With its earliest written references dating back to 1366 AD, Sahti is a style of beer from Finland that I've been wishing to brew, but was nervous about tackling. Thankfully, I came across Ilkka Sysila's excellent article on brewing the style. It pushed me over the edge, and inspired me to take a stab at brewing this ancient beer. The grain bill for Sahti is quite simple, but also created my first challenge. Pilsner, Munich and Kaljamallas (Finnish Dark Rye) are the typical grains for this style. Where my challenge lay was in finding Kaljamallas. This Finnish malt can be purchased online, but isn't exactly inexpensive. The lowest price I could find was $10 per pound before shipping. As a less expensive alternative, several articles I read suggested using Crystal Rye. However, they all admitted that its flavor is sweeter than the Finnish grain. Rye Before and After Since I wanted a malt as close to Kaljamallas as possible, but didn't want to break the bank to do
Kellerbier, which translates Cellar Beer, is a style that doesn't get a lot of press. It's is an unfiltered lager that is served young rather than after a long maturation period. Fermentation can be as short as one month from brew day to glass, and the beer is often not lagered. None of the breweries near me brew one, and commercial examples are hard to come by. So why not brew your own? Another style that I haven't seen locally is Franconian Rotbier, or Red Beer. So why not brew one of those as well? Since it's Summer, and knowing that my Immersion Pro unfortunately can't get cold enough to lager this time of year anyway, I've decided to combine the two styles into one. The resulting beer is probably closest to what would be considered an Amber Kellerbier. However, it should have a mild sweetness that a "stylistically correct" Kellerbier wouldn't traditionally have. Thankfully, I have no intention of entering a competition with this, so I won