Voss Kveik yeast is a monster

Sounds you've captured the true rural Voss character & aroma from Gjernes farmstead

 

Bit does it taste like feces? That’s the big question!

 

Brewed a late-hopped Pale Ale on NYD and fermented (with washed yeast from the Porter a month ago) at 90+ for 4 days. Forgot to add any clarifying agent in the boil, as I so often do... and the beer is super-hazy, not what I wanted. Chilled it to 45 F and still looks like orange juice. Tastes harsh from all the suspended matter. I've added gelatin and have it chilling at 34F now so we will see if it clears in time to serve on Friday... seems unlikely though.

Recipe for 10 gallons: 7 kg Pale Ale (67%) 3 kg Munich II (28%) 500 g Crystal 40L (5%)
28 g Columbus FWH, 60 minute boil, 70 g each Columbus, Simcoe, and HBC342 at 1 minute and another 70 g each of the same hops in the whirlpool for 20 minutes at about 165F. Obviously too much late hops gave me a hazy NEIPA (not my favorite style) instead of a hoppy APA.

Lesson: You can ferment out in a short time, but getting a clear beer is another matter. For a quick turnaround I should have stuck with a more traditional hopping schedule.

On the plus side, the yeast dried the beer out nicely - from 1050 to 1010, can't argue with that.

 

[QUOTE="I've added gelatin and have it chilling at 34F now so we will see if it clears in time to serve on Friday....[/QUOTE]

Well I’m happy to report that it did clear up enough to serve last Friday and the beer was well received. It’s basically a slightly hazy IPA, bitterness is just right and the hop flavor comes through even though there isn’t much aroma. Perfectly quaffable beer.

So this stuff really can do great work on short notice.

 

15 hours after pitching...

 

I've said elsewhere but probably worth mentioning in this thread that the Lallemand dry version of Voss is now available at UK retailers, at a price just above Lallemand New England; I don't know what their plans are for rolling it out elsewhere in the world.

 

I did a 3 gallon batch of a dry Irish Stout last week fermenting with with 5 ml of a 2nd generation Voss Kveik slurry. I pitched on a Saturday evening holding fermentation at 95F. By Monday morning my gravity was at 1.015 (target was 1.013). By Thursday gravity hadn’t changed so kegged. Still waiting for it to carb but what went into the keg tasted great with just a slight hint of orange notes. Less than 48 hours to complete fermentation with no diacetyl rest required is awesome!

 

It now appears on the list of Swedish & Central European retailers, too. I might give it a shot in the summer when it gets hot.

 

Ridiculous. I can't see me using a different yeast again. With the added bonus that my slurry will always be fresh and healthy!

 

Speaking of slurry... I've been reading a little bit about top crop harvesting yeast, which I know can be done for any yeast, but I was wondering what everyone was doing in order to continue to use their Voss strains..

I did a vitality starter yesterday evening just to wake up my yeast. I plan on doing a hoppy American Wheat-ish beer with lots of late addition hops, so I want as much of the fruity juiciness from this strain as possible so I plan on underpitching and letting those characteristics come out.

What I was wondering is, could someone conceivably top crop a starter and use it for a future brew or would there not be enough yeast in that cropping? I plan on top cropping my actual fermentation, but when I saw the krausen this morning on my starter, it made me wonder if that was a good practice or if it would even matter.

Also, how much top cropped yeast is enough to put back for future brews? I've read that many brewers will harvest a quart worth of top crop, but that seems a little excessive.

 

Best practice is to continue to harvest the same way the strain was developed. In the case of Voss, it is harvested from the bottom.
http://www.garshol.priv.no/download/farmhouse/kveik.html#kv1

 

Solid! I didn't know that page existed on Lars' blog.. So a bottom harvested yeast would be a more conventional harvest after fermentation, correct?

 

I brew a pale ale Saturday and pitch voss that I keep in a jar in the fridge (use 90% and fill with fresh most for the next batch and let it ferment), never had any problem, this is my sixth or seventh brew, but yesterday arrive at home and the place was smelling like a movie theater.
Took a sample, tasted good but smelled very intensely popcorn and it's very cloudy.
I'm now fermenting at 17°c / 63F, pitched at 26c.
I think this may be appening because of the low fermentation temp.
As this appened to anyone? Will it clean up? Any suggestion?

 

Sounds like you’re smelling what diacetyl tastes like. As for it smelling that way, I have no idea. Maybe you’re smelling a hint of sulphur? Did you use nutrient in your brew?

I’m not one to identify off flavors, but those would be my thoughts.

 

Correct. According to Lars, that would be 3.5 days after pitch.

 

Understood. But harvesting that yeast after fermentation is completed wouldn't be a bad practice necessarily, would it? I don't have a conical fermenter to be able to take that harvest out from the bottom unless there's another method.

 

I do mine after fermentation and have had zero issues. I find it hard to believe such a robust yeast can't wait a few weeks...

 

Right. I suppose, though, it may have to do with harvesting the most viable healthy yeast? To me that seems like it could be a little bit detrimental. I always assumed that having some dead cells along with a fractional amount of trub would help keep nutrient levels high during storage. I usually harvest the half gallon or so of trub into a 1 gallon glass jug, top up with some clean water as needed, give it a good shake and decant the yeast cells off.

One thing I've noticed over the past few days of my Omega Voss yeast starter is that the yeast is highly flocculant. I mean, it sticks like glue to my flask and globs up like nobody's business. The oatmeal stout I made with the stuff a while back is crystal clear.. No haze or gunk in the bottles whatsoever and that's doing everything I could to mess that brew up!

 

See my post above (nr 165) with the voss after 15 hours - krausen already been and gone. Seems nice and viable and healthy to me

 

Yeah!

I pitched my glob of yeast into my viability starter and stuff was moving within 30 minutes. Lars even says it's not unusual to see activity within that timeframe.

 

I also think it's diacetyl, don't think it's sulfur...
Never used nutrient and never had any problem
My questions are, have anyone had a smell like this with voss and do you think the yeast will clean for itself?

 

Allegedly, yes. Yeast produce diacetyl but they also clean it up. Here's an article.

You may have just sampled it/stumbled upon it during peak diacetyl? If that's even a thing..

 

Thanks for the article, I will let the beer at least a couple more days in the Fermentor...

I'm still curious if something like this as ever happened to anyone with voss and if you think that the origin was the low fermentation temperature

 

Brewed a kolsch-ish recipe on Saturday. About 80/20 Vienna and White Wheat Malt mashed at 147, pitched Voss at about 85 degrees. Started at 13.2 Brix (1.053) and Monday was already down to 7 Brix (1.013 with refrac. correction).

About 48 hours and 75% attenuation!

 

I’ve experienced the same. My wheat/kolsch ran down to 1.012 quickly, but stopped there when the carboy dropped into the 60s. I’ve applied the heating pad to get the yeast warmed up and there seems to be a mini krausen developing. I’m already at 75% attenuation, but my estimate was 82%. Basically, it should finish out about 3 SG points lower.

Seems like this yeast doesn’t care much for temps in the 60s unless you’ve got the patience and time to baby it along at those lower temps. I don’t, and I’d like to bottle this weekend!