Farmhouse ale

A glass of Pihtla koduõlu, a farmhouse ale from Estonia

Farmhouse ale is an ancient European tradition where farmers brewed beer for consumption on the farm from their own grain. Most farmers would brew for Christmas and/or the late summer work, but in areas where they had enough grain farmers would use beer as the everyday drink.

Farmhouse ale has enormous variation in the ingredients and brewing process used, both of which follow ancient local traditions.

Today many microbreweries make beers they market as farmhouse ale, but in most cases the connection with the actual farmhouse brewing tradition is rather tenuous.

In Finland, Estonia, and Lithuania, however, there are commercial farmhouse breweries that brew on the farm according to the ancient traditions. Some of these still have the original farmhouse yeast.

In Belgium and Northern France there are breweries making beers that are thought to derive from beers traditionally brewed on the farms in these areas, but the connection is not well documented, and it's not clear how close the commercial beers are to the farmhouse-brewed originals.


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