is not just to pour the beer into them in order to break down CO2," explains the Professor of Literature.
The glasses are, as explained by the collector, designed to "send the beer exactly to the palate, the tongue, the front or the back of the mouth, according to what the technicians think is the best way to feel the taste. Snippers, having a shape like cognac cups, let's say, are intentionally designed to be held in hands and warm the beer.
Just about the pints, there are many things to say... How did it get its name, how many milliliters are in the British pint, and how many in the American pint? Does every glass shaped like a pint have to contain a pint of liquidity, how was the shaker was invented, the British and the imperial, why some of them have a wider middle than the top," says Minić.
PHOTO: Dragana Šćepanović
He started collecting glasses ten years ago but encountered periods when he would not get a new one for months. Then, he says, he would lose the will and think of breaking up with his hobby, which required much space and time. "It does not make sense to collect them if they are not exposed. This hobby also requires a lot of time: it needs to be sorted out, once in a few months to take them out and wash them, keep records of which are in the collection, which are missing... I happened to talk to people who have a collection of thousands of glasses, and it makes me depressed. On the other hand, I collect the bottles quite briefly and not with so much enthusiasm as I dedicate myself to the glasses."
Part of the collection is also openers, pads, and tablecloths, so Minić's hobby is "a kind of culture of beer production and consumption."
The idea that this year's "Korifej" is enriched with the "Beer Museum" came from Zoran Rakočević, one of the founders of the festival. Minić says they are exposed and thanks to everyone who participated in the collection, and the merit belongs to the volunteers of "Korifej" who had no easy task of arranging and washing glasses and bottles.
Beer has been consumed for 8,000 years, and the collector from Kolasin remembers how the beer was drunk by the Babylonians, the Sumerians, the Celtic, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Slovenes... and deserved a place in the songs and laws. In the Finnish epic "Kalevala", he says, 200 pages of stories are about the Genesis and about twice as many pages about the beer. What must all be contained in that alcoholic beverage is also specified in Hamurabi's law.
Visitors to the "Beer Museum" in Kolasin could learn that craft breweries often have editions dedicated to music. Minić remembers that the Iron Maiden band has its own line of several types of beer. In the collection are also Cabinet Beer Bad Copy and the Herzegovinian Turbo Folk Beer.
Text by Dragana Scepanovic, on August 19th, 2018, read more at Vijesti
