Aurland #38 Farmhouse “Kveik” test

[bleme]

I picked up this very interesting yeast from KveikSupply on Etsy, even though it’s not a true Kveik yeast. It isn’t even classified as Saccharomyces. It is happiest at 78.8F and is supposed to have a pleasant fruitiness that is hard to describe.

I wanted to keep it simple to showcase the yeast. I’m also very short on time. I know if I made it all-grain, it wouldn’t get done for a while.

Pour 3 gallons RO water in fermentor with 1 gram of yeast
Boil 2 gallons of RO water .
Add 1.5 oz Cascade
Boil 15 minutes
Flame out
Add 6 lbs light DME
Chill to 100F
Pour through brew bag into fermentor
Stir vigorously with my giant whisk
Set out of the way in my 78F house

I was a little skeptical that 1 gram of yeast could handle 5 gallons but 22 hours later it is bubbling!

 

[Amadeo38]

Interested to hear your tasting notes on it. I also picked up a 1g packet from kveiksupply but have yet to use it. I did throw it into a starter before streaking it on an agar plate, and the resulting beer from the starter was sour (around a pH of 4.5 after 24h in the starter of RO and Light Pilsen DME), funky, and fruity. Here is a pic of one of the plates I streaked. Some folks on MTF feel that there are at least two colonies in there. As soon as my centrifuge tubes arrive, I plan to harvest a single colony and grow it up in an attempt to make a more pure Candida culture. Will test the resulting wort to see if it’s better or worse than the original as-supplied from KveikSupply.

 

[Coffeeturnal]

Please do post more updates as you use this

I've seen it talked about briefly, but with little discussion as to its flavor. I've got some other brews in the docket for now but am curious about some of the less talked about kveik/landrace yeasts.

 

[bleme]

This morning when I left for work it had been 64 hours since pitch and it was still bubbling steadily, but perhaps a little slower than yesterday. It just has a 3-piece airlock but has never threatened to blow. Krausen has always been a little under an inch thick.

 

[bleme]

At 74 hours it was 42 bpm (bloops per minute) and 29 bpm at 88 hours.
It's taking longer than I expected, but that's yeast for ya....

 

[bucketnative]

Quick questions here about your plans for saving this yeast after fermentation. I imagine that you would wash and dry the slurry from the bottom of the fermenter, right? Any thoughts on how to do that?

 

[bleme]

I plan on using this method:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/drying-kveik-fast-and-easy-method.669196/

 

[bucketnative]

I plan on using this method:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/drying-kveik-fast-and-easy-method.669196/

Seems simple enough, thanks.

 

[bleme]

At 110.5 hours it is down to 11bpm. Krausen has fallen and it looks like a pretty solid inch of trub. I've never taken a picture from this view before, but it almost looks like it has a film on top.

 

[bleme]

Kegged this up Saturday with 125 grams of priming sugar. FG was 1.007 and 6.0% ABV. Taste was tropical fruit and orange zest. It didn't seem sour at all but there is a fruity tartness. It seemed to have a lot of body, more like an English beer, despite the low FG. I was tempted to start an identical batch right away but I'll wait till Wednesday when it is cold and carbed.

Also, it won't let me edit my original post but my boiling water did include 4tsp of Burton salts. I normally use whirlfloc and yeast nutrient but those were forgotten on this batch.

 

[bleme]

Kept the keg at 79F for 3 days, then one day in the fridge. Got my first pour last night. It's a little yeasty, which I expected. It also seems very sweet, even though the hydrometer still shows 1.007. It is VERY fruity.

I think to really highlight the yeast, you would have to do a 60 minute boil with just bittering hops but 15 minute Cascade really compliments this yeast. If I were taking it to a beerfest, I'd probably leave the recipe alone. There are always a ton of ladies there looking for light, fruity beers. For my own consumption I think I'd prefer a little more bitterness to balance. Since I have a load of free Cascade and Belma that needs used, I'll probably just increase my hops .5 to 1oz on the next batch.

 

[Amadeo38]

Good to know. I’m using it this weekend in a spruce tip golden ale. I believe the spruce tips might add some bitterness I’m not accounting for in my IBU calculations (only .25oz centennial at 60’ and .50oz at 15), so the fruitiness of this yeast may help to balance that.

 

[bleme]

Keg has cleared up some and lost a bit of it's sweetness but it is still very hazy. It is still very juicy but more balanced and easy to drink. We've been trying to think up names if I took it to a beerfest. My mom thinks "Cutie Fruitie". I'm leaning toward "Norwegian Bastard".

I gave a glass to a friend who is a BJCP judge and his comment was "It's different, and I like different. I think it's growing on me!". Not a glowing review, but I'll take what I can get!

 

[bucketnative]

I just got 1g of this blend. The funny thing is when you open the envelope that contains that little black baggie... you think, "How did the post office not think this was drugs?"

 

[Amadeo38]

US Post office supposedly needs a warrant to open First-Class mail, UPS and FedEx don’t.

 

[Amadeo38]

Just had the first carbonated and chilled glass of the spruce tip golden ale with this yeast. Unfortunately, the seller seems to have very poor yeast handling, as the beer is POF+. This isn’t something that should be in the original Aurland strain. It seems his/her poor handling is either inconsistent given the OP’s fruity beer, or the lemon and peppery type phenolics are simply hidden in that recipe. I’ve got a saison on my hands now, a style of which I’m not the hugest fan, with a very mild spruce character in the background.

I’m planning to ferment a gallon of a blonde ale with the plated and isolated culture I pulled from this Kveik supply “Aurland” pitch, and hope that based on the DME comparison, it’s more fruity and less phenolic. Don’t think I’m going to even try to use the framgarden or tormodgarden strains I bought from them now...

 

[Coffeeturnal]

I've recently been hearing some rumors of problems like this from other people as well regarding this supplier.

I have framgarden from them on a stir plate right now. May do a super mini batch with dme to see if I have similar problems before I commit to a full batch.

I'm sorry to hear that it messed up your batch

 

[Amadeo38]

I've recently been hearing some rumors of problems like this from other people as well regarding this supplier.

I have framgarden from them on a stir plate right now. May do a super mini batch with dme to see if I have similar problems before I commit to a full batch.

I'm sorry to hear that it messed up your batch

Thanks. I wouldn’t say it’s messed up, but rather a style that just isn’t my favorite. It’s not bad, and in fact, with some lagering time, might be a fine saison. Just not what I had hoped for.

Good idea doing a small batch first with your framgarden.

 

[SanPancho]

Kegged this up Saturday with 125 grams of priming sugar. FG was 1.007 and 6.0% ABV. Taste was tropical fruit and orange zest. It didn't seem sour at all but there is a fruity tartness. It seemed to have a lot of body, more like an English beer, despite the low FG. I was tempted to start an identical batch right away but I'll wait till Wednesday when it is cold and carbed.

Also, it won't let me edit my original post but my boiling water did include 4tsp of Burton salts. I normally use whirlfloc and yeast nutrient but those were forgotten on this batch.

So in a nutshell, tropical fruit with orange, good body even at low fg?

 

[bleme]

So in a nutshell, tropical fruit with orange, good body even at low fg?

Yup. I'll add that it has great head on the pour, but that disappears fast, which is pretty much what one would expect with an all-extract beer. I'm looking forward to trying the yeast with other recipes to isolate what flavors the yeast is responsible for.

 

[Coffeeturnal]

Thanks. I wouldn’t say it’s messed up, but rather a style that just isn’t my favorite. It’s not bad, and in fact, with some lagering time, might be a fine saison. Just not what I had hoped for.

Good idea doing a small batch first with your framgarden.

So, the framgarden on the stir plate smelled Belgian. Maybe I can get the apple ester if I squint. I'm not good at identifying individual fruit esters though so take my experience there with a grain of salt.
However, it did taste incredibly clean.

I am finishing up drying it to keep as a stock. Once my mini-test-batch fermenter (read: Mr. Beer keg that I started on) is freed up I'll probably try to get a small DME batch in there to properly test it. I won't be able to get that one to typical kveik temperatures, but room temperature and under pitching should at least give me an idea of the character.