Planet Of Beer

No wine style as old and prized as Tokay can get by without a colourful legend. So here’s what happened, according to local lore. In the mid 17th century, a noblewoman called Zsuzsanna Lorantfly owned an estate encompassing the entire present-day Tokay region in Slovakia. Her priest, who doubled as her winemaker, postponed the fall harvest in 1650, fearing an attack from the Turks. The priest’s precautions may have saved his grape pickers, but it left his grapes vulnerable to a humidity-loving fungus called botrytis. Some of them succumbed and shrivelled, but the thrifty cleric didn’t discard them. Rather, he had them picked, crushed, and added to the must made from unaffected grapes.

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Bartending began as a trade thousands of years ago. Historical accounts from the time of Julius Caesar show that inns situated along the major transportation routes served wine and provisions to travelers. In Rome, neighborhood taverns were meeting places for locals to enjoy drinking and gossip. There is evidence that even earlier the ancient Greeks had such places of entertainment and refreshment for travelers. No one knows how far back in time the notion of a tavern was first introduced. Initially, perhaps, someone found it profitable to provide his friends or neighbors something to drink in a room somewhere people could comfortably gather and relax or play.

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When it comes to making beer at home, the first thing you need to do is to go out and purchase a very basic home brewing kit. Expect to pay anywhere from $100 to $150 for the kit. To get the brewing underway you will need a number of items. In general, this list includes a stopper, a plastic hose, a brew pot, a primary fermenter, bottle brush, bottle capper (if you choose to use glass bottles), bottles, a bottling bucket and a thermometer. You will also require a variety of household items including a small bowl, saucepan, rubber spatula, oven mitts/pot handlers, and a large mixing spoon that is made of either plastic or stainless steel.

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