anyone know where to find a recipe for (or some clues for tracking down/constructing) a typical 19th century norwegian farm hand ale?
not a special holiday one, just a one a church or farmhouse would give to farm hands. specifically south central / valdres area. I don’t read or speak norwegian, but if someone knows of a book or website from a society in norwegian, I may be able to get translated. thanks
I can’t recall seeing any recipes specifically from Norway but they must exist somewhere. I know there are gotslandstricka (sp?) recipes floating around but that is Swedish. I’ve seen some other Scandinavian recipe using weizen yeast and juniper but again, not sure those are specifically out of Norway.
I’d say try contacting universities or cultural centers in that area and see if they have any resources they could recommend or anything they could send you. If you pitched a good story why you are looking for it they will probably be more prone to help you out.
I made a Norway spruce beer, but I don’t think that is what you are intending, right?
I
once had a beer
or should I say
it once had me
Isn’t it good?
I still think Paul was actually the walrus
Also the eggman.
Landsrud, go to main homebrewers association page go to directories go to find international breweries enter Norway and there are a bunch of breweries and I’m sure one would help if asked. Also post a recipe if they give you one :).
Www.kinn.no you should try kinn “hesjeøl” … it’s realy good
You could also try www.norbrygg.no its a norwegian home brewer forum
Sahti?
Pils
Dark Munich
Rye
Juniper Branches/berries
First runnings.
Baker’s yeast/bread yeast
hello everyone,
Thanks for all of the replies. I followed VinS’s advice and contacted two breweries from the list
and the kind folks at both Haandbryggeriet and NØGNE Ø replied to my inquiries (almost instantly I might add)
Haandbryggeriet replied that:
“They didn’t make very hoppy or very bitter beers, but they all used Juniper for flavouring. They actually
boiled Juniper branches and used this liquid for sparging the mash, they also placed Juniper branches
in the bottom of the mash tun as a false bottom to hold back the grains when emptying the wort. They also used malt that had some smoky flavour. They used the same yeast for baking and brewing and this for certain had some lactic acid infection if you want to do this historically correct. I think the yeast had some fruity flavours, probably similar to wheat yeasts that we get today.”
They also added that their beer Norwegian Wood just as chumley and ynotbrusum alluded to (either intentionally or by sheer dumb luck) is a recreation of this farmhouse style of traditional ale and as kristianaarstad specifically suggested trying - their Hesjeøl is their recreation of a harvest ale that used to be brewed on the farms.
This response certainly explains why just about every single recipe I’ve found claiming to be a Traditional
Norwegian farmhouse ale or Christmas ale calls for smoked malts and juniper…
NØGNE Ø was a little more conservative in their reply:
“Farm/home brewing in Norway was very fragmented as mountain ranges and fjords made it hard for people to keep in touch with people in other valleys. For that reason there is no one Norwegian brewing tradition, but myriads of them.”
They also suggested - as did kristianaarstad - I try the Norwegian home brew association - Norbrygg. Their forum is http://norbrygg.no/forum/
I will ask around at the forum for more perspectives and maybe even some old recipes if I’m lucky. For now, this has given me much food for thought.
Thanks also for mentioning Sahti, hoser. My first attempt will probably use those very ingredients - one
or two smoked, of course.
I intend to use bread yeast - for better or worse - should be interesting.
Now to research which sort of Juniper to establish in my yard 