Dogfish Head Kvasir

Another selection from the Ancient Ale series that won't be available again until September 2015, so grab what you can if you see it on the shelves at your nearest market.   Using the scientific expertise of biomolecular archaeologist, Dr. Patrick McGovern, they re-created a Scandinavian beer recipe recovered from a drinking vessel found in the tomb of 3,500 year old Danish woman.  The original ingredients included wheat, lingonberries, cranberries, myrica gale, yarrow, honey, and birch syrup.   Before hops were widely used in the beer process, herbs like myrica gale were used across Europe to create the bitter tasting notes.  Prior to grains, the ancient brew masters had to use alternative sources of fermentable sugars.   In this speciality beer, they counteract the honey and syrup with small amounts of hops in this recreation of the original ancient recipe.  Gruit is the name of a herb mixture of myrica gale, yarrow and other various herbs that sometime included nutmeg and ginger that would flavor beer widely starting in the 13th century prior to widespread hop cultivation.  Ironically yarrow was also used to treat battle wounds through the middle ages and is still used today as a tonic or healing herb across North America, Arctic, and Europe.

10% ABV

9.0/10 Scandinavian Spartans

http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/occasional-rarities/kvasir/index.htm