Welcome to sahti blog

Cheers! Sahti is one of the oldest beers in the world. It comes from Finland and it is still brewed, unfortunately only in a small scale. It is not easy to find sahti even in Finland. I wonder if you can enjoy any sahti out of Finland.

Luckily, in some Alkos (liquor stores in Finland) and in some pubs you can buy sahti. And if you are lucky and know people who makes sahti by themselves you probably will have a really good sahti.

Briefly about sahti

Sahti is made of water (high quality in Finland), barley and yeast. Sometimes also rye and/or hop. When brewing traditionally either junipers or straw are used.

Sahti is so called fresh beer. Sahti has to be stored in low temperature (in a fridge temperature)and it will have a high quality only for a month or so. Before drinking the bottle should not be shaked because of the yeast in the bottom of the bottle.

There is few commercial sahti brewers in Finland: Lammin sahti, Joutsan sahti and Finlandia sahti. Their products are sold via Alko, the official liquor store in Finland (monopoly).

Some firms (more than three) brew sahti and sell it legally too. In this case the client has to add the yeast and fermentate the sahti. In other words he/she has to do the last period of the brewing by him-/herself. In this period the alcohol appears to sahti. Sometimes this is too difficult.

The Finnish strict alcohol legistation is blamed to be nearly a sahti killer. I personnally only wish it wasn't so complicated to find sahti. And wish there was more alternatives even for sahtis, too.

Some people knows how to make sahti and brew it by themselves, usually at home (in sauna). It takes for years to learn to do sahti properly. Commonly the know-how runs in families.

In general, there is two ways how to do sahti. It can be done in a large pot and heated there or it can be ripen by using hot stones. At the moment there is one sahti brewer - Hollolan hirvi - which commercially use the stone method. In my family the stone method has been the only method for generations.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Hopefully you enjoy your sahti!

P.S. Comments, ideas etc. are warmly welcomed.