Lars Marius Garshol

I was too rushed when I tasted his beer (too much to do), so I couldn't even remember if it had been smoky. Always wanted to try beer from sun-dried malts. Now I have, but I can't remember the taste.

A bowl of wort with kveik immediately after adding to wort. No activity, just lumps of kveik floating on the surface.

A bowl of wort with kveik 20 minutes later with a head formed from fermentation.

Kveik gets to work very quickly. The photos show it immediately after being added to wort and 20 minutes later. The bowl was placed on the rim of the firepit, presumably to keep it nice and warm.
@kornolfest.bsky.social

Screenshot of text reading: "The religious role of beer goes right back to the beginning. The very oldest beer find of all, from present-day Israel 13,000 years ago, was in a cave that was also used as a burial ground. It is thought that the beer was used in funerary ceremonies for the dead. In fact, the oldest beer in Europe, from Spain 6300 years ago, was found in a grave. The oldest beer in Scandinavia, 4800 years ago, was also found in a grave. As late as the early 20th century the connection between beer and the dead was strong enough that Norwegian farmers were still making the malt for their own funeral ales."

Beer and death have a strong connection that runs like a red thread through all of history, right back to the beginning. I wrote this a couple of hours ago:

A like in Norway. In the foreground is a small jetty. On either side of the lake are steep slopes, mostlly covered in trees.

The @kornolfest.bsky.social at the weekend was fascinating. I learned so much. It's a whole new world. Something genuinely different to every other beer festival.
And held in amazingly beautiful place.

The word "hrosta" also occurs in the poetry of Eigil Skallagrimson, where he insults the sea god Ægir (who is also a famous brewer) as "lord of the lauter tun". If you think of the brown, muddy mash in the lauter tun, being lord of it is a good step down from being sea god.

He uses a different type of kiln that he's put a metal chimney into, and he uses birch wood instead of alder, and he's careful about what kind of birch wood. So the smoke character in his beer is not very pronounced. The beer is much paler, too.

Dag: How do you feel about winning the rifle stock? (GRS produces famous riflestocks, coveted by hunters the world over.)

Gunnar: I have.

(He's saying he's already got one.)

That was it. He got the diploma and headed off. If you know him you can tell he looks pleased, but he's not exactly radiant

Dag: Looks like the audience liked your beer?

Gunnar: Guess they did.

Dag: You live in?

Gunnar: Ørsta.

Dag: But you malt in?

Gunnar: At home.

Dag: But the malt kiln is in ... ?

Gunnar: Volda.

Dag: Is that OK? (The towns famously hate each other.)

Gunnar: Maybe not.

...

Gunnar Skare's beer got the most votes from the audience, and thus won the competition. He's a farmer, has his own kveik, and makes his own malt. He's also a remarkably taciturn character, so the attempts by Dag (with mike) to draw him out were not hugely successful. (Next tweet.)

It seems to actually be "surf of the lauter tun" and "swamp of the lauter tun". The word "hrosta" means lauter tun, but I guess translators despair of making people understand that.

In Western Norway they still say "rost" for lauter tun. Heard it used many times this weekend.

Hmmm. I think the brewer's statement is being misinterpreted. What he's saying is that as long as he's alive he'll be coming to the festival -- no other event is going to stop him.

Hmmm. I think the brewer's statement is being misinterpreted. What he's saying is that as long as he's alive he'll be coming to the festival -- no other event is going to stop him.

Last night one of the farmhouse brewers who’s been coming to the festival every year said “if I’m not there next year, you can look for me in the grave.”

Then he repeated it this morning.

That’s the kind of thing you like to hear as festival organizer.

We ran out of food. By the time we discover the food is out, the volunteers have discovered that there are hamburgers belonging to the local soccer team. They called the soccer team, got permission to sell the burgers, then started doing it. Zero fuss.

As I’m walking back from the festival the sheep are working overtime.

Yes, there’s lots to say about the festival itself, but I’m too emotional to go into it. Let me just say that we are extremely fortunate in the volunteers that help us, and the audience we have. OMG.

The brewer himself of course wears a captain’s costume. He’s frying the local delicacy svele, which the ferries here are famous for selling. He of course uses the recipe of the old ferry company. And the name of the ship, Svelå, means “the svele”

Was so taken with his stand I forgot to try the beer

One of the home brewers has a stand built like the bridge of a boat. When you come close you can hear the engine sound from loudspeakers

Thank you! Made a note, will return to after the festival

He has two beers. The first one is … strange. Not bad, but weird. The second one is a bit like St Bernardus Abt. Surprisingly very nice.

Here is the mastermind behind the brew, with laminated sheets he uses to explain the idea and how it all works

Here’s @patto1ro.bsky.social looking puzzled because he’s being served beer fermented with mold from traditional cheese

From my walk to @kornolfest.bsky.social this morning. Hornindal is not the worst place to have a beer festival

Managed to get a photo of the head later, as we were eating it

Very blurry photo of who knows what

Kjetil Dale, being from Voss, arrives at @kornolfest.bsky.social with half a smoked sheep’s head.

I’m a bit stressed as organizer so photo did not turn out great

"Monk drinks beer/wine in cellar" seems to be almost a separate genre of painting/drawing, for some reason. Here's a medieval version. I wonder if people were nostalgically dreaming of the cellar monk as living some happy life of plenty with no worries.

Indeed. I guess I should mention I found the painting via @akrennmair.bsky.social's book

A slide titled "Did people drink beer every day", showing a chubby man smiling at his glass of dark beer in happy anticipation

Preparing to do this talk at @kornolfest.bsky.social, about "the Medieval water myth." Really looking forward to that, because the actual truth of this is nothing like what people imagine, whether they believe in the "water myth" or they think it's nonsense.

On what is allegedly the best bar in the Baltics

www.instagram.com/balticsunder...

Oh, I see. The AI said it was banned, but there was no ban. As far as I know, no meaningful restrictions, either. Seems entirely black and white to me.

It’s just computers talking to each other over radio.