THN drink like Vikings for the arrival of ‘Vikings: Season 4 – Part One’

It’s not every day that you get an invite in your inbox challenging you to venture into the heart of London town to ‘brew and drink’ like a viking, but that’s exactly what The Hollywood News found themselves doing earlier on this week.

To coincide with the release on Vikings: Season 4 part one which arrives on Blu-ray and DVD from 24th October, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment threw us aboard a Nordic longship (actually the Essex Street Brewing house just off the Strand) to savour the taste of a classic blend from the 11th century, and even trusted us to brew it ourselves. You see, for vikings, drinking wasn’t just a chance to enjoy a beverage, alcohol was a way of life, and drinking beer specifically was a part of their ancestral lifestyle which had deep cultural and religious significance. Sounds like the mantra and ethos of a normal week in The Hollywood News’ offices to be honest.

Still, we rose to the challenge and thrust ourselves forward and got involved in this age-old ‘religion’. Greeted by a waiting beer, and then guided by our host Vanessa (below), one of only three female brewers in all of London, we embarked on our mission to make an age-old brew that may have been sampled by actual vikings over 1000 years ago.

We’d be lying if we could actually remember all of the ingredients laid out in front of us by Vanessa on the evening, as the beers handed to us as were not the weakest variety (though intensely delicious), but we do recall hops, malt, ginger and various berries which may or may not have been uses during viking times. We even had a crack at cutting them to the very specific size needed to gain actual favour.

Tasked with doing all of the heavy lifting and stirring ourselves, Vanessa guided us through the process using state-of-the-art equipment in this wonderful hidden-gem of a mini-brewery in central London, and within about half-an-hour, we had the beginnings of a special mash. A giant saucepan was our mixing bowl and 30 gallons of 70-degree water was all that we started with. But, in went the malt (3 big bags), the hops, and the other initial ingredients needed as the basis of a quality brew.

The biggest surprise is just how long this process takes. After doing all of the lifting, mixing, and really bloody hard stirring, we had to wait a full hour to get cracking with the next part – time we spent tucking into more paddles of the hard stuff and discovering a bit more about Vikings – the TV drama – the real reason why we were there to be honest…

So Vikings is well into its fourth season now and part one has just about to hit the home formats. The world of the Vikings is brought to life through the journey of
Ragnar Lothbrok, the first Viking to emerge from Norse legend and onto the pages of history – a man on the edge of myth. Season 3 culminated with the extraordinary battle in Paris, where Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) seized victory from the jaws of defeat–but still returns to Kattegat dangerously ill. Thoughts of his death galvanize the forces who seek to succeed him as king, including his wife Queen Aslaug (Alyssa Sutherland) and his oldest son, Bjorn (Alexander Ludwig). Meanwhile, Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) continues power struggles with her calculating, former second in command, Kalf (Ben Robson); Rollo (Clive Standen) betrays his Vikings heritage by remaining in Frankia and Floki (Gustaf Skarsgård) is seized for his brutal actions to the Christian priest Athelstan.

Anyway, back to the beer.

So following that initial hour of waiting, after demolishing a monumental feast fit for any Norse king and polishing off all of the beverages that you can see in the image above (and more), we returned to our mash, which was now ready for the berries, ginger and anything else that was in the near vicinity to contribute to the final taste. This was a process which took all of a few moments. It was then more stirring – which is no easy task after the many glasses of the hard stuff, and then a quick transfer to what is essentially a massive kettle.

Vanessa then gleefully announced that this fine concoction of carefully thought mix would be ready… in three weeks. So yes. More waiting. The great news though, is that while it will be taking three long weeks to reach its proper level of taste-greatness, the folks at the Essex Street Brewery will be serving our blend to the general public. So, best thing to do is steer clear of anything marked with a rogue-ish label randomly hitting the shelf around the 8th of November.

Still, we’re chuffed with our achievement and following four hours plus, knees and arms deep in malt and hops, filling our faces with meat and booze, we decided that we would pat ourselves on the back and reward ourselves with something .

Yes, we had another beer.

Vikings: Season 4 – Part One is available on Blu-ray and DVD from 24^th October, from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.