Otter Creek Helsinki Gold

Formerly brewed at Otter Creek Brewing
Style: Traditional Ale
Middlebury, Vermont USA

This ale pours a medium orange gold color from a 22oz bottle. Medium sized white foamy head, with decent retention and nice lacing. Aroma is interesting, rye, juniper, a touch tart, kind of earthy and a little floral. A medium bodied ale. Malts are caramel and fruity, touch of biscuit. Lots of rye flavors and the juniper is very evident. Hops are earthy and floral. Lively carbonation. The juniper flavors make this beer a little sahti-like the fruitiness is quite similar. Surprisingly full in the mouth. It’s a lighter flavored, lower alcohol beer but still a sipper. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.

Bottle, hum is this old, tastes awesome. Pours an amber body with a white head. Very spicy with hints of cinnamon, thyme, coco powder, chili pepper, tannic tea notes and a light woodiness. Wow just delicious. Hints of berry, jasmine, and rye. Very very nice!!

Enjoyed a sample of this one on draught at the brewery in Middlebury, VT. Interesting beer based on a Finnish sahti, brewed with rye and juniper. Pours to a deep golden color, with a creamy, white head, and a good bit of carbonation. The nose on this beer is excellent with spicy/medicinal aromas of rye and juniper. The palate delivers more of the same with good pale malt flavor paired with spicy rye flavor. This beer finishes with more good pale malt and spicy rye malt up front, then ends with some flavors of juniper berry and black pepper that lingers. Interesting, flavorful beer, which really has unique aromas and flavors due to the use of rye and juniper. Not the type of beer you could drink a lot of, but one well worth trying.

22oz bottle. Clear solid golden colored body with a nicely growing white head. Pleasent biscuit and summer wheat and yeast nose, fresh and lively, smells of a dry summer afternoon... but I was drinking this while lying in the grass outside... still, tastes crisp and fresh, husky and startchy, lightly sweet. Great beer. Much better than expected, but of course your impressions are affected by your surroundings. Nonetheless I’ll give this one a high score because I really enjoyed it.

A very unique beer, the best sahti I have had. Interesting aroma . . . nice unique flavor, well balanced, and tasty. Malty with a plum -like flavor. Props to innovation!

An awesome Amercan take on the sahti style. Spearmint and junpier dominate the flavor and aroma. A bit more over-the-top than most sahti’s I’ve had. but that was expected. Slightly cloudy amber with a small, quickly dissipating beige head. This brew sports a long slightly sweet and very spicy finish.

22 oz bomber gifted to me by Jon (Willblake) via Paul (Dickinsonbeer), big thanks to both great guys. Poured into a small tulip glass. Color is amber, clear beer but just dark enough to make a medium clarity, small head. Aroma is strong and I want to compare it to Heavyweight Jåkeldrickå, very similar but a bit more commercial. Aromas of sour slightly aged maltiness (soured light cardboard), a lightly acidic berry (maybe juniper?), a bit sweet and sour and very original. Taste is similar where the sweet maltiness really offsets the other unordinary aspects of the beer. Body is full yet light, one downside is the mouthfeel is a bit weird, makes my cheeks dry and weird. Finishes light and actually very drinkable.

Bomber. Very different than other Sahtis I’ve had. Has a strong malt backbone, much like an amber, except obviously the "hopping" is more floral and berry like. It doesn’t say whether they put any hops in this, although I suspect there is still a small amount. Pours with a supple head, and has a full, complex aroma. Tons of different malt sugars in there. Body is really really soft and pleasant, and it is easy as sin to knock this one back. Very interesting, very enjoyable.