Christmas Sahti - simply glorious!

Christmas without sahti would be deficient. Sahti belongs to Christmas dinner as well as a pork, or turkey in England. At least in our family.

As Christmas is one of the greatest feast in the whole year, the sahti is made with special care and love.

This year I was lucky. I had four different sahtis. Two were made with hot stones in Hollola. One of the sahtis was made in Kuhmoinen (Middle Finland) in a pot. The fourth was commericially sold in Sysmä (Middle Finland) but not via Alko. It was fermentated at home.

All of these sahtis were either good or very good. Even the commercial one was surprisingly competing with home made sahtis. It is rare. The person who had fermentated the commercial sahti is though sahti expert himself.

Hollola: colour was pretty dark. Taste was full and there was smoke in the odour. Sahti was clear and made as well as it is possible.

Kuhmoinen: colour was very light. In comparison to the lightness of the colour the taste was heavy. Tasty. The brewer told that this sahti was made quickly. He had started the fermentation in higher temperature as usually used. This makes sahti production faster but also the storage time gets shorter. In Christmas time it is not a problem as people gets together and sahti is offered.

Sysmä: colour was very dark, maybe one of the ingredients was rye but the story doesn't tell... The taste was just super. I wish all the best for "Tiinan sahti" - the brewer.

I heard that "Tiinan Sahti" was selling sahti in Sysmä before Chrismas and many, many people bought it. The instructions how to do the fermentation right was given to the clients. In many families this sahti made The Christmas possible.

I also heard that Alko in Sysmä does not have sahti in a selection. Quite surpring as Sysmä is famous of its sahti culture. Obviously local people would buy it, and visitors too. Sysmä doubles its population (5000 inhabitants) in summertime as there is lot of summer cottages. This maybe tells the situation of sahti culture in Sysmä, and in Finland. Sad. But, not the end of the story!