Scandinavian Brewing Sticks

[Tenspeed]

Hello folks,

I've been looking into some traditional Scandinavian brewing practices. I've seen the same story over and over again and I'm trying to verify and find more information.

Apparently, Scandinavian families before Pasteur came on the scene passed down 'brewing sticks' from generation to generation. These sticks were used to stir the brew after it had been boiled and cooled, and would thus induce fermentation. I understand that some sticks are still passed down as heirlooms.

So my question is what sort of wood might've been used to do this? This was, if not magic, something very close to magic. These sticks were probably very valuable, since they would have carried each family's proprietary yeast strain. I'd also really like to know how they would be kept between brews, what sort of treatment they would receive, etc.

I know that there is also a Finnish drink called sahti which is brewed using juniper branches. Might this be related? I'm thinking it could be, but juniper doesn't seem like it would produce larger sticks that might be used to stir a large batch of brew. Sahti uses branches with the berries still on them, but modern methods involve packets of baker's yeast.

I'd also be very interested to learn what sort of grains they would use. I guess there was a mini Ice Age for some time during the Middle Ages, so it would very likely have to be a hardy grain that would grow fast, probably barley, which would make sense since this is what the folks down south made laws about not long after.

My goal is eventually to do this, so any input on what I might expect would also be very cool.

If anyone has information or knows where I might find some more info, please let me know. In the meantime I'll continue looking.

 

[ssf]

fascinating. your write-up prompted a little research on my part, which led me to this beer hunter article:

http://www.beerhunter.com/documents/19133-000103.html

seems like the sticks were pretty sticky, so I would think they would be hung somewhere and not wrapped up...

I also came across this interesting PDF: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&...ngIjKH&sig=AHIEtbSB7kG_4_FI55K0kdBKRjpiQ7X5KQ

 

[Tenspeed]

Interesting. From the PDF I've gleaned this:

They use/used s. cerevisiae, but several different strains of it in a single batch. Probably a fairly broad range of malts, since it was done over a fire the roasting would've been uneven at best. The question would be how long they allowed it to age in a sauna after roasting.

I'll probably look up the herbs in this PDF and see what I can source. I'd imagine the juniper berries probably also contributed some of the yeast to the brew, those things are covered in the stuff and I've seen there are a couple threads on this forum about that specific thing.

I've reached out to my family for any information they might have, and that was actually something of a brick wall. Half of my family on my mother's side are Apostolic Lutheran and so drinking is out of the question. My family probably doesn't own a magic stick, then, so I'll have to carve out my own. The woods I'm considering are juniper, since it's used as the flavoring agent and I can probably find a large juniper bush somewhere, and also aspen. The bark of aspen is used in herbal brews for its traditional healing properties, and the wood is used in traditional sahti brewing troughs. The traditions may be somewhat related. Perhaps I'll give both a try and see what happens.

Thank you very much for the links.

 

[fc36]

Subbed...Just got my hands on some ECY and I'm looking to "keep it in the family". Either via the magic stick methodology or I'll be buying a wine barrel.