DFH Sah’tea
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(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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It’s been too long since I’ve had a beer with a fish on the cap, so tonight I’ve cracked open a 750 ml bottle of Dogfish Head’s rarity, Sah’Tea.
The label is beautifully decorated with the exotic image of a woman riding a reindeer. She’s holding a cup in one hand and a steaming pot of tea in the other — and if any of this reminds you of a dream you’ve had recently, please seek professional help.
The “Sah’Tea” name is a bit of a pun, since this beer is in the traditional style called “Sahti” — except Sam Calagione and his team at Dogfish Head have included a decidedly non-traditional ingredient: black chai tea.
I had no idea what a Sahti beer was, but the gents at BeerAdvocate provide a great overview of the Sahti style of beer, which I’ll copy here:
Said to be one of the only primitive beers to survive in Western Europe, Sahti is a farmhouse ale with roots in Finland. First brewed by peasants in the 1500s, mashing (steeping of grains) went down in wooden barrels, and then that mash would be scooped into a hand-carved wooden trough (a kuurna) with a bed of juniper twigs that acted as a filter. The bung at the bottom of the kuurna would be pulled to allow the sweet wort (liquid infusion from the mash) to pass through the twig filter, followed by wort recirculation and a hot water sparge (rinsing of the grains), all of which created a juniper infusion of sorts.Sahti is also referred to as being turbid, because the wort isn’t boiled after lautering (separation of spent grain and liquid), leaving loads of proteins behind, thus providing tremendous body. A low-flocculating Finnish baker’s yeast creates a cloudy unfiltered beer, with an abundance of sediment. Traditional Sahti is not typically hopped, so the task of balancing is left up to the juniper twigs, which impart an unusual resiny character and also act as a preservative. Some have compared Sahtis to German Hefeweizens, though we find them to be more akin to the Lambics of Belgium due to the exposure to wild yeast and bacteria, and its signature tartness.
Dogfish Head’s version of Sahti announced its uniqueness immediately. The rich, spiced chai wafted up from the bottle the moment I lifted its cap.
Sah’tea poured golden, with a momentary white head that I nearly missed by blinking. The beer itself is a bit cloudy, but I could detect no sediment or solids — just a healthy stream of bubbles streaming up from the etched bottom of my Duvel tulip glass.
In the glass, the cinnamon and nutmeg chai spices dominated the nose, yet bits of citrus and yeast could be found peeking around the edges. I kept my nose resting on the edge of my glass, which I swirled and sniffed for several minutes. It’s a deliciously complex aroma.
Sah’tea tasted very much as is smelled — spicy chai — but with a bit of earthy, honeyed-sweetness that swelled through the clove and ginger taste. I’m not familiar with juniper, but I can only assume that sweetness comes from the berries.
The bottle claims Sah’tea has a hefty 9% alcohol by volume, but I’m hard pressed to find it. Much as with their Midas Touch, Dogfish Head has hidden 9% ABV remarkably well. I was left with nothing but a spicy aftertaste. The beer had a medium mouthfeel — not-quite-creamy from the carbonation, and a touch viscous but not syrupy
I’ll let Dogfish Head finish the Sah’tea description:
Brewed with rye, we caramelize the wort with white hot river rocks, then ferment it with a German Weizen yeast. In addition to juniper berries foraged directly from the Finnish country-side we added a sort of tea made with black tea, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and black pepper. The spicing is subtle and balanced and Sahtea is a highly-quaffable, truly-unique brew with a full-mouth feel.
The end result is a must-try beer, something summery and spicy but not quite like a witbier — rather, I’d describe it as a summery version of a Christmas Ale or a Winter Warmer.
And did you catch the reference to “white hot river rocks”? Here’s a quick explanation, in video form:
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