Kveik yeast

[chasjs]

In the past I have been working on refining my brewing processes. I think I have them down pretty well now to the point where I can manage my brewday without too many mishaps.

I am now moving onto other things. I have been studying Kveik yeast but have not brewed with it to date. I know some of you have brewed with it and was wondering what your observations were on the experience.

What was really interesting to me is numerous people have reported making lagers (or psuedo-lagers) without any temperature control and coming out with good results. Seems like a game changer to me (and make me wonder about all the time and money I have invested in temperature control). My concern is most of the information I have found is anecdotal. The youtube videos from David Heath seem to have some of the best info.

I was wondering what some of the styles others in the club have brewed with this yeast and what their observations were.

[colterw]

Ryan, Aaron, and I have all had great results but there are a few things you have to do to get a great Pseudo Lager.

1. You want to ferment warm but not to warm. It seems like mid to high 70s is the sweet spot.

2. You want to do a normal yeast pitch 200 billion cell min.

3. You need yeast nutrient and lots of it. Kveik is real hungry at low temps, and to Kveik below 85 is considered a low temp.

4. You want to fine it with bio fine or gelatin.

5. Pick a strain that is know to have a clean crisp finish. Oslo, Lutra, Skare, or Krispy would be good choices.

I am sure Ryan has other tips but it does work and work well.

You can make great IPAs with Kveik! Voss is easy to get dry and makes great IPA. It will chew through a high gravity IPA in 3 days at up to 100 degrees. It’s crazy stuff.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by colterw.

Cheers

Serving: Brooks Irish Red 4.8% ABV
Serving: Robert's IPA
Fermenting: We Are The Dreamer of Dreams (NEIPA)

[RyanP]

I have a feature article that I wrote coming out in the next Zymurgy in like 7 weeks or so, it’s about using kveik for making clean beers.

The original kveik farmhouse beers are incredibly interesting. Historical Farmhouse Beers from Lars is the book that covers those and it’s easily worth the purchase, just very fascinating reading. I’ve tasted some of the non clean, historical yeasts, and they’re so fun. I’ve never tasted some of these flavors from yeast before. Everything from milky caramel to earthy black pepper to coffee, all coming from these farmhouse yeasts. Very cool stuff. A lot of the farmhouse beers are smoked beers too. I’ve always been interested in the farmhouse breweries of Belgium and France, like saison, lambic and bier de garde breweries, but this takes it to a whole new level.

But for the clean beers, I think temperature control is probably almost as important as with other beers. It’s such a fast ferment, and (oddly at low temps/with low abv beers) kveik can underattenuate a bit if you let the temp drop. So you can set the temp to 80F, and the beer can climb to 83-85F during high krausen, then fermentation slows and it can drop 5F or so and just go dormant without finishing up completely. The good news is that you don’t get diacetyl, fusels or fruity esters from these higher temps, it’s truly different from typical ale yeast. Some of these strains are also far cleaner than US05, allowing you to make lager-like beers in very little time. One trick for dealing with the temp is to pitch into wort a few degrees cooler than your temp control, so that when it gets to high krausen it gets to the temp of your chamber, then when krausen dies down it stays somewhat consistent and doesn’t go to sleep. Another is to just start low and raise it after 24-48 hrs so that it finishes fermenting strong.

I’ve had experience with lutra, oslo, skare, opshaug and hornindal. I personally like oslo the best for psuedo lagers I think. It can get into the low 80s for attenuation % and give you that little extra crisp finish in an otherwise very clean beer. Lutra is nice too, but usually finishes around 75% attenuation for a pilsner, a little less dry than I want, though it can still be very good.

I have an oslo “northern german pils” and lutra “dunkel” on tap right now if you’d like to try sometime. Shoot me a msg, we can pick a warm day and sit outside distanced.

My take on these is that I sort of identify with two of the breweries that I talked with for that Zymurgy article: Peculier and Bottle Logic. They both love the kveik yeasts for psuedo lagers, but they’re not going to stop making traditional lagers either. It’s basically a new ingredient to play with, just like the new hops from the US, NZ or Germany, or the new malts from malsters. The turnaround time is also great, while you could make something drinkable in as little as 5 days, I think for something blonde/lager-like, 12-14 days is a good timeframe for grain to glass. IPAs can be done faster and are probably the easiest things to brew a quality beer with using this yeast. I’ve done IPAs where I throw a good bit of hops in the last 5 min/at flameout, then toss a massive dry hop in the primary along with the yeast. Within 3-4 days it’s fully fermented out, I transfer under pressure to another keg with biofine, crash to 31F for 3-4 more days, then it’s ready to drink and the most delicious hop flavor you can imagine without the issues you can get with fast turnaround time with english or american ale yeast on IPAs (21 days is the minimum time for most very good IPA breweries, they literally crash/condition for 4+ days, new england style or not).

[pandabrewer]

Wow that is a lot of info!

I have used kveik a lot for Oktoberfest and other pseudo-lagers, including a kolsch, and had great results with Lutra and Oslo. I can be Pitch to Pour in less than 2 weeks after a cold crash, and my ferment temp is room temp, so high 60’s-low 70’s.

I also use Voss and Hornindal with fruits to make ciders and have really enjoyable results. Apples, peaches, berries, cherries and strawberries have all lent great flavours to the kveik ciders. And again, room temperature ferments. What I have loved about the Hornindal and Voss is that I can reuse the yeast without a starter; just keep some of the bottom of the last batch and store it in a sanitized jar, then when it settles in the fridge you can clearly see the separation of yeast as the lighter thin top layer on the trub, and only pitch that yeast next time.

Since kveikhas become more available and with different strains, I’ve really enjoyed experimenting with it, and temp control is much less important but still important, as Colter and Ryan say. I would read on the strains and see which you are looking for in a particular beer, but go wild!

• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by pandabrewer.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by pandabrewer.

[chasjs]

Thanks for all the good info. Ryan (and others), which strain of Kveik do you like for IPAs and are there any pitfalls. I am curious because BYO had an article on Kveik with comments from pro brewers and one said that IPAs were his least favorite style to brew with that yeast but he neglected to say why.

[RyanP]

Voss and Hornindal are popular for IPAs.

I’ve used Hornindal, it gives some fun tropical flavors, especially if you get into the 90s. It’s otherwise quite clean and it’s a good fermenter.

Which BYO issue was it? I have an online sub, I’ll take a look, but I don’t see why that would be the case. Many breweries use kveik on IPAs now too. Resolute is a local one, but plenty others do locally as well.

[chasjs]

Ryan:

Here is a link to the article.

Kveik

[RyanP]

My guess is that the brewer just doesn’t like IPAs. His tap list has none of them, despite it probably being the most popular craft style in the US, Canada and many major Euro cities. A single pale ale is the closest he comes – https://www.ebbandflowfermentations.com/current-beer-list

Neat and unique brewery he seems to have though, I’d definitely pay it a visit if I were in the area.

[Spauld]

Thanks for bringing this subject up Chuck. I’ve heard a lot about this type of yeast and the brews it makes lately but my earliest knowledge of it came from reading a chapter on Norwegian brewing in Michael Jackson’s book, many years ago. Believe it or not, I’d actually be interested in engaging in a Kviek experiment as well. I’m a traditional lager brewer and have no plans to abandon that element of my home brewing efforts, however after this weekend I’ll be at full capacity for my 2020/2021 lagering season and I have no room for eight 10 gallon batch of lager. That said, I’d be interested in making something like a traditional bock and would love to have it available to serve at my Winterfest party in December of this year (I fully expect we’ll all be vaccinated by then!). There was once a bier available in the Denver market called Aass Bock (pronounced “Oh-ss” I think). It was a dark and delicious bier brewed in Drammen Norway and made in the style of a traditional bock. Like many
European treats like this, the booming craft market and competition for shelf space has made it no longer available. While I doubt that Aass was a kveik bier, I think this would be an interesting style to make with a kveik yeast, so long as you can indeed make something full-bodied, round and malty with this type of yeast. My thinking is that I may be able to brew it as the first bier of my fall brewing season, rather than making it now…. which would be my normal lager-making schedule for something that strong, to be served in December of this year.

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