Happy Midsummer! Stay afloat and enjoy the Midsummer festivities! And good beers, of course! 🌞😎🌿🍺 I'll open this year's midsummer festivities with our own sahti! Is there any other option? Hell, no!! This has now a somewhat different formula: more rye malt than before. The sahti wears a hazy, medium raisin brown gown. No carbonation, just a few bubbles on the top. Then flat still. Attractive rye malt in the scent. A bit of juniper and fermented banana, as well. And graham cracker with a hint of biscuit. The taste is seductive: ample fermented banana, intensive rye malt, juniper twig, biscuit, sweet bun and a suggestion of clove. A lovely sweet encounter. The body is full, not huge but full enough to be called 'full'. The end reduces the level of softness a bit but the component set remains pretty much the same. The mouthfeel is full, soft, smooth, gentle, moderately sticky and lip-glueing. Very traditional. This is GOOOOD!! 😋 Hyvää juhannusta! 🌿🌞🍻

This one has a lucid, deep bronze appearance. A few tiny fawn bubbles float in the sides for a second, then the top is flat still. The scent is restrained: banana is recognizable but not particularly brave. Biscuit, apricot and a whisper of clove finalize the olfactory experience. The taste is fairly pleasant: fermented banana, dried apricot, raw mango, orange peel, sweet biscuit and cereal. Fruitier than I expected though. The body is... light-medium maybe. Not exactly what I wanted it to be but no can do. We need to make adjustments in the process since this seems to be a standard handicap now. Okay, forward! The end doesn't actually deviate from the proven track with the minor exception that alcohol gives a faint signal of itself here. The mouthfeel is light-medium, juicy, traditional, smooth and moderately lip-glueing. Could and should, however, be thicker and fuller to please me.

A third herbed beer this time of our small beer series. The flavoring is marsh woundwort. Not a slightest idea what it tastes like. 😆 The base is the same as that of the two earlier homebrews. Looks translucent copper. Subdued carbonation. The foamy cap is as moderate as that of the other two beers. A floral scent. Faintly sweet-leaning. Biscuit, peach flavored ice tea, apricot, mandarin, waffle and a wink of banana. Interesting. Peach and black tea on the tongue. Floral, weedy. Somewhat fruity, offering especially mandarin, apricot and orange pith. A tweak of graham cracker in the background. The body is light. The fruity sector grows marginally from upfront. The mouthfeel is light, floral, herbal, zesty and tea-like. Also somewhat drying although not actually dry. Easy.

A second homebrew of the Small Beer series. This time the flavor is supposed to come from sea-buckthorn leaf. Relatively cloudy, deep amber is the appearance. Oppressed carbonation, just like it was in the previous Small Beer. A weak lacing is born but, unfortunately, its life proves to be short. The scent is interesting, quite fruity actually. Very difficult to specify. Yellow berries. Sea-buckthorn. Or distant cloudberry. Maybe green gooseberry? And wheat. There's no wheat in the maltbase though. The tastebuds like the sourish fruity cocktail. It's also somewhat floral, now that I realize it. Sea-buckthorn? Maybe. The intensive floral sphere offers something like lady's mantle: lemon zest and pith, green tea, grass, a suggestion of apricot. The supportive foundation is a mix of wheat bread and cracker. The body is thin. Surprising because it's recognizably smaller than that of the large-flowered hemp-nettle edition, yet, the brew itself is the same in these both. One of those inexplicable elements of the beer world? The sensation left in the mouth is thin, floral, herbal, zesty and slightly dry. Difficult to rate — I like the fact that the sea-buckthorn leaf can be spotted, even if remotely. On the other hand, the grassy plus floral side reduces the attractiveness of the beer.

Small Beer time! It means my own homebrew. Made of the second runnings of our Christmas Sahti, always flavored with a Finnish natural herb, berry or plant. I have produced 27 varieties so far and two unflavored ones (I think..., the search function of this app sucks at the moment). Three new editions are awaiting tasting. This is the first one of those three. The herb is this time large-flowered hemp-nettle. Or by its scientific name Galeopsis speciosa. Common on the roadside, fields and meadows. No idea what it tastes like, all I remember from the summer when I picked a small bag of this is that the taste didn't thrill me. But maybe it's a flashback from the summer? The beer looks lucid copper. Like malty. The carbonation is still relatively underdeveloped but, over time, it will gain strength. I apply fairly modest priming sugar nowadays although it prolongs the time needed for carbonation to develop properly. However, if a beer is stored for more than a year – yes, I have a load of homebrews that are one or two years old – the carbonation becomes excessive and the content of the bottle erupts like a volcano when opened. Now, a marginal lacing only. What do I get in the scent? Well, a floral slam. Unsurprisingly. Like a summer morning in a meadow. Not unpleasant but not recognizable either. Malt and biscuit whirl into the floral cocktail. And the taste profile then? Malt, faintly worty as if still modestly unfinished, bread, black tea and grass. That's the package at the moment. A floral touch but much less pronounced than what the fragrance suggests, unidentifiable to me though. The body is light or light minus. Not thin though, which is more than welcome at 2.8 %. The finish doesn't give any new elements, short-lived though. The sensation left on the tongue is light minus, floral, herbal, still quite flat but it will develop. Slightly dry and moderately drying. Quite pleasant for a herbed beer whose primary flavoring I didn't even know.

Christmas Day 🎄  More Sahti! Our own, absolutely. This is a date infused version. Looks impenetrable medium-brown. Not sure if there was any carbonation, probably not. A minimal lace ring with big bubbles, color fawn. Soon flat still. The scent is quite restrained. Ehhh... I let it warm and open up for a while. [•••] Okay, I think I can proceed. Yes, better now. Sweet malt, biscuit, dark chocolate, raisin, date, faint banana. That's the fragrance. Interestingly, all the other nuances enter the show before the date. Why? I don't know. I'm glad the date didn't stay hidden though. The taste is medium-ample with sweet-leaning malt, raisin, a pinch of chocolate, cacao nibs and a hint of rye flour. Date is detectable, however, it's only marginally more pronounced than what it was in our regular Christmas Sahti. I expected it to be bigger. The body is medium. The end is identical to upfront, I don't experience any difference. Not the tweak to slightly harsher notes either that showed in the regular sahti – the same soft package prevails all the way down the throat. The mouthfeel is medium, smooth, still marginally husky, even distantly drying but definitely not dry. Lip-glueing. Not much different from the mother version but still a bit. Yet, looks like the date infusion didn't bring more date to the taste but rather gave a punch of additional fermentable sugars that boosted the ABV.

Now. Time for the crown jewel of the Christmas festivities: Sahti! Homebrewed, of course. The appearance is murky brown. Virtually, no carbonation. A modest chain of bigger fawn bubbles emerges on the top and melts fast away. Dark chocolate, cacao nibs, roasted malt, cookie, raisin and overripe banana emanate to my nostrils. The taste follows suit with soft overripe banana, dark chocolate, raw cacao powder, raisin, cookie, a whisper of syrup bread and a roasty suggestion. A hint of clove lingers in the back of the mouth. The body is medium to medium-full. The end alters a bit harsher, more roasty and raw-chocolatey. The mouthfeel is medium-full, a tad deep, moderately roasty, distantly husky, still very classical. A medium-dark side adventure that is missing viscosity. Merry Christmas to all Pint Please folks! 🎄🎅🏻🤶🏻🎁🍗🍺

A Saturday homebrew. This time a lilac flavored one. The beer is dressed in cloudy, deep amber. Looks actually surprisingly attractive. The carbonation is still somewhat fatigued but brisker than that of the heart's ease version of the same base batch. A limited soapy lacing adorns the top for a short while until it dies away. The carbonation obviously develops. Good. The scent is very malty: barley, no doubt, amberish, and somewhat worty. Do I get a floral punch? No, definitely not a punch. Anything? Not sure. The fragrance of lilac is normally relatively copious but, of course, when applied in a beer, it's different. I can't say that I received a lilac nuance here, rather something biscuity, which obviously has nothing to do with lilac. The taste is very light, malty, slightly worty, crackery and also biscuity. Quite pleasant. But not floral. Maybe a bit grassy. I can't find a floral note here. Pity. But not surprising though. I tasted a lilac blossom when I picked them for a freezer, and the taste wasn't particularly appealing. Rather grassy. And that's what I get here. Lilac can make a nice decorative element when applied in tiny amounts on salads or soups but tastewise it's rubbish. The body is thin. The finish is grassy and a tad malty, nothing special but nothing revolting either. Feels thin, a bit crisp, earthy, dry and drying. But not floral. Drinkable although not a huge masterpiece. –0.3 stars down for the absence of lilac.

Homebrew time! This is one of the Small Beer series. Flavored with blossoms of a flower called Heart's Ease. Yes, it's edible 😅 The beer looks cloudy copper. The carbonation is, understandably, still timid as it will develop bolder over time. Some of my beers have developed overcarbonated during a couple of years, for example, so that the foam erupts uncontrollably from the bottle. I still can't make beers whose carbonation level would remain constant over a longer period of time. The emerging lacing is off-white and soapy, remains at a few millimeters only. The scent is almost zero. A bit of cookie, malt and faint cacao nibs. A floral hint lingers somewhere in the shadows. The taste is marginally grassy, probably because of Tettnanger hops. The other components include a small amendment of malt, dried apricot and bread. Nothing that would resemble a flower. Pity. The body is thin. Not surprising at 2.4 %. Ends unchanged. Feels thin, slightly crisp, moderately dry and drying. But not floral tastewise, scentwise yes. Okay for a sauna refreshment but otherwise too characterless.

A third review of our homebrewed cider. I reviewed this just a few weeks ago for the second time, so it wouldn't necessarily make sense to re-review it this quickly after the last time. The reason is that this particular bottle is a special version of the cider: a flaked edition! Meaning that it contains masses of apple particles. Looks ugly! Or attractive! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? Really turbid, confusing. The color is still the same, deep orange with a milky hue. No head. Sour fermented apple in the air. I don't expect the scent to be different from the earlier experiences. But the taste can be! Sour apple remnants! Natural. Fermented. A tad farmhousey. Uuuh. Nnnnice! The biggest difference is, of course, the sensation in the mouth. Very mushy, flaked, murky and granular. It's seductively tart, puckering, flat and moderately funky. Oddness makes it attractive!