Sahti

Within Finland, sahti has differing characteristics depending on which part of the country it is from. It is often known as Tavastian beer from Häme (well-known sahti areas, such as Sysmä, Joutsa, Kuhmoinen and Lammi, are in Häme) but it is also made in Finland Proper and some parts of Central Finland. A farmhouse ale that in some cases is similar is brewed on the Swedish island of Gotland (known as Gotlandsdricka). An even closer relative in terms of flavour is a farmhouse ale known as "Koduõlu" or "Taluõlu", brewed on the Estonian islands in the Baltic. Every year the Finnish sahti brewing championship is held on the first weekend in August.[3]

Finnish sahti has Protected Geographical Status in Europe.[4] In the United States, sahti has been the subject of recent interest by homebrewers and microbreweries; in 2008, Dogfish Head Brewery released a beer called Sah'tea, a collaboration with Finnish brewer Juha Ikonen, that was supposedly a hybrid of traditional Sahti and Chai tea.[5] New Belgium Brewing Company of Colorado is now also brewing a beer they describe as sahti.[6] Samuel Adams also claims to brew a Sahti called "Norse Legend", and Off Color Brewing from Chicago has recently begun producing a sahti called "Bare Bear". Parallel 49 in Vancouver, BC released their "Sahti Claus" for Winter 2013. The Elysian Brewing Co. in Seattle, WA has produced a Sahti-style beer with an addition of pumpkin named "Kurpitsahti" or pumpkin sahti, for their Great Pumpkin Beer Festival. It has been brewed by Polish brewery Pinta under the name "Koniec Świata", which means "The End of the World".

Modern craft beer versions of sahti can be somewhat removed from the original style, because brewers may use more hops, might not use juniper twigs, could introduce more carbonation, boil the wort, and may not use Finnish baking yeast.

Traditionally, the most common sahti brewing process is using a long step infusion mash that may last up to six hours, after which the wort is lautered through the kuurna. Unlike most beers, traditional sahti wort goes straight from the lauter tun to the fermenter without boiling. This increases the chances of infection by lactic bacteria somewhat, and the very low usage of hops also tends to make it keep poorly.

However, this is only one of several brewing processes that have traditionally been used. Sahti has also been brewed as a stone beer, with infusion mashing, with variants of decoction mashing, by boiling the mash in the kettle, and so on. Some regions of Finland have called their farmhouse ale taari, and in these areas different brewing processes appear to have been used, such as fermenting in the mash, and baking the wet malts in bread-like shapes before lautering.[2]

• Finnish beverages