Spruced Up Homebrew

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2018 issue of Zymurgy Magazine

By Jack Horzempa

Virtually all students in the US learn about European colonization of the Americas. The Spanish were the first, starting in 1492, followed by the French and the English. The first permanent English settlement, Jamestown, was founded in 1607, but more interesting for homebrewers was Plymouth, which was inadvertently established in 1620 when passengers aboard the Mayflower ran out of beer and had to stop early.

“For we could not now take time for further search, our victuals being pretty much spent, especially our beer.” —William Bradford

The Dutch came next, and in 1626, they built Fort Amsterdam in present day Manhattan, which became the beginning of the colony of New Netherland. Next up were immigrants from Sweden, which in the 1600s had an expanding empire, part of which was present day Finland.

One thing the Swedes and Finns had in common with the English was a love of beer. The Finns would have been familiar with an old Nordic beer style called sahti, which was (and still is) brewed using juniper branches…