Keptinis – Baked Ale

Baked Ale: A joint venture by Dundulis brewers and Birzu Duona bakers

Beer brewing and bread baking are some of the oldest crafts emerged at the dawn of our civilization. It is really difficult to tell which craft of the two is older, but it is known that the oldest written beer recipe mentions making beer from malt bread loaves. As early as 1800 B.C., Sumerians had described the process of beer brewing in the hymn to their beer Goddess Ninkasi: It instructs to mix malt bread “bappir” with honey and herbs.

Eventually, this method of beer brewing became widespread throughout entire Europe. As of today, the residues of the oldest known fermented malt brew in Europe have been found in a clay amphora in Germany, near Kulmbach. Dated 1,000 B.C., these fragments of beer witness that the drink was made from the baked wheat bread.

The oldest method of beer brewing has been passed from generation to generation and it has survived to this day in Lithuania. You can still find an old village brewer In the vicinity of Anyksciai, Kupiskis, and Zarasai,  who will tell you how to brew baked ale and he will probably tell you that you have not had  tasted any tastier beer whatsoever, thus one should “love (treat) others with baked beer only”. It is very sad, but the tradition of baked ale brewing is beginning to disappear, since it’s been passed upon fewer descendants nowadays.

Dundulis brewers and Birzu Duona bakers shook hands to reconstruct the oldest method of beer brewing with an aim to revive the tradition of making baked ale in Lithuania. More than 500 well-roasted barley and rye malt bread loaves had been baked in hot Birzu Duona ovens. The still-hot loaves have been transported to the Dundulis brewery which is in close neighborhood. Here the malt loaves were crushed and mashed, the wort was lautered and the beer was brewed.

Although this way of beer brewing is difficult to control, to our surprise, our expectations just came true. The beer got a rich reddish color. The caramelized and toasted malt have been responsible for the color and they highlighted the aroma of freshly baked bread reminiscent of the taste of malt. Here, the sweet maltiness intertwines with the very light sour characteristic of the rye grains and the subtle bitterness of the hops. It’s calm and quiet, perhaps a somewhat sentimental sunset in the plains.