Voss Kveik yeast is a monster

[Beer666]

Had a 11.5% RIS finish in less than 3 days with no hint of alcohol. The yeast is a beast and i always ferment at 37c. I never seem to get any of the esters people talk about either or perhaps its masked by the styles i brew with it.

 

[Miraculix]

Had a 11.5% RIS finish in less than 3 days with no hint of alcohol. The yeast is a beast and i always ferment at 37c. I never seem to get any of the esters people talk about either or perhaps its masked by the styles i brew with it.

The ester key is to underpitch heavily. You really want one teaspoon of slurry per five gallons. This brings out the esters, I tried it myself and it worked when pitching in 37c wort and wrapping the fermenter in a blanket afterwards.

If you already did that, than it might really just be masked by the roast. Wouldn't be too surprising with an imperial stout

 

[Dgallo]

I just brewed two beer with this yeast, a single hop Galaxy pale ale and a NEIPA featuring lavender flower. I went grain to glass in 6.5 days on the pale and 7.5 days on the NEIPA. So I totally can pick out the orange component in the ester profile, but does anyone else get a slight saison/Trappist bubblegum note in it as well? For me it’s very subtle but present.

Ran it at 90-95

 

[Rickdude]

The ester key is to underpitch heavily. You really want one teaspoon of slurry per five gallons. This brings out the esters, I tried it myself and it worked when pitching in 37c wort and wrapping the fermenter in a blanket afterwards.

Just to toss in an aside-- I was chatting with Jenny at Wyeast not too long ago and she was talking about how yeast will provide different profiles if you stress them with temp or, in this case, underpitching. I never really thought about it, but of course it makes perfect sense.

As a beer judge, I'm often explaining on the sheets why I'm dinging the beer a few points for aromas or flavors that are likely due to fermentation conditions. It just never dawned on me to do this on purpose!

(Sorry if this is obvious to everyone else... I just love sharing/pointing out other peoples' great ideas! )

 

[Rickdude]

How much yeast did you use and what was the OG? They say only a tablespoon of slurry is needed for these Kviek strains, but again, I still make at least a 500ml starter and save 50ml of that in an old White Labs tube for the next batch.

That's probably it, then. I took it straight out of the Omega pouch. I was amazed at how fast it started to propogate and cloud the fermenter, but that's still lag time. I'm pitching a big starter today and I'll post an update. Considering the comments on fluctuating temps, I won't worry at all-- this is supposed to be a "lawnmower beer," so cleaner is fine.

A couple cheap options for keeping things hot yet stable are, 1) swamp cooler with an aquarium heater plugged in and placed in the water to keep it warm, and 2) heat wrap plugged into a temperature controller. Option 1 requires you to use a thermometer to confirm the heater is heating the water to the correct temp. Option 2 requires probably purchasing the plastic heat wrap in bulk and wiring it up yourself with an old extension cord (what I did) then also having an extra temp controller.

I happen to have an extra temp controller and there's plenty of cheap heating tape on Ebay-- option 2 is perfect for me. My brain was going to loop systems, constant temp baths, etc. Thanks for the easy answer.

Rick

 

[VirginiaHops1]

I think you guys have answered my question about this (I only looked over the last page of posts, so forgive me if this is explicitly answered earlier), but I want to be sure about this...

One of our commercial breweries is using this yeast (and making great beer with it), and I really like the short timeframe. He told me that I didn't need to worry about the temp much because the heat of metabolism will keep it up over the day or so needed. Of course he's brewing much larger batches, but I thought it sounded good.

I'm still in active fermentation 5 days out. Clearly I needed to pay more attention to keeping the temp up in some way. But here's the question(s)--

1) Is a blanket enough, or do I need to rig up a heater?
2) It's been bouncing between 75 and 100 here in Richmond, and the fermenter is on my screened in porch. Am I asking for trouble by having the temp vary this much (I'm thinking how fluctuating temperatures seem to emphasize off-flavors/aromas by yeast with other strains)?
3) I've been trying to downsize my brewing footprint since I moved recently (I know, it sounds crazy, but I have good reasons)... what's the simplest yet cheapest way of keeping my temp up if I need a heater?

Thanks!

Rick

Was Vasen the brewery you talked to? I noticed they're using this a lot in their hazy IPAs and making some fantastic stuff.

 

[Miraculix]

Just to toss in an aside-- I was chatting with Jenny at Wyeast not too long ago and she was talking about how yeast will provide different profiles if you stress them with temp or, in this case, underpitching. I never really thought about it, but of course it makes perfect sense.

As a beer judge, I'm often explaining on the sheets why I'm dinging the beer a few points for aromas or flavors that are likely due to fermentation conditions. It just never dawned on me to do this on purpose!

(Sorry if this is obvious to everyone else... I just love sharing/pointing out other peoples' great ideas! )

I had the idea from larsblog, which is written by the guy who basically introduced the world to kveik yeasts on a broader scale.

Interestingly, My very first Kveik was not a commercial yeast, but an original yeast mix from a Norwegian village which I got from a friend who went there and met local brewers. I made a starter to see if the yeast is valid (was home dried slurry) and it took off like a bomb. I then pitched the whole starter which basically was a huge overpitch for kveik but I still got loads of esters with that one. Wouldn't clear properly though but as I said, it had all the esters without the underpitchin and the haze did not taste like yeast haze so it was not a problem to me, only a cosmetic issue.

I later brewed some beers with Voss Kveik and this yeast really needed the underpitching and high temperatures to shine.

I have no idea why the original mix didn't need it but the commercial single strain did.

 

[Amadeo38]

Interestingly, My very first Kveik was not a commercial yeast, but an original yeast mix from a Norwegian village which I got from a friend who went there and met local brewers.

I have no idea why the original mix didn't need it but the commercial single strain did.

I have three strains of Kviek currently on hand (stranda, Voss, and hornindal) but this link shows many, if not all, of the known variants. Perhaps the one you got was a blend or a slightly different strain?

http://www.garshol.priv.no/download/farmhouse/kveik.html#kv5

 

[Miraculix]

I have three strains of Kviek currently on hand (stranda, Voss, and hornindal) but this link shows many, if not all, of the known variants. Perhaps the one you got was a blend or a slightly different strain?

http://www.garshol.priv.no/download/farmhouse/kveik.html#kv5

All of the traditional ones are blends as they have been handed down from generation to generation and there was nobody isolating strains on the farms. It is probably a mix of different yeasts and bacterias, and the bacterias play probably a role in flavour production as well as the yeasts do. It wasn't sour but there is still so much stuff in those traditional mixes that it is hard to track down what organism contributes what in the final product.

But what was interesting to see was that the hot fermented and underpitched Voss came pretty close to the original Kveik taste wise. Maybe it was isolated from a mix close to the one I got on hand.

 

[Rickdude]

Was Vasen the brewery you talked to? I noticed they're using this a lot in their hazy IPAs and making some fantastic stuff.

I didn't know that Vasen was using it, but I love their IPA's, too! It's Kindred Spirit I was talking about. My cycling/beer/pizza group meets there on Wednesdays.

 

[Miraculix]

I didn't know that Vasen was using it, but I love their IPA's, too! It's Kindred Spirit I was talking about. My cycling/beer/pizza group meets there on Wednesdays.

Hahahahahah I like the disguise. The CYCLING(beer, pizza)GROUP.

I guess I am also kind of a cyclist myself

 

[NGD]

Curious if anyone has had success with Voss getting clear? Seems like even with fining I still get a considerable amount of chill haze.

 

[Julian Høstan Urrea]

Even with the original strain you'll have differences because of the way its handled, and passed from brewer to brewer. What I mean is that my Voss isn't the same as your Voss. Who knows how many generations, or how many bacterias I have that others don't. I've heard about some beers clearing easily and some that won't clear even with finnings. I've heard some beers finishing after 36 hours, mine took 3 days to finish under pressure. Some give the orange flavor easily, others don't. It would be interesting to get the real strain from different locations and brewing the same recipe and checking the difference between the two.

 

[Calaeb]

Curious if anyone has had success with Voss getting clear? Seems like even with fining I still get a considerable amount of chill haze.

i had used voss in a blonde and it cleaned decently, wasn't crystal clear but didn't look like a neipa either. I used whirlfoc and gelatin on it.

 

[restless]

Was Vasen the brewery you talked to? I noticed they're using this a lot in their hazy IPAs and making some fantastic stuff.

Vasen's sours are sooo good.

 

[Amadeo38]

After back-to-back, clean, delicious beers that went grain to glass in less than a week, I’ve decided I may never use another yeast again. Perhaps if I’m feeling like I need to do a saison or other type of Belgian, I’ll track down a strain that gives off phenols, such as FY#16: Simonaitis, FY #32: Jovaru, or WY #36: Gardsøy

 

[marc1]

Does fermenting at high temperatures like this degrade hop flavor and aroma? Or is it finished so quickly that it doesn't matter as much?

 

[Amadeo38]

The two beers I’ve done haven’t been hop or even malt focused, so it’s hard to tell. The first one was a lime zested gose, so detecting any hop or malt contributions through lactic acidity, lime, salt, and coriander is tough. The second beer was a white ale with orange peel and coriander, which has the same story. Big citrus flavor and slight coriander, and a nice malt/wheat profile but couldn’t pull out the hops.

Others who’ve done IPA with this yeast should be able to comment better.

 

[Julian Høstan Urrea]

Does fermenting at high temperatures like this degrade hop flavor and aroma? Or is it finished so quickly that it doesn't matter as much?

I havent noticed anything but I've read that you should lower the temps when dryhopping. It can cause a lot of bitterness.

 

[NGD]

I remember running across this. I would say it hold true. The IPAs I’ve tried with Kviek tend not to have the orange bomb flavor. Also of the lower ABV beers I’ve done do not seem to have the esters usually associated with kviek.

However @bigdawg86 tends to get orange bombs with his..so it could be a technique issue on my part. The first beer I did was a high ABV (10%) imperial saison that was marmalade. The smell while fermenting was fantastic!

Propagating kveik at home


There are two main ways that people use kveik. One is to recreate the original styles, or at least make a beer where kveik is one of the key taste elements. In this case, beware of using lots of craft-style hops: the hops will completely dominate the beer and the yeast profile will drown. The other way is to make a normal beer (porter, IPA, etc), but use kveik because you don't have to worry (too much) about temperature control, and because you get a drinkable beer much more quickly. Either way is fine, but you may want to treat the yeast differently.

Source http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/393.html

 

[Julian Høstan Urrea]

This is mine after 4-6 hours, I was sleeping, so don't know exactly when. It's fermenting under pressure at 24 psi! At 30 degrees Celsius.

 

[Kwitty]

Ok! So I'm making an imperial stout. Any thoughts on Voss Kveik from Omega? Do you think the citrus flavor would be an issue or do you think it's mild enough it will be buried in the roasty malty flavors and hop bitterness?

 

[Miraculix]

Ok! So I'm making an imperial stout. Any thoughts on Voss Kveik from Omega? Do you think the citrus flavor would be an issue or do you think it's mild enough it will be buried in the roasty malty flavors and hop bitterness?

I heard that it doesn't show up when fermented at room temperature, making it more like a lager.

 

[NGD]

I heard that it doesn't show up when fermented at room temperature, making it more like a lager.

+1 on this. Did a session IPA with the intent to try a small batch with no temp control in the garage, thinking I would get some orange out of it. Had a strange cool trend where temps were only in 70’s for a week. Fermented very clean. Almost opposite of the imperial saison I did that smelled like Marmalade while fermenting at 98F.

 

[trevelynzx]

I just did a pale ale @75 with it. Will post results in a week or so.

 

[Kwitty]

+1 on this. Did a session IPA with the intent to try a small batch with no temp control in the garage, thinking I would get some orange out of it. Had a strange cool trend where temps were only in 70’s for a week. Fermented very clean. Almost opposite of the imperial saison I did that smelled like Marmalade while fermenting at 98F.

I heard that it doesn't show up when fermented at room temperature, making it more like a lager.

Sweet! Might do a small test batch.

 

[Bobbybob]

Brewed a barley wine on Friday. Pitched 1 omega Voss around 2:00pm on Friday into 1.107 ~95F wort turned the room heater on and let it go. Took sample today it is at 1.030 and dropping. Sample tasted great and I couldn’t even pickup any alcohol. It is still a little sweet so I imagine it will keep dropping for a bit, but not too much more. This yeast is really incredible.

 

[BandonBrewingCo]

Sorry guys, but am I missing something here? Is there some catch/gotcha* I haven't seen? Or is this really some sort of miracle yeast???



*apart from trying to get my paws on it!

 

[jaymosbeershack]

Miracle yeast

Sorry guys, but am I missing something here? Is there some catch/gotcha* I haven't seen? Or is this really some sort of miracle yeast???



*apart from trying to get my paws on it!

 

[NGD]

Sorry guys, but am I missing something here? Is there some catch/gotcha* I haven't seen? Or is this really some sort of miracle yeast???



*apart from trying to get my paws on it!

Its an awesome yeast, but there are a few things you have to keep in mind.

-Do you really want orange esters in the style of beer your brewing?

-I get serious chill haze with my batch. Others have reported the opposite.

-do you live in a climate where high temps can be held easily or have the means to do so?

-it tends not to do so great in smaller beers, at least without some kind of nutrient addition. Again this seems to vary from brewer to brewer.

Its been awesome to have where I live. Its my go-to yeast in summer anymore.

 

[beersk]

What I don't understand is how the idea of fermenting this at 95F came about in the first place. I mean, the warmest temperature (in Norway) ever recorded was 96F, but that's rare. The average temperature in the summer is like 64F.

 

[BandonBrewingCo]

Its an awesome yeast, but there are a few things you have to keep in mind.

-Do you really want orange esters in the style of beer your brewing?

-I get serious chill haze with my batch. Others have reported the opposite.

-do you live in a climate where high temps can be held easily or have the means to do so?

-it tends not to do so great in smaller beers, at least without some kind of nutrient addition. Again this seems to vary from brewer to brewer.

Its been awesome to have where I live. Its my go-to yeast in summer anymore.

Sounds like the perfect yeast for summer brewing. Orange esters in a wheat beer sounds cracking! Chill haze doesn't bother me. I wonder would a tsp of yeast nutrition suffice for smaller beers? And how small is small? Is 5% ABV small?

I have read some people seem to have some success at room temp and end up with a cleaner taste also.

What I don't understand is how the idea of fermenting this at 95F came about in the first place. I mean, the warmest temperature (in Norway) ever recorded was 96F, but that's rare. The average temperature in the summer is like 64F.

Fermenting in barns perhaps? Those things get really hot in summer. Plus the heat generated by such vigorous fermentation. Also, I think people were saying ferment up to 35C/96F

 

[Julian Høstan Urrea]

Had a 11.5% RIS finish in less than 3 days with no hint of alcohol. The yeast is a beast and i always ferment at 37c. I never seem to get any of the esters people talk about either or perhaps its masked by the styles i brew with it.

Probably over pitch. One tspoon is enough.

 

[twd000]

I doubt the Norwegian farmhouse brewers were waiting for 95-100F ambient weather, or adding external heat.

I think they just chilled the boiled wort less than we're accustomed to, then let the exothermic fermentation maintain high temperatures until the yeast finish in 2-3 days

 

[beersk]

Makes sense. I think the idea of trying to heat it UP to 95F to ferment is a bit ridiculous. I chill to 90F, pitch, and let fall to room temp, which is about 80F.

 

[Amadeo38]

Makes sense. I think the idea of trying to heat it UP to 95F to ferment is a bit ridiculous. I chill to 90F, pitch, and let fall to room temp, which is about 80F.

Same, but it takes off so fast (<3hrs) that mine rarely drops more than a couple degrees from pitch temp by the time the exothermic heat starts generating and it’s nearly fully fermented.

Are the people who have lingering chill haze using a chiller to get from boiling to pitch temps? Because the blonde I made is almost as clear as a lager, though I did chill rapidly from 220-90F in about 10mins and used gelatin at kegging.

As twd mentioned, the high heat tolerance is more of a “pitch it quickly and while the wort is still hot” adaptation rather than an ambient temp preference, according to the garshol blog.

I have not gotten intense orange esters, but I’ve never underpitched, either. The one beer I’ve made that may have some esters is impossible to tell because it’s an Icelandic White Ale with orange peel and coriander.

 

[NGD]

Are the people who have lingering chill haze using a chiller to get from boiling to pitch temps? Because the blonde I made is almost as clear as a lager, though I did chill rapidly from 220-90F in about 10mins and used gelatin at kegging.

Speaking for myself, I always use an IC to drop temps. First with ground water then switching over to a recirc of ice water. Still get chill haze, although in the glass its much less noticeable. I’ve read some accounts of people getting haze while others don’t with the same strain, but from different vendors. At this point its pure here-say. I just know in three batches that I’ve used it on they all had chill haze. I’ve done both both low and high OG batches (>1.085 and <1.045)

As twd mentioned, the high heat tolerance is more of a “pitch it quickly and while the wort is still hot” adaptation rather than an ambient temp preference, according to the garshol blog.

I have not gotten intense orange esters, but I’ve never underpitched, either. The one beer I’ve made that may have some esters is impossible to tell because it’s an Icelandic White Ale with orange peel and coriander.

This is another thing I keep coming across. Some people get intense orange esters while others wonder wth those ppl are talking about. In my lower grav beers I’ve done the orange was much more subdued, and after a few weeks it was barely a hint than a predominant flavor. I could easily write it off to a placebo effect. With the imperial saison I did, the orange is very noticeable even after several months of storage.

 

[NGD]

Sounds like the perfect yeast for summer brewing. Orange esters in a wheat beer sounds cracking! Chill haze doesn't bother me. I wonder would a tsp of yeast nutrition suffice for smaller beers? And how small is small? Is 5% ABV small?

Small to me is anything under 5%. Last batch I did with Voss was 4.5ABV. I just used the servomyces capsules from white labs https://www.morebeer.com/products/servomyces-yeast-nutrient.html

No idea if those capsules are anything more than brewers yeast, but I got them awhile ago and need to use them up. Beer turned out great

 

[Bobbybob]

So l got a little too excited and set up a heater in the brew room. I am certain I shot over a 100 degrees. I couldn’t taste any fusels in any of the samples. But now that it is carbed I can taste some but not much just some extra heat. However it doesn't have the caramel flavor I have come to associate with barley wines. I had too many new variables in this recipe. I was mainly brewing for the yeast cake this beer would provide.

 

[ebbelwoi]

For those who are getting hazy beers with Voss, are you starting with clear wort, or is the wort already hazy when you transfer it to the fermenter?