I brewed two rough versions of this sahti recipe over the winter, the only difference each time being the yeast that I used (and any mistakes that I made). The first batch used Mangrove Jacks M42 ale yeast, the second used a sourdough starter made over the course of two weeks with Bioreal fresh organic yeast and some basic bread flour. Each one was clarified with fungal chitosan, although I can’t say I was particularly impressed with the results - it seems to have killed the ability to form a head without really clarifiying it much. Each also got a small amount of priming sugar in the bottle and at least a couple of weeks before drinking (save for a pint for me during the bottling process).
Appearance: Basically identical.
Process: The brewer’s version fermented for two weeks, the baker’s for one. I would have left it for the full two weeks, but it had clearly stopped any significant activity by that point.
Alcohol content: The brewer’s yeast went to about 5%, the baker’s to about 2%
Scent: The juniper is predominant in both, but significantly more present in the baker’s version.
Flavour: The situation with the scent is reversed here, surprisingly, and the brewer’s version has a much bigger presence of that fresh and resinous juniper. tasankovasara on this community described their own experience with baker’s yeast as being banana-like, which I think is a reasonable description. It’s not a powerful presence, but it’s definitely there.
Mouthfeel: I was surprised by how different this was. The baker’s one is far more astringent. Not unpleasantly so, by any means, but significantly more. Additionally, it has done far less with the priming sugar, having only the faintest hint of carbonation. I assume that was simply a case of the yeast not tolerating the level of alcohol and having virtually nothing left to work with on the sugar.
Overall it was a worthwhile experiment, but I think I will keep doing it the non-traditional way with brewer’s yeast. Sorry Finland. I promise not to do it in your country. I would be interested in trying out kveik yeast as a halfway point, though. I used an ale yeast simply because I wouldn’t have been able to keep the demijohns as the higher temperature that kveik wants, so that may have to be a summer project.
For science! Cheers! Looking delicious in both eyes :D
Your brand of fresh / baker’s yeast is clearly a different animal from what I go with. As @[email protected] said, there are more boozy kinds out there. The Finnish standard also goes 10+ % no problem.
I find the sourdough starter concept interesting, how does that go exactly? Making a bread dough, letting yeast do its thing there with carbs from the flour, then putting some of the dough into the fermenter or maybe making a yeast starter with it?
So far I’ve only once brewed with anything other than the fresh yeast: a batch of my dark sahti x stout recipe with wine yeast. That was an opportunity to compare, and indeed the wine yeast produced a markedly more ‘pointy’ taste. The overall vibe of the beer went quite the way toward shop-bought stuff. What I walked away with was a preference for the mellow, soft feel that this fresh yeast produces – one can always get the other option from the shop, after all! It wouldn’t make a bitter or an IPA shine, but certainly my favourite for the two recipes I seem to have gotten stuck on :)
Interesting! I wonder if it’s a side effect of the most common breads in each country? Like rye bread is quite popular in Finland (as I understand it, I’m not Finnish), but it’s a pretty rare specialty product here in the UK, so maybe yeasts that work well with rye just so happen to be good with alcohol too or something like that
one can always get the other option from the shop
Not where I am, sadly! Which is exactly why I started making it myself
I assume that was simply a case of the yeast not tolerating the level of alcohol and having virtually nothing left to work with on the sugar.
Maybe try different baker yeast? I brew mead with baker yeast and it easily goes to 10%-12% ABV
Interesting. Is there a reliable way to figure out which omes are likely to be more tolerant?
Some of the big yeast producers/companies, like Lallemand, have very, very detailed info on their strains, which is posted on their site.
Open source yeast? Amazing.
You had more good out of yours, no one would drink my sahti but me! I had to use eastern red cedar, as juniper was not available in my area. Tasted like Cedar berries smell, which I enjoyed. EDIT: I used 2 (expired but carefully saved) packets of ale yeast after rehydrating them.
To be fair, it was only me that drank mine… but that was always the plan
I love it when a brewin plan comes together.
I like doing these sorts of comparison batches, as it helps me to learn the qualities of the different yeasts. Tho’ I tend in the case of meads, melomels, etc, to use two different but similar yeasts, e.g. EC118 and Premier Cuve’e.
