7.4

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Another special edition brew that’s made the rounds of beer geek events lately. Quite hazy, a rather dull copper-amber hue. All told probably not murky & ugly enough, though. Sahti is supposed to be butt ugly. Big aroma - shitloads of juniper. Very fruity, with a little bit of bubblegum. The carbonation is low but zippy in the finish. Creamy body. Flavour is sweet with a bursting, juicy juniper berry fruitiness. Very drinkable. The malts have a slight toastiness to them, enough for nuance, but not enough to mess with what this beer does best. It remains as drinkable as a good sahti.

I’ve never had a sahti like this...it seems like juniper berries were added rather than the brew filtered through juniper twigs as per tradition. This makes it more of a juniper berry fruit beer than other sahtis. But that juiciness is great...it’s better than half the sahtis I’ve ever had. For a brewery with such staid everyday fare, Storm really cuts loose with their fascinating and exceptionally tasty specialties. 8-3-8-4-17=4.0

Re-rate...new batch at 6%. Murkier and uglier...just the way it should be. The aroma still has a ton of juniper berry, but it also more phenolic and yeastier...more sahti-like in other words. Same refreshing juiciness from the berries. Very sweet, with a hint of tartness and this time in has a hint of alcohol as well. Somewhat harsh graininess - not sure if this is rye or just random tannins but it offsets the gains made in authenticity. 7-4-6-3-13=3.3 Score above is an amalagam, since I expect this brew to be rather variable in all its future incarnations.