Beer has most probably been brewed in Estonia as long as corn has been grown. Thus one can assume the existence of a beer-like fermented beverage 1000 years BC already. The first written record mentioning beer dates back to 1284, telling about the bishop of Saaremaa Island claiming impost from the peasants in the form of beer.
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Beer was mostly celebrational beverage, but also a beverage of ceremonial sacrifice for the gods. If the grain harvest has been sufficient, everybody tried to make beer for all bigger holidays - St.John's Day, St.Michael's Day, Whitsunday and marriages. Even the poorest farmer tried to brew a cask of beer for Christmas. Brewed around St.Thomas Day the beer had to last all during the Christmas time until New Year and Candlemas. After buying farms out right in the 19th century when the harvests were bigger, beer was made for christening, bees and seasonal works. |
Beer was made of rye, barley, wheat and oats as well. Rye malt was undoubtedly the most wide-spread beer ingredient. To grow malt, high-quality rye was chosen and soaked first in a tub or in free water, then rinsed and spread evenly to sprout for 4-6 days, mixing and soaking it if necessary. Then it was dried and ground in a mill or with a grinding-stone to make coarse flour. According to a tradition, kept alive at the western coast and in the islands until today, malt flour was mixed with hot water and left to brew. Since the end of the 19th century, in mainland Estonia beer was made of oven-roasted malt. From mash vat the mash was poured into filter vat, where a layer of straw or juniper branches was put earlier. There was a hole in the vat, where the wort trickled slowly through into fermentation vat, where it was cooled down to the temperature of fresh warm milk. To make the beer preserve longer, hop water was added. In earlier times marsh rosemary was added to augment the intoxicating properties. Then prefermented yeast was added to the vat. According to different data the fermentation lasted from six hours to two days. The eye was kept on the beer not to let it overheat. Usually the beer was fermented until the foam level started dropping, then the beer was ready for pouring into casks and after a few days one could have a drink already.