Belgian Quad with Voss Kveik???

[MikeCo]

Also, after reviewing the grist, I'm realizing I'm relying on the dark candi sugar and a small touch of Aromatic to make it a quad--there's not a ton to differentiate it from my Golden Strong.

If the candi sugar doesn’t have much flavor, you likely need to add some combination of Special B, darker crystal or even chocolate malt to get The flavors you’re looking for In a dark strong ale.

Thanks for the review, and I look forward to see how it is after a few weeks.

 

[Ninoid]

I brew Dubbel with Mangrove Jack M29 on 30'C (86F) and beer is super.

I think that M29 is good yeast for all Belgian ale beers.

 

[luckybeagle]

I fell a little behind on this thread!

Just wanted to post a quick update. With Voss Kveik, I've now brewed the following beers:

• Belgian Golden Strong Ale
• Belgian Dark Strong Ale
• Kolsch
• Irish Red Ale
• Belgian Blonde Ale

(origins in "quotes" since they are not true to style other than the grist)

My opinions:

Golden Strong - Amazing. One of the tastiest beers I've brewed to date. No late hop additions, just a simple, simple SMASH recipe and a hot ferment.
Dark Strong - Fairly tasty. Special B as mentioned above would probably enhanced this beer. Not sure if it was the lactic acid or the Kveik influence, but it has a bit of sour twang.
Kolsch - Drinkable, clean, kind of boring. Fermented at room temperature and put on tap down at my office. Doesn't taste like a Kolsch, but rather a light lager/summer beer. 7out of 10.
Irish Red Ale - Malty, slightly chocolatey. Initially like an Irish Red, though that changed. Very good fresh but got twangy with time and was remarkably different toward the end of the keg. 80F fermentation. I was glad it blew when it was done.
Belgian Blonde Ale - Fermented as hot as possible (95F+). Thin, boring. At times I hate this beer. At other times I realize it's the only thing I have to drink and it's better than nothing. The thinness is likely due to the 1lb of table sugar and the low OG from the grains made it bland. Not a lot of flavor from the malt due to its low makeup. Not a lot going on in this beer, and it shows. Bland. Would probably be much better with 30% more of every grain used, but then it would start getting into Tripel/golden strong territory, and I was hoping for something more sessionable. Oh well.

Take-aways: I'm hanging up my Kveik hat for a while. I fermented half the Kolsch batch with a traditional German Ale strain (Wy1007) and the other half with Loki Kveik. The traditional one took longer but was one of the best, most professional tasting beers I've ever produced. It went FAST. The Golden Strong was the star of this experiment, and the Belgian Blonde was garbage. As others have said, this yeast thrives with high OG beers. I've saved some and am still interested in doing a big barleywine with 100% Maris Otter base and a 70s fermentation temp schedule. I am no longer interested in using it to ferment 1.070 or under beers, though.

My dog has the right impression of the Blonde Ale.

 

[brownni5]

Nice write up. I just got done complaining about the pseudo- Helles I brewed with Oslo Kveik. I brewed the same beer with lager yeast this spring and it was amazing. This beer with Kveik is a boring pale ale. I'm not surprised it's different, but surprised it's so different. I think write-ups like yours (and to a lesser extent, my experience) are incredibly valuable to the brewing community.

I'm glad Kveik is out there for some, but it's not for me.

 

[MikeCo]

Thanks for the follow up! It's interesting to me that the golden strong was so good and the blond was not. They are very similar styles, with the main difference being the alcohol content.

 

[luckybeagle]

Well I'm back at it.

In the fermentation chamber I've got a traditional Chimay Grande Reserve hogging up the space for the foreseeable future. Nothing worth drinking in this weather is in my "cellar" (barleywines and quads don't sound too appealing in this heatwave!) and I'm morally opposed to spending $10 on a six pack when I could brew a 5 gallon batch of *something* for just a little over that amount. What's one to brew?

Enter Kveik Golden Ale!

It's hot, I have a free carboy, a pound of Magnum hop pellets, a 55# bag of MFB Pilsner, and plenty of Loki Kveik at my disposal--seems like everything is set up well to put this one together!

I love being able to do a 60 minute boil, chill to 90-95F, pitch some yeast and then neglect the carboy for a few days. Feels like the early days of homebrewing, only the beer tastes better now!

As mentioned above, Voss Kveik does not seem to go well with lower gravity beers, especially those featuring dark malts, or complex hop schedules. The best outcome I've had to date with Voss is a 1.080+ SMASH beer, hot fermentation temps, and a quick turnaround. 7 days grain to glass is the target, and a record fast brew day is the cherry on top. I think this time I'll add some wheat malt, though, for some head retention. Maybe just 1/2 lb. I really don't want to stray from the Golden strong grist

Kveik Golden Ale (5.25g batch, 72% efficiency - hybrid fly sparge because I'm impatient and have a preemie at home)

OG: 1.083
FG: 1.012
Attenuation: 85%
ABV: 9.25%
Bu/gu: 45
IBU: 37

14 lbs MFB Pilsner malt
0.5 lb Wheat malt
1.5 lb table sugar

37 IBU Magnum at 60 min

Single influsion at 149F for 75 minutes
60 minute boil this time.


Loki Kveik yeast. Probably will just dump in 4 oz of slurry and call it good. 95F pitch temp. Wish me luck?

 

[Mrcmb]

Any tasting notes on the golden strong ale? I'm about a week and a half in to fermentation. I have sort of a strong alcohol taste to it. I pretty much based my recipe off of yours.