Today I'm finally brewing one of the more unusual historical beer styles, at least compared to styles I typically brew: Sahti, a traditional farmhouse ale of Finland. Here’s how the 2021 BJCP guidelines describe this historical style:
A sweet, heavy, strong traditional Finnish beer with a rye, juniper, and juniper berry flavor and a strong banana-clove yeast character.
The use of rye doesn’t mean that it should taste like caraway (a common flavor in rye bread). The juniper acts a bit like hops in the balance and flavor, providing a flavor and bitterness counterpoint to the sweet malt. Piney, woody juniper character more common than gin-like berries.
An indigenous traditional style from Finland; a farmhouse tradition for at least 500 years, often brewed for festive occasions like summer weddings, and consumed within a week or two of brewing.
I love that the guidelines specifically say that the use of rye doesn't mean it should taste like caraway. Believe it or not, I've had numerous discussions with other judges and homebrewers that mistakenly associated "spicy" rye character with what's actually caraway in most rye bread.
A friend of mine from my old homebrew club in Utah, Mike Johnson, made a Sahti that won gold on
multiple occasions. I reached out to Mike for tips on replicating this style. I also found a good write up on Craft Beer & Brewing, and tons of great information on Brewing Nordic. I highly recommend Brewing Nordic. It contains an incredible amount of information on traditional Sahti and was invaluable while researching this batch. For my attempt today, I'm kind of mashing all this great info together and hoping it yields a nice drinkable beer and a decent example of the style.
There are a few challenges to trying to brew this style in the U.S. that I wanted to mention:
- First, one of the key ingredients is Tuoppi Kaljamallas, a dark roasted rye malt, isn’t available in the U.S. Fortunately it’s not too difficult to take rye malt and roast it in the oven for a very close substitute.
- Another challenge is the traditional yeast, a bread yeast, is not readily available outside of Finland. I was thinking one of the Kveik farmhouse strains might be a good alternative, but Nordic Brewing says it’s really not. Banana esters are a huge part of the fermentation profile for this beer and a lot of the Kveik strains are fairly clean and/or give you citrus and tropical fruit (but not banana). I'm using WLP300 for banana flavor and aroma. I've only used this yeast once before and that was about 15 years ago so I don't really remember much from that batch. Clove phenolics are another important part but according to my research, should be more restrained than the banana character. I plan to use WLP565 and pitch it about 24 hours after WLP300. WLP565 is notorious for quitting early unless temps are raised quite high. I'm counting on this to ensure the beer doesn't dry out too much.
- Third, the correct varieties of juniper trees don’t grow anywhere near me in Florida. Nordic Brewing mentions that many modern interpretations skip juniper altogether, but I want to include it in my version. I ended up ordering a 4oz pack of juniper leaves from Spruce On Tap. These are still a different variety from what is found in Finland, but I've heard good things about Spruce On Tap's offerings. This recipe only calls for 10 grams, so I’ll have plenty leftover if I decide to brew this again or experiment with juniper in another beer.
- Traditional Sahti is typically raw, never boiled. This means it’s never gotten hot enough to form hot break so lots of proteins carryover to the finished beer. This contributes to body and usually cloudiness in the finished beer. Mike said he usually boils his, same as any other batch of beer. I decided I want to try the raw/no-boil approach, although I am planning on taking the beer up to 170°F to sanitize and hopefully drive off some SMM while maintaining the raw beer character.
- Fermentation is traditionally stopped early by dropping the temperature before fermentation is actually complete. The beer is then stored cold until ready to drink. For my attempt, I plan to enter this beer in one or more competitions so I need it to be stable. I will mash high to create lots of unfermentable sugars with the hopes of it finishing close to 1.034. I’m hoping this along with my yeast selection will eliminate the risk of bottle bombs due to residual sugars in the beer.
- Sahti is usually served still or with low carbonation. I think I’m going to prefer some carbonation, so I’ll probably shoot for something around 1 volume.
Roasting Rye Malt
Enough talk, here's the recipe as I'm brewing it today:
Target OG: 1.097
Target FG: 1.034
IBU: 0
ABV: 8.3%
7.5# Solstice Pilsner
7.5# Weyermann Vienna
4.1# Weyermann Munich I
1.2# Home-roasted Mecca Grade Rimrock Rye malt
Rice hulls, 1-2 handfuls
10g Juniper tips/leaves mixed into the mash
1g BrewTan B (Mash)
80% of one vial of WLP300 Hefeweizen and 20% of one vial of WLP565 Belgian Saison I
Mash at 159°F. Collect about 5.25 gallons in the boil kettle. Bring wort to 170°F and hold for 30 min to sanitize and hopefully drive off some SMM (DMS precursor).
Chill to 68°F. Aerate for 2 min. Pitch WLP300 and wait 24 hours before pitching WLP565.
Allow ferm temp to rise to 74°F in that first 24 hours. After 24 hours, pitch WLP565 and allow temp to rise to 75°F over a day. Maintain 75°F for the duration of primary.
Water Profile
| Target Water Profile | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ca | Mg | Na | SO4 | Cl | HCO3 |
| 55 | 8 | 15 | 40 | 80 | 90 |
To 10 gallons of RO/Distilled Water, add:
- 2.7g Gypsum
- 2.7g Calcium Chloride
- 2.3g Baking Soda
- 3.6g Magnesium Chloride
- 1.0g Pickling Lime
I went with a slightly thicker mash on this brew since I won't be boiling off any water. I also am using my 20 gallon mash tun so that the grain bed wasn't as deep which should help improve efficiency. This was a large grain bill and it just barely overfilled my grain bucket while milling. I probably spilled a couple grams worth of grain onto my garage floor.
First runnings were 1.094, so I definitely won't be hitting the 1.097 target OG. I tend to get right about 83-84% efficiency on most beers, but efficiency is always lower on bigger beers, so I can't say it's unexpected. The color on this beer is amazing; deep amber and clarity is looking good right now. This is likely due to the fact that I recirculate during the entire mash, so the grain bed tends to do a great job of filtering out small particles.
No issues with the remainder of the brew session. OG is showing 1.091 on my refractometer and 1.090 on my Tilt. WLP300 was pitched at 1:30PM @67°F. I decided to pitch the whole vial; my rationale is even 1 vial is under pitching for a 1.091 beer, so I think it will work out fine. I'm planning on pitching WLP565 tomorrow at 1:30PM
| Session Readings | |
|---|---|
| Equipment used | 20 gal MT |
| Strike water volume | 6 gal |
| Strike water temp | 176.4 °F |
| Mash thickness | 1.18 qt/lbs |
| Beginning mash pH | 5.38 |
| Ending mash pH | 5.37 |
| 1st running gravity | 23 (1.094) |
| Volume into BK | 5.25 gal |
| Pre-steep gravity | 22.1 (1.090) |
| Pre--steep pH | 5.40 |
| Post-steep gravity | 22.4 (1.091) |
| Post-steep pH | 5.35 |
| Aeration | 0.5l/min for 2 min |
| Post ferm gravity | x (1.0) |
| Post ferm pH | x |
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