Brew #3: Voss

Dag Jørgensen warming his hands in Kjetil Dale’s brewhouse.

The third brew we will be showing is going to be in Voss, where Dag Jørgensen and Kjetil Dale will be brewing in Kjetil’s old brewhouse.

The beer they’ll be making, a vossaøl is very different from the beers from Hornindal and Stjørdal, because of the long mash, and not least because of the very long caramelizing boil. Just as in Hornindal the brewers in Voss use kveik.

Vossaøl is often grouped with the beers from Hardanger to the south and Sogn to the north into the style called «heimabrygg» (literally: homebrew).

Present for the brewday will be:

  • Dag Jørgensen, professional brewer at Voss Bryggeri.
  • Kjetil Dale, farmhouse brewer and owner of the brewhouse. Also winner of last Christmas’s vossaøl brewing contest in Voss.
  • Ivar Geithung, farmhouse brewer (featured on Chop and Brew a while back).
  • Ivar Husdal, farmhouse brewer.
  • The one and only Sigmund Gjernes.
  • Atle Ove Martinussen, of Western Norway Cultural Academy, responsible for the UNESCO application to give kveik world heritage status.
  • Maybe Rune Midttun, commercial brewer at Voss Fellesbryggeri.

The guys have promised some surprises on the way as well.

The festival board outside Kjetil’s brewhouse in 2019.

Mika Laitinen showing taari brewing

Mika Laitinen will appear in the festival stream to show how Finnish taari was brewed.

Mika is a Finnish author and home-brewer who has written several books on traditional brewing. His most recent is Viking-Age Brew: The Craft of Brewing Sahti Farmhouse Ale.

Taari was a form of farmhouse ale brewed in eastern Finland, using the great Russian-style ovens. It is related to Lithuanian keptinis. Mika will give a demonstration of how it was done at 19:50 Norwegian time.

You’ll just have to join us to find out what this is.

Brew #2: Stjørdal

Roar’s brewhouse, in a 19th century farmhouse.

The second live brew we will be showing is from Stjørdal in central Norway, where Roar Sandodden will be brewing a stjørdalsøl on his farm Alstadberg.

In case you’re not familiar with it, stjørdalsøl is a very different style from the first brew, which will be a Hornindal kornøl. Stjørdalsøl mainly stands out because of the way the locals make their own malt (see below), which is massively smoked with alder wood. The normal yeast to use is standard bread yeast from the shop. Traditionally it was also normal to use juniper and hops, but some people have started skipping one or both.

Present for the brewday will be:

  • Jørn Anderssen, brewmaster and maltster at Klostergården bryggeri.
  • Håvard Beitland, local farmhouse brewer and maltster.
  • Jørund Geving, local farmhouse brewer and maltster. Winner of the brewing championship in 2017.
  • Ivar Vigdenes, mayor and local farmhouse brewer may show up.

Because the malt-making is such an important part of the brewing in Stjørdal we will show not just the brewing, but the guys will also be drying a batch of malts in Roar’s malt kiln at the same time. Roar uses the traditional type of malt kiln known as a «såinn».

The fire lit in Roar’s såinn in 2014. Back then it was completely new. Most likely it’s darker now.

Talk by Martin Thibault

Martin drinking sahti in Hämeenkyrö, Finland.

Martin Thibault has been seeking out farmhouse brewers all over the world for almost one decade now. He writes about his finds on his blog, in American beer magazines, and in French-language books.

Over the years he has visited farmhouse brewers in Lithuania, Norway, Estonia, Finland, Peru, Bolivia, Bhutan, and Ethiopia.

During the festival Martin will give a talk on what he’s found on his travels. The talk will be at 2030, European time.

Beyond Kveik: 3 Unexplored Hotspots for Heirloom Brewing Yeasts

Traditional farmhouse beer cultures thrive to this day, hiding in
plain sight from the Western world. Although their ingredients and
recipes vary from ours, one thing unites these three hotspots with
Norway’s own deeply-rooted brewing culture: they each have
unfathomable quantities of their own heirloom yeast blends.

Brew #1: Hornindal

Festival in 2019, brewing at Odd Seljeset’s house, where this year’s brew in Hornindal will be taking place.

During the festival one of the places we’ll be showing brewing from is Hornindal, where Stig Seljeset and his friends will show how a traditional kornøl from Hornindal is brewed.

For those who don’t know, kornøl from Hornindal is brewed with juniper infusion, fairly pale malts, noble hops, and kveik. It’s a beer where the wort isn’t boiled, a raw ale, which gives it part of its unique character.

Present for the brewday will be:

  • Stig Seljeset, owner of kveik #22 Stalljen.
  • Olav Sverre Gausemel, owner of kveik #18 Gausemel.
  • Lars Andreas Tomasgård, owner of kveik #21 Tomasgard, and winner of the kornøl brewing championship in 2016 and 2019.
  • Odd Seljeset, brother of Stig and owner of the brewhouse.
  • Arve Raftevold, brother of Terje Raftevold.
  • And who knows, more brewers might pop by.

You’ll be able to ask questions of these guys during the festival.

Making juniper infusion during the 2019 festival brewday.

Talk by Mohammed Tawfeeq

Mohammed Tawfeeq, from the Kevin Verstrepen lab at the University of Leuven, will be giving a talk about his research on kveik.

Mohammed is a student at the lab which published the Gallone 2016 paper, showing that brewer’s yeast is divided into two major genetic families, called Beer 1 and Beer 2.

The talk will begin at 1830 European time.

Traditional beers as a source of new yeast biodiversity

While the domestication and divergence of the industrial Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeasts has been heavily studied, little is known about the evolutionary history and the characteristics of the traditional farmhouse beer yeast cultures of Norway, the Baltics, and Russia. In this project, 26 different farmhouse yeast cultures of a total of 1250 strains were characterized and compared to typical ale yeast strains. A representative set of 186 strains was selected and used for phenotypic screens. These strains were characterized and compared with laboratory and industrial strains of Saccharomyces. The phenotypic characterization included fermentation of the variants in around 400 bottles. The fermentation was done in common industrial conditions and kveik conditions. The fermentation performance, as well as its metabolites and the tolerance toward different stressors (temperature, ethanol, sugar and salt) were tested to investigate the diversity of the farmhouse yeasts.

Deltagere til NM i kornøl

Siden folk må sende inn øl på forhånd har vi laget en oversikt over ølene som er kommet inn til konkurransen. Den blir utvidet etter hvert som vi får flere øl. Hvis du lurer på om ølet ditt er kommet fram er det bare å se her.

English: This is a list of the beers that will be participating in the campionship in kornøl brewing. The list will be updated as more beers arrive. The winners will be announced during the festival.

  1. Martin Mæhle. Maltøl med stjørdalsmalt og Saure-kveik.
  2. Ivar Geithung. Heimabrygg (vossaøl) med hjemmelaget malt og kveik.
  3. Espes Bryggeri. Kornøl fra Hornindal med kveik #20 Espe.
  4. Torkjel Austad. Råøl med 10% norsk røykmalt, gjæret med 85% Espe, 5% Gausemel, 5% T. Raftevold og 5% Idun Blå.
  5. Torkjel Austad. Råøl med 15% stjørdalsmalt, #18 Gausemel, 9%.
  6. Kasper Andersen. Råøl med #9 Ebbegarden. 8%.
  7. Jørund Geving. Stjørdalsøl med Idun Blå.
  8. Jørund Geving. Stjørdalsøl med Espe-kveik.
  9. Jørund Geving. Lagret stjørdalsøl med Idun Blå.
  10. Jogeir Svee Halland. Stjørdalsøl.
  11. Jonas Svare. Bleik Norsk Skogsøl, et råøl med einerlåg, pors, granskudd og #9 Ebbegarden.
  12. Sigurd Johan Saure. Kornøl fra Sykkylven, gjæret med #8 Tormodgarden, 12%.
  13. Morgedal Susle- og Ølbryggarlag. Maltøl fra Morgedal.

Foredrag av Sissel Brunstad

Sissel Brunstad kommer til å holde foredrag på festivalen, kl 1500.

English: Sissel Brunstad will be giving a talk at 1500 during the festival, in Norwegian.

Kornøl gjennom alle tider– om ølbrygging på gamlemåten.

Sissel er frå Sykkylven på Sunnmøre, er journalist, sakprosaforfattar og særleg interessert i kulturhistorie. I den siste boka hennar «Norsk ølhistorie – frå Odins skål til i dag» som kom ut i desember 2019, er for første gong den norske gong ølhistoria samla mellom to permar. Brunstad har grave i gamle kjelder og snakka med ølbryggjarar i heile landet som framleis bryggjar på tradisjonelt vis. Ho har sjølv vakse opp og bur i eit kjerneområde for kornøl-tradisjonen, og set fokus på den omfattande prosessen med å bryggje på den tradisjonell måten. Høyr henne fortelje og la deg bli inspirert av kunnskapen, tolmodet, handlaget og stoltheita i ølarven som tradisjonsbryggarar har ført vidare gjennom alle tider, og fram til våre dagar.

The festival board 2020

The festival is formally organized as a «forening», which is strictly non-profit. All the festival’s income goes to arranging the festival, and the board members get no pay, although they do have some of their costs covered.

There have been a couple of changes to the board this year. We’ll start with the new members.

Arve Sundnes

Arve has joined us as accountant, replacing Amund Polden Arnesen. Arve has been a sailor for 37 years, and now works as first mate on a huge crane ship. He loves brewing beer, which he’s done since 1982. He’s also head of the Sogn og Fjordane chapter of the Norwegian home brewing association.

Dag Jørgensen

Dag has joined us as our representative in Voss, the third of the major Norwegian brewing regions. He is brewer and co-founder at Voss Bryggeri, and knows many farmhouse brewers in the Voss region. He also has experience brewing farmhouse ales commercially, and in trying to explain to people what it is.

Lars Marius Garshol

Lars Marius took over as chair after William Holden two years ago. He has written a little about this decision on his blog.

Eirik Hoem

Eirik is a software engineer living in Ørsta, near Hornindal. He joined the board in 2019, and is responsible for the kitchen serving food at the festival.

Gard Severin Mek

Gard is William Holden’s brother. He lives in Ålesund and handles accomodation, the volunteers, and many other odd jobs.

Ståle Raftevold

Ståle works in the offshore oil industry. He lives in Hornindal, where he’s brewed traditional kornøl for several decades. (He’s the brother of Terje Raftevold.) Ståle takes care of setting up the hall for the festival and cleaning up the mess afterwards, as well as innumerable other tasks best handled by a local.

Roar Sandodden

Roar is a freshwater biologist by day, and helps the festival with communications with the commercial breweries and much else. Roar is a farmhouse brewer and maltster in Stjørdal.

Stig Seljeset

Stig comes from Hornindal, and has brewed kornøl since he was old enough to do it. He’s best known as the original owner of kveik #22 Stalljen. He joined the board in 2018, and helps Ståle with local tasks. He’s also responsible for the brewing demonstration held before and after the festival.