I’ve talked about farmhouse ales before and how they’re one of my favorite styles, but I’m not sure if I’ve explained why I love them so. In short: they’re magical.✨
The farmhouse style is really only defined by one ingredient: yeast. A farmhouse ale can feature any herb, spice, grain, or adjunct in the known world but there’s only one type of yeast you can use: and that’s the yeast in your farmhouse! 🏡🧪
Now you can’t ferment a beer without yeast, but we’ve been fermenting beer far longer than we’ve known what yeast is. Something we brewing humanity figured out awhile ago is that the wood and various porous surfaces of the places we brew must be what makes the beer unique. 🪵
Most famously, traditional Norwegian farmhouse brewers would have these intricate wooden rings called Kveik Rings that they would leave in the unfermented wort. As the yeast naturally found in the area ferments and multiplies it imbeds itself into the wood, ensuring that when the ring was added to future batches of beer they would have a healthy and quick start to fermentation. 🧙♂️🔁
These days, yeast scientists have isolated many of these unique Kveik strains so we can brew with them just like any other yeast. There are hundreds of different Kveik strains collected from farmhouses all across Norway—each with its own flavor personality, from sweet caramel to pineapple 🍍, toasted walnut 🌰, and even crisp lager-like profiles. 🍺
Another modern twist on this ancient magic? Open fermentation vessels (often koelschips) placed in wooden rooms. As each batch ferments, it throws yeast and bacteria into the air, embedding those wild microbes into the walls. Over time, the room itself becomes part of the brewing process—speeding up fermentation and producing those delightfully strange, funky, and beautiful flavors that define farmhouse ales.
That’s the charm. That’s the mystery. And that’s why farmhouse ales are some of the tastiest and most interesting beer styles around—and why I love them so! 😍