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===As an alcoholic drink=== | ===As an alcoholic drink=== | ||
[[File:Sten Stenberg.jpg|thumb|right|Sten Stenberg, Swedish chemistry professor and father of lichen vodka.]] | |||
As early as the mid-1700s, monks in the Ussolka Monastery in Siberia used lichens in place of hops to brew beer, and in the early 19th century, a Frenchman developed a process to turn lichens into alcohol. | |||
In 1867, after an abnormally cold, wet summer in Sweden, harvests failed and no potatoes or grain were available for making vodka. Sten Stenberg, a professor of in chemistry from Stockholm, discovered a way to brew vodka from lichens. He boiled clean, dry lichens with sulfuric acid or nitric acid for 4-5 hours, which turned most of the lichen bulk into glucose. He then neutralized the acid broth with chalk, added a large helping of baker's yeast, distilled the mix, and bottled the brew. | |||
Stenberg established a large distillery, and by 1871, more than 250,000 pounds of reindeer lichens had been brewed into 1,500 gallons of spirits. The industry was short lived, however. By 1884, Swedish distillers had exhausted the lichen supply and once grain harvests returned to their normal levels, consumers lost interest. | |||
==External Links== | ==External Links== | ||