However, as I was strolling through town, listening to the concerts and checking out other museums, I happened to see the museum. It was open and, since it looked more museum-y than bar-y, I decided to just give it a couple of minutes. I strolled through and, part way through the first floor I thought "I wish I had asked if I could take pictures." By the second floor I was thinking "I really wish I had asked if I could take pictures." When I got to the third, and top, floor of the museum, I turned around, went back to the downstairs, found out that I could take pictures, as long as I didn't use flash, and went back through the whole museum, just to take pictures. Since it was dim and I couldn't use flash, the pictures may not show it that well, but it was totally worth it.
They started off with some of the advertising that they had for Jenever, the history of Schiedam's Jenever industry, and the history of this particular distillery.
This is a model of the distillery. (I had typed "tiny model of a distillery" but the larger building was probably five feet tall.) It had lights inside, and little model figures doing work and doing distillery-type things but there was no way I could get pictures of those, so just picture it as a large, detailed, gin-centered, historically accurate (one assumes) doll-house.
They also had several of these wood panels that showed the Jenever-making process as well as some of the related by-products of milling, etc. The panels were really interesting. It looked like they were a combination of different kinds of inlayed wood and ink drawings on the panels. They were very detailed and my wobbly camera didn't really do them justice but you can kind of get a sense of the them.
On the left is a windmill operator supervising the grinding of grain. On the right, I assume, is people brewing alcohol of some kind.
On the left, I don't really know what they were doing but on the right they are baking bread. There were about twenty different panels detailing different parts of different grain-based processes. Notice the details in the wood grain on the tubs or the little bricks in the fireplace. I thought it was quite interesting.
This was where they used to store/brew the Jenever. I don't know if that is what the still use these barrels for but this room smelled very strongly like a brewery.
Jenever is a brand/regional name. It is kind of like champagne--while there are lots of things that people call champagne, there is a copyright on the name and only people in a certain place in France are allowed to call their produce "Champagne". The same is true of Jenever: only Dutch manufacturers (and maybe a couple of places in Germany or Belgium?) are allowed to produce "Jenever".
This is some of the equipment that they used. The little sign says you aren't allowed to smoke. I can't tell for sure what the writing lower down says (it is small and at a weird angle) but I think that it might be a warning against a fire danger ("brandgevaar" means fire) and I suppose that alcohol vapors would be pretty flammable.
One of the most interesting things about the museum was that it included discussions about the peripheral effects of the Jenever industry: it wasn't just about gin.
For instance, copper instruments are necessary for making alcohol (which you probably know if you ever saw a show about moonshiners). Apparently, copper not only doesn't impart unpleasant flavors to the alcohol while it is brewing, it also acts as a catalyst to remove impurities and bad flavors. Who would've thought? As a result, there were a let more folks doing copper (smelting?) work, because of the Jenever industry.
They also had tiny models of the buildings and the distilleries, which included, painted on the glass case in front of the models, diagrams of how they rigged up the distillieries and how they manufactured the alcohol.
They also showed jars, showing the main ingredients/refining process. On the one side, you start with molasses. On the other you start with grains of some kind--rye, corn, wheat, etc. and you end up with lots and lots of alcohol.
The molasses stuff is called Jonge Jenever and is, I think, kind of like vodka. You store it in the freezer and drink it straight. The grain stuff is called Oude Jenever, has more flavor (I am told) and is more like whiskey.
There were three seemingly unrelated industries which got an especially big boost from the Jenever production. The first one was pottery. Apparently a lot of alcohol got sold in pottery jugs. As a result, there was quite a bunch of folks employed almost exclusively by making whiskey jugs of various kinds. Although I will admit that these look a little more decorative than your traditional Appalachian moonshine jugs.
The second group to get a big boost was basket weavers. Apparently it was traditional to package Jenever jugs in woven carrying baskets and there were people who did nothing every day but weave these baskets around those jugs. I thought that was pretty interesting because it was not something that would have ever occured to me.
Also, please note that guy's wooden shoes.
By far the biggest group effected, and to me the most interesting part of the whole museum, was the glass-blowing industry. If you are going to sell all that Jenever, you have to produce vast quantities of glass jugs to sell it in. One of the things they had was a documentary type video from the 1910's or very early 1920's. It had no sound (although they had a prohibition-type jazz music that played along with it) but it showed the glass blowers at work. They showed them blowing demijohns (which, according to Wikipedia vary in size between a carrying capacity of 5-15 gallons) but which were so massive that it took three guys to turn the jug in the mold while one guy blew it out. And they also showed little boys--maybe 8 or 10 years old--making the tiny miniature bottles, where one little boy would blow out the glass in the little mold (less than the size of your hand) that the other little boy would steady on the ground. It was just fascinating.
In the picture on the left of this photo, you can see people blowing glass. You can also see the mold they used (on the left) to shape the balls of molten glass before they put them in the mold. On the right is one of the molds.
On the left is one of the demijohns. On the right is a glass jar in a half of the mold in which it was made, so that you can get an idea of how it works.
They also showed footage of people painting on the gold and paint labels on the jars (each jar used to be hand painted!) or doing the glass etchings that some of the whiskey got, I assume that that was the more expensive kind. The people doing the painting and etching were almost all women. The glass blowers were all men and boys.
There were all kinds of other trades that where affected by the industry, as well. Barrel makers, of course, were in great demand.
As were loggers, both for the wood for the barrels and crates for transportation and to get cork for the corks.
They had a shelf of all of the different kinds of ingredients that they use for flavoring the Jenever. Apparently, the most common flavor is juniper but there all kinds of other things they use, including anise and orange.
This is a shelf that shows all of the different variations of Jenever that you can get.
There was also a very big section on advertising. This extended from the different labels that were used. . .
. . . to the promotional Jenever decanters. I think that the green things are kind of cute.
This is the little elf that was on all of the signs around Schiedam over the festival and is the symbol of the Jenever producers and also kind of of the city.
There were also all kinds of posters. I suppose that it makes sense that a sea-faring nation would find the suggestions of a ship captain to be persuasive. However, it just seems wrong to have a uniformed, presumably on-duty, ship's captain pouring out shots of Jenever.
This is the little elf again, or, I guess, more properly, a gnome. The slogan says "Drink pure gnome."
They also had a little set up that looked like a little living room where you could watch old time-y TV and presumably learn what it felt like to live in the '70s when an evening drink was a big part of the household. See the little cabinet of Jenever beside the TV?
There was also a section on prohibition and anti-alcohol movements.
This one says "Close Schiedam!!"
This one (a kind of art deco devil/ghost standing on a crashed car) says "Alcohol increases the risk of accidents."
This one says "The pub closed!" "Public Health supports the people's choice"
There was one other thing that was pretty interesting at the museum. It was the "Miniaturen Zolder" or the Miniatures Loft.
The museum had shelves, and shelves, and shelves of little miniatures from all over the world.
Just shelves and shelves and shelves.
I assume that these houses are from the Netherlands.
Note the absinthe. This stuff is so toxic (apparently it has a tendency to blind people) that it is only legal in the Netherlands and one other country.
I am assuming that these little whiskey barrels with tartans on them are from Scotland.
I am assuming that this little Nessie with the little tam o'shanter is also from Scotland.
There are also these miniatures from Yorkshire, England.
I tried and tried to get a clear picture of these but, after about 20 photos, I realized that I could not do it. So I added these pictures from e-bay. These were listed for about $20 apiece. If this is an accurate assessment of their value, and if you assume that this is a good estimate of the average value of these little things, then there is quite a lot of money tied up in their miniatures loft.
I assume that these are named after the Bronte sisters which is why I think they are neat.
This is some of the equipment that they used. The little sign says you aren't allowed to smoke. I can't tell for sure what the writing lower down says (it is small and at a weird angle) but I think that it might be a warning against a fire danger ("brandgevaar" means fire) and I suppose that alcohol vapors would be pretty flammable.
For instance, copper instruments are necessary for making alcohol (which you probably know if you ever saw a show about moonshiners). Apparently, copper not only doesn't impart unpleasant flavors to the alcohol while it is brewing, it also acts as a catalyst to remove impurities and bad flavors. Who would've thought? As a result, there were a let more folks doing copper (smelting?) work, because of the Jenever industry.
They also had tiny models of the buildings and the distilleries, which included, painted on the glass case in front of the models, diagrams of how they rigged up the distillieries and how they manufactured the alcohol.
They also showed jars, showing the main ingredients/refining process. On the one side, you start with molasses. On the other you start with grains of some kind--rye, corn, wheat, etc. and you end up with lots and lots of alcohol.
The molasses stuff is called Jonge Jenever and is, I think, kind of like vodka. You store it in the freezer and drink it straight. The grain stuff is called Oude Jenever, has more flavor (I am told) and is more like whiskey.
There were three seemingly unrelated industries which got an especially big boost from the Jenever production. The first one was pottery. Apparently a lot of alcohol got sold in pottery jugs. As a result, there was quite a bunch of folks employed almost exclusively by making whiskey jugs of various kinds. Although I will admit that these look a little more decorative than your traditional Appalachian moonshine jugs.
The second group to get a big boost was basket weavers. Apparently it was traditional to package Jenever jugs in woven carrying baskets and there were people who did nothing every day but weave these baskets around those jugs. I thought that was pretty interesting because it was not something that would have ever occured to me.
Also, please note that guy's wooden shoes.
By far the biggest group effected, and to me the most interesting part of the whole museum, was the glass-blowing industry. If you are going to sell all that Jenever, you have to produce vast quantities of glass jugs to sell it in. One of the things they had was a documentary type video from the 1910's or very early 1920's. It had no sound (although they had a prohibition-type jazz music that played along with it) but it showed the glass blowers at work. They showed them blowing demijohns (which, according to Wikipedia vary in size between a carrying capacity of 5-15 gallons) but which were so massive that it took three guys to turn the jug in the mold while one guy blew it out. And they also showed little boys--maybe 8 or 10 years old--making the tiny miniature bottles, where one little boy would blow out the glass in the little mold (less than the size of your hand) that the other little boy would steady on the ground. It was just fascinating.
In the picture on the left of this photo, you can see people blowing glass. You can also see the mold they used (on the left) to shape the balls of molten glass before they put them in the mold. On the right is one of the molds.
On the left is one of the demijohns. On the right is a glass jar in a half of the mold in which it was made, so that you can get an idea of how it works.
They also showed footage of people painting on the gold and paint labels on the jars (each jar used to be hand painted!) or doing the glass etchings that some of the whiskey got, I assume that that was the more expensive kind. The people doing the painting and etching were almost all women. The glass blowers were all men and boys.
There were all kinds of other trades that where affected by the industry, as well. Barrel makers, of course, were in great demand.
As were loggers, both for the wood for the barrels and crates for transportation and to get cork for the corks.
They had a shelf of all of the different kinds of ingredients that they use for flavoring the Jenever. Apparently, the most common flavor is juniper but there all kinds of other things they use, including anise and orange.
This is a shelf that shows all of the different variations of Jenever that you can get.
There was also a very big section on advertising. This extended from the different labels that were used. . .
. . . to the promotional Jenever decanters. I think that the green things are kind of cute.
This is the little elf that was on all of the signs around Schiedam over the festival and is the symbol of the Jenever producers and also kind of of the city.
There were also all kinds of posters. I suppose that it makes sense that a sea-faring nation would find the suggestions of a ship captain to be persuasive. However, it just seems wrong to have a uniformed, presumably on-duty, ship's captain pouring out shots of Jenever.
This is the little elf again, or, I guess, more properly, a gnome. The slogan says "Drink pure gnome."
Apparently, Jenever also makes excellent medicine.
They also had a little set up that looked like a little living room where you could watch old time-y TV and presumably learn what it felt like to live in the '70s when an evening drink was a big part of the household. See the little cabinet of Jenever beside the TV?
There was also a section on prohibition and anti-alcohol movements.
This one says "Close Schiedam!!"
This one (a kind of art deco devil/ghost standing on a crashed car) says "Alcohol increases the risk of accidents."
This one says "The pub closed!" "Public Health supports the people's choice"
There was one other thing that was pretty interesting at the museum. It was the "Miniaturen Zolder" or the Miniatures Loft.
The museum had shelves, and shelves, and shelves of little miniatures from all over the world.
Just shelves and shelves and shelves.
I assume that these houses are from the Netherlands.
Note the absinthe. This stuff is so toxic (apparently it has a tendency to blind people) that it is only legal in the Netherlands and one other country.
I am assuming that these little whiskey barrels with tartans on them are from Scotland.
I am assuming that this little Nessie with the little tam o'shanter is also from Scotland.
There are also these miniatures from Yorkshire, England.
I tried and tried to get a clear picture of these but, after about 20 photos, I realized that I could not do it. So I added these pictures from e-bay. These were listed for about $20 apiece. If this is an accurate assessment of their value, and if you assume that this is a good estimate of the average value of these little things, then there is quite a lot of money tied up in their miniatures loft.
I assume that these are named after the Bronte sisters which is why I think they are neat.
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