Beer Styles

What is Koduõlu? It's a top-fermented, unboiled farmhouse beer from the Estonian islands—pale to brownish and almost always cloudy. It smells of juniper and banana, tastes soft and slightly sweet, and carbonates barely at all. It resembles Finnish sahti, but is lighter.

There's no fixed style standard with set numbers for Koduõlu, which is why it doesn't appear in the profile below. Garshol's analysis of old accounts cites roughly 5 to 7.4 percent alcohol, usually toward the higher end, with an original gravity equivalent to about 15 to 16 degrees Plato (1.060 to 1.066). These figures describe historical farmhouse beers, not every beer that carries the name today.

On the mainland, the second defining style is Baltic Porter. It originated around the Baltic Sea and is dark, robust, and rounded. Think of a beer with roasted notes of coffee and chocolate that, despite its strength, never feels harsh. It's related to English porter, but in the Baltic region it's often brewed with bottom-fermenting yeast.

The best-known Estonian example is Öö from Põhjala. The brewery calls it an Imperial Baltic Porter, at 10.5 percent alcohol, and describes it as pitch-black with notes of espresso and toffee. Öö was released in early 2013 as the brewery's first beer. It exceeds the BJCP range for the style, but an Imperial Porter is simply the stronger version of the style.

The difference between the two styles lies in colour, strength, and technique. Koduõlu is made without boiling and without roasted malt; a Baltic Porter requires boiling, roasted malt, and time to mature. One is a beer from the kitchen, the other a beer from the brewhouse.