Speaker: Mika Laitinen

Mika Laitinen, one of the world’s best-known writers on farmhouse ale, has been at the festival several times before, and we’re happy to announce that he is coming back this year. He will do a talk on a kind of fermented traditional drink that has largely been forgotten.

The Farmer’s Daily Cereal Drinks

The farmhouse folks of the past in the east drank large amounts of cereal beverages daily. These daily brews involved alcoholic and lactic fermentation, but they weren’t intoxicating. The daily drinks were food for the whole family. Names like kalja, kali, gira, kvass, and taari echo this past. Today, these drinks are rare or have been replaced by more modern sugar-boosted versions. This talk sheds light on the mysteries of old-time daily cereal drinks. Why did the farmers brew them? Are they worth brewing today? What did these drinks taste like? How to brew them yourself?