I know a lot of members here are in Finland so I figured I’d share this event here (sorry for the FB link but that’s all I’ve got). Mika Laitinen (of brewingnordic.com and author of Viking Age Brew) is giving a traditional sahti brewing demo/course on Saturday April 24
Here’s what he wrote on FB about it:
I’m giving a course on brewing sahti and other ancient ales on Saturday, April 26. Bircalaiset organizes the course in Pirkkala and is also open to those who aren’t members of this Iron Age society. It will be a practical one-day hands-on course where people brew their own sahti or ancient ale in small groups. Handling farmhouse yeast such as kveik is a special theme of this course. I have learned a lot of new things about these yeasts in 2024-2025, although I have used Norwegian and Lithuanian farmhouse yeasts since 2015. Of course, you’ll also learn to brew a tasty high-gravity sahti and flavor it with juniper, hops, and other ancient beer herbs.
I was once gifted a bottle of homemade sahti and it was very good. I’m still a bit hazy on what makes sahti sahti*, but I have since learned a lot about traditional and alternative brewing methods from a short stint in Fiskarin Panimo (Fiskars Brewery) in Fiskars. If you have the chance to get a guided tour, do it. If you get the chance to drink some of their beers/brews from the tap, do it.
One thing I learned is that yeasts are everywhere, and there’s different types obviously. You can try to catch strands in the wild (e.g. from the meadow behind the brewery) and cultivate them for later use, or simply brew your beer by leaving the mash outside.
* easily remedied: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahti
