Planned for 6 June 2026 at 11:00. Tickets will be available on Tikkio, stay tuned! (click on the text above for more info)

From 11:00 until 19:30 in the evening.
Price for the whole day and invitation to a private gathering, price will be announced shortly.

Traditional Brewing

For several thousand years, beer has been brewed on farms, perhaps all the way back to the very beginning of agriculture. Beer has been a tradition passed down since the Viking Age, and perhaps even longer. Heritage brewing in the Viking House is organized by Hodr Hjørungavåg Viking Site, together with Bjørn Vegard Bjåstad and Arve Eiken Nytun, who will demonstrate how beer was brewed in the old days. In addition, there will be lectures on beer in the Viking Age and on traditional brewing and how it has been practiced.

Set aside a full day.
PROGRAM (Tentative)
Heritage brewing of farmhouse ale

06 June 2026
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11:00 – Welcome
Short introduction to the day and heritage brewing
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Traditional brewing in Sunnmøre – Brewing equipment and ingredients
Bjørn Vegard Bjåstad and Arve Eiken Nytun
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Mashing
See how the malt and juniper infusion are mashed
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Lecture
Archaeologist Arve Eiken Nytun:
Beer in the Viking Age – culture, technology and history.
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Wort tapping + sparging
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Start of boiling the “boiled beer” + hop addition
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Lecture
Arve Eiken Nytun and Bjørn Vegard Bjåstad:
Kveik and Sunnmøre heritage brewing – history, characteristics and the hunt for old kveik strains.
How does heritage beer taste – and what makes it unique?
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Cooling + addition of kveik
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19:30 – Closing
Summary
19:40 – 02:00 Oppskåke!
Private closed gathering

– No other Nordic country has kveik

The beer differs from modern beer styles in that it contains juniper and is most often brewed over an open fire in a copper kettle, in a brewhouse. Traditionally, the beer was served without carbonation in a wooden ale bowl, a drinking vessel with handles decorated with horse heads.
The element that makes the farmhouse brew truly unique is the kveik. Kveik is a brewing yeast that has been used on farms and passed down from generation to generation. Modern DNA analysis now shows that kveik is a unique branch on the family tree of all brewing yeasts in the world.

Today, only a small number of farms on the west coast of Norway – from Hardanger to Sunnmøre – still brew beer with their own kveik.