The Finnish bread yeast is fresh, not dry. It's sold in every food store, even the small ones. It's in the cold cabinets, often right next to the milk. It's pretty small and only costs about 20 cents for a package.
It looks like this:
Easiest way to get some to the North American homebrewing crowd is for someone on a business trip to Finland to pick up a pack and bring it back, start to culture it and share it with others. It probably wouldn't make it past customs in the mail since it's fresh and not dry, but in personal luggage I doubt that it would be an issue.
By the way, "sahti" is prounced with a non-silent H (it's made by forcing your exhale to produce a sound against the top back of your upper palate). This sound doesn't belong to the native english speaker's tongue. And in finnish, the first syllable always receives the stress.
I'm glad you get such enjoyment from this style. The half rye, half pils version sounds really good.
I believe the Finnish bread yeast is supposed to add something special, from what I've read about traditional recipes.
I will be heading to Finland next week for 3.5 weeks to visit family and will be getting some Sahti when I am there after reading about it. Not sure where to find juniper in Texas or if it native around here, but will consider this later. May grab some of the yeast to throw in my suitcase on the way back.
Staying in or near Helsinki?
My mom lives right by Itakeskus.
I will be heading to Finland next week for 3.5 weeks to visit family and will be getting some Sahti when I am there after reading about it. Not sure where to find juniper in Texas or if it native around here, but will consider this later. May grab some of the yeast to throw in my suitcase on the way back.
Anyway, bottled sahti can, by law, only be sold for carry-out in Alko because it's over 4.7% ABV. They keep it on hand at Alko stores in very, very small quantities inside of a special refrigerator (not even every Alko carries it). The reason being because it's unpasteurised, live beer and can only be kept fresh for a few weeks even inside those perfect conditions.
A bottle of sahti would not survive more than a day outside of a refrigerator.
The Alko nearby did not have any. There are a couple of okay beers at the city market nearby, but Karhu, Lapin Kulta, Koff and Olvi are pretty much like drinking water to me now.
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I will have to spend more time downtown when I get back. No one my age that I know to hang out with around here.
What is the best place for brewing equipment in Finland?
So, I'm very interested to brew this, but can you provide me with some more quantitative information on the "Dough-in" and sparge with juniper liquor processes.
How much to use, alittle more fool-proof, detailed explanation of the process, etc. also, I assumed by juniper liquor, you mean Gin?
Thanks for helping a newbie to the world of the Sahti process out alittle!
Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
Thanks for your interest.
First of all, definitely not gin! "Liquor" is a term in the brewing world meaning the water used for the actual product that becomes beer. "Water" is what you use to clean everything. It's colloquial, sorry for the confusion.
I can't access all of my information right now as I'm out of town for work. But this recipe was written up for more experienced brewers wanting to try something new and unusual. When I get a chance I'll improve the original post. For now, look up brewing software like BeerSmith. It will allow you to input recipes and tell you what quantities needed for dough-in (basically mixing the grain into the mash liquor) and other handy data.
If you want to see how a Finnish guy is mahing sahti in his kitchen:
http://www.kotikokki.net/reseptit/nayta/570863/Juhannus Sahti (45l, n. 9% abv)/
I think that in order to make sahti, one first should be able to pronounce sahti. The H is not silent. Try it in google translate, it is pronounced correctly:
https://translate.google.com/#en/fi/sahti
I had a hard time reading that.
I'll take your word for it. I thought the "h" was sort of doubled up. I have heard something like "saw-ha-tee" from a few finlanders around these parts. Of course I cannot get my hands on any proper juniper so what's the difference anyway?
In Finnish we stress first syllable then third etc instead of second like English.
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