Mid Summer Festival

The Mid Summer Festival sahti ("stone sahti" from Hollola).

In Finland there is a party called Mid Summer Festival (juhannus). In Lapland the sun shines 24 hours per day. In Southern Finland there is a sunset but it is not really dark by night.

The Mid Summer Festival is a good - and s traditional - reason to brew (laborous) sahti.

Home brewed "stone sahti" from in Hollola. In brewing very hot stones has been used. Sahti is served chilled.

Commerially brewed Tiinan sahti made in Sysmä (home fermentated).

The scenary in Lake Päijänne, Mid Finland. The home of sahti.

Wedding sahti in Kuhmoinen

Wedding is one of the best reasons to brew sahti. Here you can see a special wedding sahti brewed in June 2008 in Kuhmoinen (Mid Finland by lake Päijänne).

The colour is very light as seen and the taste is full, a little bit sweat but not too sweat.

Most probably this sahti would not have a success in a competitions because of the colour. People are so used to darker colour. But I would say this sahti defenitely belongs to the first class. As other beers also sahti has differences with colours.

The second sahti pot in a garden.

Third vice pot in a corner... You can't miss sahti in a good wedding! And you will not run out of it.

In 9thAugust 2008 an annual sahti competition is competed in Kuhmoinen. Go and taste!

http://www.sahti.org/smkilpailu.htm

Sahti is going strong!

The Best Beer of the Year 2008 Lammi's Sahti in Lahti Harbour (Sahtimessi).

At the moment there is nothing but good news! Sahti won an annual competition of the best beer in Finland. There was even more than 150 competitors. Lammi's sahti was the number one!

Second, in May the Urho's Pub in downtown in Helsinki had a sahti week. In practise it was a heaven for sahti lovers. Many alternatives e.g. from Helsinki (! brewer was Esa Mustonen from St. Urho's Pub), Hartola, Joutsa (personally I would rank this as a number one), Pori and Lammi were in a selection. Finlandia Strong from Lammi won the best commercial sahti of the year competition. Unfortunately there had been some problems in making "stone sahti" in Hollola (Hollolan Hirvi) and it was not sold.

http://www.botta.fi/ST-URHO-S-PUB.14.0.html?&L=1

Third, finally you can buy sahti from Alkos (liquer store in Finland) easier than ever. It took some time but now even in Sysmä you can have an excellent, ready made sahti straight from Alko.

Thanks for the media which has noticed the sahti and its beauty!

P.S. In early May I visited Savonlinna . Unfortunately sahti is still unknown in East Finland. Even if there is a Master of Sahti (year 2000) as a brewer, sahti did not include in a selection as nobody buys it. Maybe in summer time...

http://www.panimoravintolahuvila.fi/oluttehdas/sahti_e.php