Juhannus. Traditional Finnish Midsummer festivities 🇫🇮🌿🍺 Probably the best time of the year to have Sahti. And I have. Three different Sahtis, as a matter of fact. One commercial and two of our own. Let me start with the most traditional one. It's our own homebrew. Otherwise exactly what the Sahtimaster of the village taught us a year ago but there's a modest boost of caramel malt to the proportion of 2% of the malt bill. The Sahti colors murky, cinnamon brown. No carbonation but a few tawny bubbles show up on the top and disappear rapidly. Strong banana, a powerful punch of caramel and biscuit feature on the nose. Gives a really sweet impression. The caramelly aroma is astonishingly abundant provided it constitutes a very small part of the malt bill. Caramel comes through noticeably also on the tongue. It's somewhat toffee-like actually. Overripe banana, sweet malt, a bit of rye, suggestions of juniper twig and berry and biscuit feature additionally in the taste profile. The package works beautifully in this warm Midsummer afternoon. 🧡🤎🧡 The body is medium. The finish portrays sweet malty, banana-like and caramelly flavors just like before. I associate the caramelly nuance again with toffee — and, yes, I love it. 🧡 Juniper retreats to the background but is not entirely dismissed though. The aftertaste plays Midsummer magic spells for enhanced love life. The mouthfeel is medium-full, soft, even relatively velvety as well as substantially smooth. It's sticky and lip-glueing, yet easily gulpable. It's fascinating how little an amount of caramel malt twists the taste experience strongly caramelly. I'm glad we tried it this way!