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
Chronicling the trials and tribulations of creative homebrewing, one beer at a time.