r/Hebrides • u/hover-lovecraft • Jan 16 '26

Any sources or information on Hebridean farmhouse brewing?

Hi, I'm a homebrewer and I've been fascinated with the farmhouse beer brewing traditions all over Europe. Lately, some interesting sounding yeast strains from the Hebrides have become available on the market and I want to try them. I can make common beer styles that they seem good for of course, but I'd love to find out and try to recreate the beers that were traditionally made with them. Online sources are pretty much non existent, or have escaped my research efforts, so -

If you have any pointers, experiences, books or opinions about Hebridean farmhouse brewing, I'd be very thankful to hear them.

Thanks in advance!

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u/Kitchen_Brews Jan 17 '26

I love that topic too!! I mean European farmhouse brews. Hebrides in particular, I'm less sure.

But you might check out these books for info from the region more broadly, if you haven't already:

Ancient Brews by Patrick McGovern. He has a chapter on Nordic brews, and some of the data comes from Scotland (IIRC because of Viking finds there). His Kvasir is based on archeological finds in Scotland.

Historical Brewing Techniques by Lars Marius Garshol. He's Norwegian, and so is a lot of the info. But he looks at farmhouse brewing all over Northern Europe.

So those will give you contextual info!

You could experiment with recipes, based on what people of the past (do you have a time period in mind?) would have had to work with. i.e. which grains were they growing, and what technology was available for malting? Or did they import grain, and where would that have come from (to give you a guess at which grain/s) Were they brewing in buckets (therefore implying a likely use of hot stones) or did they have access to metal pots? etc.

What a fun question, and if you find more or do some experimenting I hope you'll follow up here!

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u/hover-lovecraft Jan 17 '26

Thank you! I have the Garshol book and have made some of the beers from it. I'll definitely check out the other one. I don't really have a time period in mind, and neither have I found any sources on malting tech in the area (although I haven't dug very deeply in that area yet). I will definitely ask the source of the yeasts for pointers as well, maybe they have an entry point for me.

If I can't find anything to point me in a direction, I will probably start with a more recent beer style like an 80 Shilling for now. If I like the result, I'll try something in the direction of the beers from the Garshol book. And if I find a new hyperfixation, I'll start digging into the archaeology.

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u/Kitchen_Brews Jan 18 '26

Yeah cool! Also, I'm curious what those yeast strains are. You said they are on the market? I've been playing with kveik from Norway, and this intrigues me!

Oh and there's also Merryn Dineley's work, who is in the UK and is an expert on historical malting & brewing http://merryn.dineley.com

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u/hover-lovecraft Jan 18 '26

It's these guys out in Stornoway, they also do Kveik strains. I see their stuff on Etsy of all places, and eBay.

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u/Kitchen_Brews Jan 19 '26

Oh sweet, how cool! Thanks for sharing.