Been a while

[seabrew8]

Who can tell me more about these KVEIK style yeasts?

Here in Canada we have this company that i just read about tonight called Escarpment Laboratories. They have this interesting kveik yeast called krispy.

"KRISPY is a special blend of kveik yeasts selected by our lab wizards from the venerable Skare Kveik for optimal crispiness and crushability in beer. KRISPY can be used to make clean, lager-like beers in a fraction of the time since fermentations can be performed at ale temperatures. "

I've been out of the homebrew scene for a number of years now..

 

[VikeMan]

That's a loaded question. Many will say that some Kveik strains can make a geat "lager." I haven't tasted a convincing one yet. IMO, if you want to make a great lager, use a lager strain, at lager fermentation temperatures, and then lager it.

I'm not saying you can't make a very nice "clean" ale with some Kveik strains. But I'll believe the "lager" hype when I taste a great one, or when they start winning BOS round medals in competitions, whichever comes first.

 

[seabrew8]

Thanks, i'm not looking for award winning beers just clean profile so to speak.

Honestly its the first time i read about these type of strains lastnight. I'm going to be giving it a whirl for sure. I always liked us-05 but found it never settled that well. Could be my process and patience lol

I'm not interested in traditional lagering.

 

[Gilbert Spinning Horse]

I'd highly recommend Too Far North for your kveik needs. Skare is a good option for a clean profile and will turn round in a week. Another great thing about kveik is that you only need buy it once, it's dead easy to dry and use again and again. I typically get about 80 grams from a 20 litre brew which at 1 gram/20 litres is going to keep me in free yeast for a while. Personally I'm a big fan of Voss, Hornindale, Skare and Laerdale. I live in a hot country so being able to ferment without a fridge struggling to keep the temperature down was a big plus for me. Actually when I want to get a lot of character from Voss I'll use a heated water bath to keep it around 40ºC.

 

[seabrew8]

Gilbert, how do you dry yeast? That's not something i read about before.

 

[Gilbert Spinning Horse]

Gilbert, how do you dry yeast? That's not something i read about before.

With Kvelk its pretty simple. I do two collections, one at high krausen which yields about 10 grams. You want to scoop the foam and yeast off the top of the beer into a clean jar. This goes in the fridge to settle out. The second collection is from the sludge at the end of fermentation. Leave some beer when you siphon it out, give it a good swirl round and pour it into a clean 2 litre plastic bottle which also goes into the fridge to settle. This yields about 70 grams. After settling out for a week or so I pour off the majority of the beer then give a good shake and pour this out onto some silicon backed paper arranged on a baking tray. I then put the two trays into the oven and turn on the light. After a few days it'll be dry and crispy and can be bagged up and kept in the fridge for ages. Keep the top crop and the bottom crop separate, use the bottom crop for your day today brewing and the top crop when you want to either make another batch of dry yeast or pass some onto someone else.

 

[seabrew8]

Thanks. I might look into it. I have a pack of dried lutra coming as well.

 

[seabrew8]

Just a little update: I've since made 4 batches.

The first 3 were has follows; (The forth was more of a blonde ale using lallemand VOSS's, superfast!)

10# 2-row, 1# Vienna and 3oz of hallertau(1.7AA) for 60min

I used krispy, lutra and 34/70

Krispy and lutra started out at 68f ambient but i moved both to about 75f after about 5 days.

34/70 was at 58f for about 5 days and then sat at 63f.

Krispy and lutra both finished out at 1.013 and the 34/70 is sitting at 1.011.

sg -
krispy - 1.056 - the only difference was i used some brook water....interesting
lutra - 1.050
34/70 - 1.050

They are all finished now and the fastest fermentation was lutra. Krispy was the slowest even slower then 34/70.

I had the lutra in the keg now for about 3 days so i'm very excited to try it!

I didn't do the DMS test i found on the escarpment website, the lutra batch smelled like beer but i might try the test on the 34/70. Few more esters coming off that i believe.

The test describes heating up fermented wort in the microwave, letting it cool down and doing a smell test for buttery popcorn. I think i will give it a go with the 34/70.

 

[VikeMan]

I didn't do the DMS test i found on the escarpment website i found on lutra buecauseit smelled like beer but i might try the test on the 34/70. Few more esters coming off that i believe.

The test describes heating up fermented wort in the microwave, letting it cool down and doing a smell test for buttery popcorn. I think i will give it a go with the 34/70.

FWIW, what you're describing is a forced Diacetyl test. DMS (i.e. Dimethyl Sulfide (corn/cabbage/vegetal) is a very different compound.