Sahti: The Original Farmhouse Beer
September 22, 2022
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Sahti: The Original Farmhouse Beer
We joke that the first people to come up with what was widely known as a farmhouse beer must have been pretty brave. Think about it. In its rawest form, a farmhouse beer is a blend of natural ingredients foraged from the land and left to sit gathering whatever the air had to give at that time, ultimately transitioning into alcohol. Are you brave enough to drink that?
The Original Farmhouse Beer
While today the traditional farmhouse ale is no longer made quite like that, it was the drink of choice when in Finland several hundred years ago. And by choice, that was probably just because that was what beer was then.
First brewed in Finland in the 1300s in Finnish homesteads by women – most brewing during that time period was done by women – Sahti is believed to be one of the world’s oldest continuous styles of beer still brewed today.
Traditional Sahti Recipes Were Sacred to Families
Sahti recipes were sacred to the families brewing them and many times each recipe was passed down from the mother to the daughter.
Ingredients were prolific and widely available on the farmlands with some of the most common ingredients being oats, wheat, barley or rye, juniper berries, and twigs. All of which could be harvested on each family’s lands.
When added to the wort – which at that time was never brought to a full boil; it simmered for hours, instead – these ingredients imparted flavor but also acted as preservatives. The mash was then filtered through a trough-like container created from another layer of juniper twigs and rye straws (which adds more juniper flavor) called a kuurna and was quite often a hollowed-out aspen log.
Then it was placed directly into a fermenting vessel.
Think of how well twigs act as a filtration system. They don’t. As a result, traditional sahtis are cloudy, unfiltered, and unpasteurized with a thick viscous mouth-feel.
Brewing Sahti Today
These regional farm beverages of yesteryear were primarily brewed for weddings and special occasions, and it wasn’t until 1987 when the first sahti was brewed commercially by Lammin Sahti in Lammi, Finland.
Since hops weren’t customarily used, current sahti styles typically have a low hop profile along with wild yeast and bacteria still giving it the traditional resiny mouthfeel. But unlike traditional farmhouse ales, sahtis are high in alcohol content and their flavors are probably more redolent of a lambic than a traditional light bodied farmhouse ale.
Little has changed in the past 700 years when it comes to sahtis. However with advanced brewing technology, the equipment and ingredients have matured. Instead of wild fermentation, most brewers now use Finnish bakers yeast. Metal brewing equipment has long since taken the place of wooden pots and instead of traditional malthouses where stones heated the mash, direct heat is utilized.
Some Traditions are Meant to Be Kept
But some brewers still stick to the traditional methods, trying to stay as true as possible to the origin, using wooden pots, wild yeasts, and even going so far as to hollow out the traditional aspen log. Some traditions are meant to be kept.
And if you’re lucky enough, the sahti you’re drinking will be wildly fermented, brewed in wooden pots, heated by stones and served in the traditional two-handled wooden ladle cup called a haarikka.
Although you might have to go to Finland to be that lucky!
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