Anyone know of any traditional scandinavian recipes

I have done a few extact brews and am looking to get a little crazy with the next one and was thinking of a scandinavian beer. I have read that they have traditionally used juniper, spuce or both. Any ideas would be awesome and much apperciated.

Sahti is a classic Finnish beer. Done the old fashioned way, it's a rye and pale malt grist, bittered with juniper while lautering, and fermented with bread yeast without boiling. I don't know if you want to get that crazy- mad props if you do!

The December 2011 edition of Brew (your own) magazine has a couple recipes and a nice back story for "Gotlandsdricka" -- a traditional Nordic brew that includes Juniper boughs/berries among other ingredients.

I'm way too new to this whole hobby to try this, but my wife and I are big gin and single malt whiskey drinkers (and all around juniper and smoke fans in our libations) and we're definitely intrigued by these.

I'd re-post the recipes here, but I don't know how BYO or the internets would feel about that.

Thanks! I'll have to read more about, those they sound pretty challenging.

If you have a chance, check out a book called "Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers" by Stephen Buhner. It's got several Sahti recipes, a few Gotlandsdricka recipes, and a whole lot of information on ancient brewing techniques from Scandinavia and many other regions. Cool book! If you don't have the time I could probably shoot you one of the recipes.

I've had authentic Sahti when I was in Finland last summer. It's a thick, bready, sweet drink with LOADS of banana esters, sold in cheap looking plastic bottles. At first I didn't like it very much, but once you get used to it it makes for a great summer drink.

Simply googling 'BYO Sahti' will lead to a couple of recipes, I migh try them out myself sometime

Looks like I may have to go check out that book and try one after my dusseldorf altbier is done. Hopefully the alt turn out pretty good i cant find any comercial ones to try anywhere here in kansas city.

Isn't mead associated with Vikings?

Wasn't there a thread last week of someone brewing a traditional nordic beer? I can't think of any clue words to search for it. Did anyone participate in the thread that has it on their subscriber list?

Yes - it was Barleyglogg or something like that. There were 2 threads - one with helpful responses and one with us kinda jokin around.

ChessRockwell said:

If you have a chance, check out a book called "Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers" by Stephen Buhner. It's got several Sahti recipes, a few Gotlandsdricka recipes, and a whole lot of information on ancient brewing techniques from Scandinavia and many other regions. Cool book! If you don't have the time I could probably shoot you one of the recipes.

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Any way that you could shoot me a couple recipes for Sahti or more importantly Gotlandsdricka?

Here's a new ancient ale from DFH that's brewed that way- http://www.nbcnews.com/science/what-was-grog-scientists-analyze-ancient-nordic-drink-2D11926342
And brewing viking beers- http://www.familytreecircles.com/vikings-making-the-brew-19832.html

All i can say if you are going to use spruce is be careful

As I understand it,you only use the new,baby tips in brewing. They're not old enough yet to contain alkoloids.

unionrdr said:

As I understand it,you only use the new,baby tips in brewing. They're not old enough yet to contain alkoloids.

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from my limited experience with spruce ..yes only use the new baby tips...but i personally do not like spuce brews nor do i have a great deal of experience with them so hopefully someone can be more helpful..one thing i can say is dont use alot that stuff is strong..good luck

Yeah,a little goes a long way. Read the recipes first to get an idea of how much is good/safe to use.

The Jester King Brewery in Austin makes a Gotlandsdricka. Here's a clone recipe for that:

http://beerandwinejournal.com/gotlandsdricka-clone/

I have a .pdf of the book "Brewing and Beer Traditions in Norway," by Odd Nordland (1969), but it doesn't list any recipes. I may try to come up with one or more someday, though, based on his descriptions of how Norwegian farmers malted their own grains and brewed the beers.


Chris Colby
Editor
beerandwinejournal.com

VikingChrisColby said:

The Jester King Brewery in Austin makes a Gotlandsdricka. Here's a clone recipe for that:

http://beerandwinejournal.com/gotlandsdricka-clone/

I have a .pdf of the book "Brewing and Beer Traditions in Norway," by Odd Nordland (1969), but it doesn't list any recipes. I may try to come up with one or more someday, though, based on his descriptions of how Norwegian farmers malted their own grains and brewed the beers.


Chris Colby
Editor
beerandwinejournal.com

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HI, there's a Facebook group you can join if you want to earn about Norwegian brewing traditions. It's called kveik, which is a Norwegian dialect word for yeast, specifically the traditional farmhouse yeasts that have been passed down through generations and are still in use in Norway. You can have kveik sent to you if you like.

Chris - any chance I can have a copy of that Odd Nordland pdf?