A revived beer brewing tradition that started back in the 15th century in the Vadstena Abbey area.
Did you know that Vadstena Abbey was home to the largest beer breweries in the Nordic countries during the Middle Ages? Some of the brewery buildings are preserved right in front of the monastery church and archaeological reports show many interesting finds. In spring 2019, we launched our first historical beer, created using ancient literature sources and cultural crops. Let yourself be tempted!
A little history lesson
Vadstena Klosterbryggeri was widely known for its high-quality beer and was the largest brewery in the Nordic countries in the Middle Ages (15th century onwards). It is of course difficult to know what 'high quality' meant in the Middle Ages. What is known is that the water was largely undrinkable due to various contaminants in the form of bacteria from sewage that seeped into the drinking water wells. Just as well to drink beer (and wine). From 85 to 225 people (certainly more) are estimated to have had their fair share of the brew - for the monastic people about 5 liters a day. That's quite a few liters in a year.
Brewing knowledge almost certainly came from other monasteries in Germany. Gnadenberg in Bavaria is mentioned as a possible location (which later became a Birgitta monastery). The people in the monasteries were learned and probably shared knowledge and experience with each other - including the art of brewing beer, which Bavaria was an early adopter of.
Vadstena Klosterbryggeri had its own malting plant, which meant that they could buy unmalted barley from nearby farms in central Sweden. Malt was also purchased, literature sources mainly mention Öland but at times malt was delivered from Södermanland and Östergötland etc.
As far as hops were concerned, in 1442 it was laid down by law that each farm had to cultivate a hop yard with 40 poles, which was increased to 200 poles in 1472. The king wanted his beer and wanted to reduce imports from what was then Germany. Known places from where Sweden imported high quality hops was Braunschweig, however there is no surviving information on what kind of hops grew there - probably Hallertau (in varieties) and/or Saaz which are nowadays referred to as noble hop varieties. The rootstocks that were planted were imported from Germany and several of our Swedishized varieties that can still be found today are almost identical to these German varieties.
Vadstena Klosteröl today
Today, Klosterbryggeriet is a collection of people, all with a great interest in beer and Vadstenabrygden in particular. We want to dig more into history, examine every book, turn over every monastery stone in search of knowledge. Thanks to the home-brewing boom, we have a better chance of finding the right malt and hop varieties. At Warbro Kvarn outside Sköldinge in Sörmland, old crops are malted. In several places in Sweden, several varieties of 'Swedish' hops are now grown for beer production.
We use only Swedish malt from Warbro Kvarn and the noble hop variety Saaz from Bohemia. These ingredients together with the now bacteria-free fine spring water from Lake Vättern (which is a fantastic water to brew beer with) we are close to a historic beer. We will fine-tune the recipe and develop more varieties. In any case, you can be sure that there will be a number of nice beers to enjoy in the future - all with respect for the historical beer craft performed by the lay sisters at the monastery. The beer is brewed by Patric at Fors Brewery in Motala.
In 2020 we got to know a new brewer named Andreas Fejes who runs the brewery Vreta Kloster Brewery where only Belgian-style beers are brewed. Together we have brewed a Belgian blond with fresh notes of citrus that has been named Heliga Birgitta.
Welcome to join us for a taster!
Malt is grain, usually barley, that has been soaked in water and allowed to germinate. The sprouts produce the enzyme amylase, which causes the starch in the malt to be converted into malt sugar when the malt is soaked, as in brewing.
The first documented cultivation of hops was in 736 in Hallertau in present-day Germany, and seems to have been used in beer brewing even then. Hops are mentioned in connection with beer in the early 8th century.
