Beermas 2013-2014 – Day 07 – Sahti Claws Finnish Sahti – Parallel 49 Brewing

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I’ve got my father to thank for Today’s interesting brew choice.  I must confess, up until a minute ago, I had never never heard of the Sahti beer style before.  Doing a little research, it appears to be a traditional Finnish top fermented brew containing malted and un-malted grains (barley, rye, wheat, oats) and flavoured with juniper berries.  The beer should have a cloudy appearance and a yeasty banana like flavour.

The beer comes in a 650ml bottle and weighs in at 7.7% alc.vol.

The beer pours a deep garnet with a thumb of head.  Not a lot of activity in the glass.  I’m not getting a big whiff of banana or juniper off of the aroma.

Let’s give it a taste.

Confirmed,  not catching banana here, the carbonation is low, its bitter but doesn’t taste hoppy so perhaps that’s the juniper at work.

The Wikipedia page on the Sahti style had me expecting something different than I got.  Now I find myself wrestling to understand what I’m dealing with.

Nonetheless, putting all that aside, this beer is mellow, mature, and subtlety complex.  It’s a smooth sipping beer that stands on it’s own merits.   I see myself buying this beer again.  Parallel 49 continues to prove they are on of the better micro brewers in BC.

Cheers – see you on Beermas Day 08.  🙂