Traditional Nordic Style Beer

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Arneba28

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I am looking for information, anything, on traditional nordics beer styles. Everytime I search for nordic beers they give me "Nogne O" I beer from Norway but not a traditional nordic style.
Everything I have seen is that this is very similar to a dark european lager but I cant find anything that tells what the differentiation is between a Nordic style and a dark european lager.
 
Yeah I have seen finnish sahti and it sounds more like a grog. Anyone. All you michigan people, you should all know a norwegian. Christ michigan was founded by norwegians. I am amazed no one knows anything about this.
 
Try a Baltic Porter. Not Norwegian I know, but general ballpark. The only other Nordic beer that I am aware of is made from fermenting potatoes and such and is called VODKA :)
 
All you michigan people, you should all know a norwegian. Christ michigan was founded by norwegians. I am amazed no one knows anything about this.

Sorry but my family didnt move to Mich. untill 1851, and they came from NY. & S.Dakota. so I dont know any norwegians.Theres alot of Amish though. :mug:
 
traditional does not always mean "good". :) Sometimes it does mean grog.
 
I did some googling and came up with some links:

As obscure as it is we have this page. A guy who collects Nordic Beer coasters. I suppose he might have some information on Nordic Beer.
http://home.online.no/~svohauge/beermats.htm

Another website just contains links for Nordic Breweries. Maybe after following some of the links there will be more information:
http://ohhh.myhead.org/links.html#NOR

Wish I knew more. Hopefully the links help
 
I can see it coming something close to the story of the Picts and their Heather Ale.
 
I did a little looking around and found something by Michael Jackson that was interesting reading.
While not precisely answering your question it threw out a few ingredients.

Link
 
Awesome!! The Indians were Norwegian??!! I didn't know that!!! :rockin::D

Yeah you didnt know that?. lol Yeah ok, first, white people hows that.

I looked on wiki and for some reason never saw this page. :confused: but that was exactly what I was looking for.
 
My wife is Norwegian and I've been over to visit her family many times. For the most part, the "øl" of choice are pilsners. CB/Kristiansand Bryggery, Ringness and Carlsberg are my usual pub orders. The drink of all Norwegian drinks is Line Aquavit. Nice caraway spiced potato based liquor.
 
My Swedish in-laws who were at my house this past weekend making potato sausage seemed to enjoy my pale ale, and my stout. ;)
The sahti that Kuhnhenn Brewing Co had at the summer beer fest was quite tasty, I don't know how close it was to the historic recipe thou.
 
My Swedish in-laws who were at my house this past weekend making potato sausage seemed to enjoy my pale ale, and my stout. ;)
The sahti that Kuhnhenn Brewing Co had at the summer beer fest was quite tasty, I don't know how close it was to the historic recipe thou.

You're making Korv already! Awesome! My family makes Korv only once a year for Christmas but man is that stuff delicious. I crave it all year! :ban:
 
Arneba28,

Just reading along and saw your request for 'Nordic' brew info.
You may never see this seeins-how it has been 6 months since your post.
But here is two links to 'Nordic brewing stuff' emailed to me
here in N. Texas, by 'Mein Freund Donar' over in the 'old country', Deutschland.



Ranger,

After you learn more German, you can read up on ancient Nordic methods of Knife-Making. Here are 2 links:

messer-werkzeuge.de

nordisches-handwerk.de

You might find them fun & helpful in learning German.

Opps,

not brewing but knifemaking.

Sorry {never mind}


J. Knife
 
Hey, Norwegian here:
The nordic beerstyles are usually pilsner-lagers, a bit darker and more heavy than the American lagers. Examples:
Hansa (Bergen, Norway)
Dahls (Trondheim, Norway)
Ringnes (Oslo, Norway)
Lapin Kulta (Finland)

Traditional Norwegian beer is top-fermented, and usually contains juniper-bark/ berries. But these vary quite alot in style, depending on wich part of the country the beer was brewed. As far as I know there are only a couple of breweries here who make them, but many farmers make the traditional beer.

Nogne O (meaning "Naked Island") makes only top-fermented beers. They use high quality ingredients, and are ranked as one of the best breweries of its kind in Scandinavia.
 
It makes sense that beer wasn't a big Scando thing prior to the industrial age.

Historically, beer comes from places that can produce a surplus of grain.
 
Hey, Norwegian here:
The nordic beerstyles are usually pilsner-lagers, a bit darker and more heavy than the American lagers. Examples:
Hansa (Bergen, Norway)
Dahls (Trondheim, Norway)
Ringnes (Oslo, Norway)
Lapin Kulta (Finland)

No CB? :(

CB er godt!

200px-Christiansands_pils.jpg
 
No CB? :(

CB er godt!

200px-Christiansands_pils.jpg

Actually and on a general basis, CB isn't highly regarded here, except for the inhabitants of the city of Kristiansand, where it is brewed. In Norway, beer is like a football-team to most people, and brings out local patriotism.

Honestly, I think most Norwegian lagers taste just about the same. Just some minor differences in texture, malt and hop-character.
 
It makes sense that beer wasn't a big Scando thing prior to the industrial age.

Historically, beer comes from places that can produce a surplus of grain.

Yes, I've heard from several senior citizens here that making beer at home was generally "frowned upon" well into the 70s. The barley had a more valuable role than beer.

Still, my grandfather malted his own barley and made traditional beer until he died.
 
Actually and on a general basis, CB isn't highly regarded here, except for the inhabitants of the city of Kristiansand, where it is brewed. In Norway, beer is like a football-team to most people, and brings out local patriotism.

Perhaps that's why I like it so much. ;) I spend most of my vacation time in Søgne. :)

Æ Æ Start Fan!

Skol! :mug:
 
Historically, beer comes from places that can produce a surplus of grain.

Like Sweden, Finland and Denmark? Beer was a "big thing" prior to the industrial age.
Why ? You cant move your army without beer. (Hell, you could not travel at all.)
And Sweden used to be a superpower you know. (Yes, it's pretty funny when you think about it.) Drinking from a well was punished by death, no exeptions.

Unfortunately the styles that was brewed have been lost to time. The only remnant afaik is sahti.
A more recent classic swedish beer is Sweet Porter.

faber you might want to read up on scandinavia and beer in general, you'd be surprised.
 
Like Sweden, Finland and Denmark? Beer was a "big thing" prior to the industrial age.
Why ? You cant move your army without beer. (Hell, you could not travel at all.)
And Sweden used to be a superpower you know. (Yes, it's pretty funny when you think about it.) Drinking from a well was punished by death, no exeptions.

Unfortunately the styles that was brewed have been lost to time. The only remnant afaik is sahti.
A more recent classic swedish beer is Sweet Porter.

faber you might want to read up on scandinavia and beer in general, you'd be surprised.

I studied Old Norse in grad school (among other things). Pretty cool stuff.

There was something called "ol", and its composition/recipe is completely unknown. Attempts to recreate it are based on analogy to other early medieval ales from northern England or Ireland--Vikings were great assimilators, when they found something they liked. It's very likely that Scandinavian Norsemen got their ale from Norse communities in these places. We also know that farming in (early) medieval Scandinavia was pretty poor (one of the reasons they kept building trade empires, whether other peoples liked it or not ;)) Not a lot of extra grain of any kind lying around, if any in those days.

And on back-analogy from Scandinavian farmhouse ales, ancient "ol" probably had a lot of assorted berries and leaves in its recipe, tasting more like barley tea with acrid berries and vegetal bitterness: an acquired taste! Yet, like beers anywhere, it preserved nutritional value over the winter in a form easy to store and ship. But archaeologists haven't found any definitive proof of what Norse ale would have been, and there is nothing specific in the literary record. (Unless something's been found in the last few years...). We know they imported mead, too.

Yup, Sweden used to be a superpower up till about two hundred years ago... not hard to believe! It was the legacy of the Norse/Viking states that coalesced into a kingdom. That trade empire that brought in more grain/barley and up-to-date brewing practices, AFAIK (though, honestly, my knowledge of history after AD 1100 is not so good).

If you have a ref about the evolution of post-Viking Scando-beers, I'd love to read about it.:mug:
 
K, feel i need to set one thing straight here.. Norway used to be poor. Sweden, Denmark and Finland have never had a problem with the grain supply. We have plenty of fertile lands.

I should know i live right smack in the cradle of sweden. My hometown is well over 1000 years old. (Thats as far as the written documentation go) Hell we used to dig up everything from bronze weapons to flint axes in the fields at home.

Regarding what was in the beer... Juniper berries is a god guess its a very traditional spice that is easy to get a hold of (and keeps well) in most parts of the country. And i can imagine it going well in a sweet beer. There are a few brewers here who use spruce as a spice, they tell me it goes over well with most people.
 
And you can have that intra-Scandinavian debate with someone from Norway.

Archaeologists have yet to recover any evidence of (early) medieval beer from anywhere in Scandinavia, and organics survive oddly well in the soil there (as well as the inorganics). But there is abundant evidence of trade.

Since ale is mentioned in the literature, in accounts of travel, the conclusion is pretty clear...

And, yes, there is ample arable land in Sweden, but in the Viking period the knowledge and techniques of farming were poor, relative to, say, the Mediterranean basin, or other parts of Continental Europe. Until they brought that knowledge back through extended trade, their knowledge of ale was probably limited to trade and consumption.

I grew up in Europe, too, and went to a school that was over a thousand years old. It wasn't uncommon to find bits of old rubbish in the ground. (I once found a handful of Roman coins.) Never did find an ancient brewery, though ;)
 
My understanding is that, before hops came into vouge, beers from the region often used Creeping Charlie, or Alehoof, as a flavoring and to help clarify the beer. I've wondered about giving it a try, as my yard has plenty. :cross: However, I haven't been able to find any information on how Creeping Charlie should be used in brewing.
 
A buddy of mine is of Norwegian descent and it'd be fun to brew a traditional brew for him. Seems like there's not any recipes out there though??
 
I would imagine that early skandinavisk alcohols were made with potato starches, berries, and herbs. For some reason the use of potato starch seems to be very overlooked and there might be a reason for this that I am unaware of. I think it's probable that there were vegetable additions as well.

Nordic and upper-Euro cultures fed predomnantly on animal meats and bi-products that were largely from domesticated or kept stock. A lot of freshwater fish and shellfish are assumed to have been dietary staples because of their availability and great nutrition. However, there is still enough evidence of agricultural implement to conclude that cereal grains (rye, oats, barley) were in fact cultivated as well as vegetables such as carrots and the like, onion, leek and garlic varieties, mushrooms, beats, peas, legumes, cabbage and local leaves for salads. Berry and fruit use was arguably extensive due to the relative abundance and ease of which it was to dry, pickle, and preserve alongside meats and seafood. It is assumed that seaweeds were also a dietary element and there is an ale called Kelpie that is supposed to mimic an old-world Scottish recipe. There's no reason to believe that techniques were not shared between the sometimes trading and sometimes forcefully integrated Scotland and Norway.

So I would assume that potato starches and various grains would likely have made heavier-bodied, sweet and maybe sour gruit ales. I would find it likely that a dominant strain of yeast came from a specific berry which could have initiated the fermentation process. Perhaps seaweed also contributed to the palette as it was commonly used to fertilize vegetation in Scotland (Kelpie).

As far as the gruit and bittering aspects go, your guess is as good as mine and likely spanned the gamut. Local herbs and spices were abundant; the use and knowledge of their benefits are assumed to be well known. Look at akkevit!

I just did a search on period herbs and came across an archaeological find confirming that hops(!) were a part of the ninth and tenth century viking diet!!

This is getting me inspired. perhaps I will attempt to make an historic viking ale, however speculative! I'm still very new to brewing, though.

Ha det!
Skål!
Eric
 
Cafeviking,

If you brew it, post it! I'd love to see your recipe!

.....
There was significant trade and cross-influence between the British Isles, Scandinavia, and northern Europe. Without a question. So if we adopt a more post-structural approach to the question....there is no traditional beer "recipe" in Scandinavia, but there are traditional approaches to production and consumption. Beer was not a pro forma recipe, but a way of making a beverage that was constructed in situ depending on local ingredients. So what was traditional "Nordic" beer of the Viking period? Perhaps not an exact recipe, but a method. And the literary and archaeological record support this.

There rarely are sites that present direct evidence of a single recipe of a beer, e.g. the tumulus at Gordion. In reality, nothing is truly autochthonous.
 
I would imagine that early skandinavisk alcohols were made with potato starches, berries, and herbs. For some reason the use of potato starch seems to be very overlooked and there might be a reason for this that I am unaware of.

perhaps the reason your looking for is that potatoes were domesticated in the "new" world? not reaching european mainland until the 16th century, not even gaining prominence in england or spain or holland (let alone in scandinavia) until the 18th.
 
Yes, you're right, and I certainly managed to overlook the history of potatoes. I think I even watched a documentary on the topic this summer too. No excuse!

There would have been a few available sources for starches and carbohydrates in beets (sea beets?), other tuberous vegetables and even grasses (other than barley, rye, wheat, oats, etc) that contained sweet starches and sugars. Although my line of thinking was along the availability and quantity of potatoes and I'm not sure if other tubers would have been of sufficient abundance to be functional.
 
Yes, you're right, and I certainly managed to overlook the history of potatoes. I think I even watched a documentary on the topic this summer too. No excuse!

There would have been a few available sources for starches and carbohydrates in beets (sea beets?), other tuberous vegetables and even grasses (other than barley, rye, wheat, oats, etc) that contained sweet starches and sugars. Although my line of thinking was along the availability and quantity of potatoes and I'm not sure if other tubers would have been of sufficient abundance to be functional.

Cafeviking,

Are you simply looking for a way to make beer with what is available in Scandinavia?

Or are you looking for how Viking-period ales were made?

Two different things.
 
looks like this thread was dug up however for the OP,

Try Randy Moshers Radical Brewing. I do not have it in front of me at the moment but I believe he has some info on tradtional Nordic brews. Possibly a "recipe" of sorts but at least some info to get you going.
 
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