Lars Marius Garshol

With conjecture based on archaeological findings, here’s a recipe for a mixed grog—in this case, an ale that includes herbs, honey, and fruit—of the sort that well-to-do, Bronze Age Danes might have enjoyed on special occasions and then (literally) taken to their graves.

• Beer Recipe
• Traditional Beer
• Historical Beer

There’s much we don’t know, but the archaeological finds of ancient Nordic beverages point to beer, mead, and wine—and to hybrids of all three—as the status beverages of the rich and powerful.

• Nordic Grog
• Viking Beer
• Beer-Wine Hybrids

From shared breweries to shared tables, the zoigl tradition of northeast Bavaria is unlike anything else in modern brewing or hospitality.

• Zoiglbier
• Zoigl
• Lager

There are many kinds of dark beer around the world, but there’s one that stands out as profoundly different from the others—and it features a deep, caramelized flavor that can only come from a nice, hot oven.

• Keptinis
• Baked Beer
• Lithuania

In centuries past, much of European brewing happened on the farm—and the choice of what to brew was as pragmatic as what to grow. With insights that could inform your next farmhouse ale, Lars Marius Garshol shares some truths about what those farmer-brewers planted, malted, and put into their beers.

• Malt
• Farmhouse Ale
• Traditional Brewing

Based on a description from Norway in the late 18th century, this recipe represents the practicality of local farmers at the time—and the grist is 100 percent oats, which would’ve been malted in a smoky kiln.

• Beer Recipe
• Farmhouse Ale
• Smoked Beer

One of the most industrialized parts of Germany has a surprising farmhouse brewing tradition, but information about it is scarce. Based on interviews with surviving farmhouse brewers, conducted in the 1950s by the Folklore Commission of Westphalia, here’s our attempt at a recipe. We also include some variations in the notes below.

• Beer Recipe
• Farmhouse Ale
• Smoked Beer

Farmhouse brewing was once common across much of Europe, though documentation can be scarce. Here’s what we know about a surprising and little-known rural brewing tradition in northwest Germany.

• Style School
• Farmhouse Ale
• Traditional Ale

Featuring hot stones in the mash, juniper, bog myrtle, and some smoke, this strong farmhouse ale may resemble what the commoners of eastern Norway brewed to celebrate Yule during the Viking Age.

• Beer Recipe
• Farmhouse Ale
• Historical Beer

From the Viking Age to the first Christmases until today, the ancient Yule customs demand the best food and beer you can provide—and it’s not all for the living. So, what did they brew and pour for the spirits and the dead?

• Yule Ale
• Holiday Ale
• Christmas Beer

Technically, kvass isn’t beer—but it’s delicious, fermented, easy to make, and a long-standing tradition in Eastern Europe.

• Kvass
• Style School
• Bread

The idea that “all beer used to be smoky” doesn’t quite hold up, even if smoky malt must have been common in many places. Smokeheads, meanwhile, can tell you another possibility: The beer was smoky because people liked it that way.

• Smoke
• Smoked Beer
• Smoked Malt