I’m surprised with the amount of simple sugars in the Quad that it’s still at 1.030. If it doesn’t get much lower and is too sweet, you could consider pitching some saison yeast or something with high attenuation. Or just add more kveik I suppose.
I was surprised, too--especially with how long it took to get to 1030 from 1081. The Strong Ale (also 1.080) got about 85% attenuation and finished up at about 1.012 - 1.014 (can't remember exactly, will have to check my notes). I suppose I could get less attenuation given the 3% midnight wheat and 5% aromatic malt in the grist. Good idea on the saison or kveik addition, but since my last post I've been checking and tasting it every 48 or so hours. It has been steadily ticking down after I gave the yeast a good rousing with my wine thief and bumped the temperatures back up to the 90's from the low 80's.
Day 1: 1.081
Day 6: 1.030
Day 8: 1.022
Day 10: 1.018
Day 12: **Will check today**
As of day 10 it tasted a little too sweet to me at 1.018, so I'm really hoping the yeast has a little magic left in it. But it's also weird tasting 85 degree flat beer, so carbonation might help cut through that berry sweetness I perceive. I'd really like to see it around the 1014 range, but asking it to dry out like some of the Belgian yeasts can do might be a tall order for Kveik. We'll see!
I'm also going to crash and fine this one, which I didn't do with the Strong Ale. My experience with kveik is limited to these three experiments so far, but it seems like there's a lot more slurry/yeast sediment produced with this kveik yeast, and this particular strain doesn't drop totally clear. The Strong is still a little hazy but seems to be developing a cleaner flavor profile as it conditions at kegerator temps--not sure if that's from additional yeast dropping out, or other conditioning/aging processes. Might be in my head, but it seems like some of the sweetness and pineapple-forward flavors have retreated to the background, which is a nice improvement over its very young taste, IMO.
Here's the Kveik Red Ale (Irish Red recipe) I brewed on Wednesday:
Technicals - 10.50g batch
OG: 1.060
FG: 1.013 (estimate at 78% attenuation)
ABV: 6.1% (ESTIMATE)
SRM: 19.8
IBU: 25
BU:GU ratio: 0.44 - Balanced
Ingredients:
85% Efficiency (woot woot)
85% Maris Otter (19.00 LBS)
5% Crystal 120 (1 LB)
5% Crystal 40 (1 LB)
5% Chocolate Malt (1 LB)
25 IBU worth of Nugget at 60 min
Process
Single infusion mash at ~153F for 60 min
Mash out at 170F for 15 min
60 Minute Boil
Chilled to 85F and pitched 1600mL Loki Kveik starter made from slurry (left over from Golden Strong Ale) - I used ~800ml per carboy.
Fermentation room set to 90F. Beer temp unknown
I used much less Lactic acid this time. Hopefully that results in less twang--can't tell if that's the yeast, or the low finishing pH of the beer, aided by having a low sweet wort pH--Kveik supposedly buffers the finished beer down lower than standard ale yeasts.
Here are some pics of brewday:
Filling up the mash tun to dough in at 1.25 qt/lb
Recirculating mash through HERMS coil
Nice and clear sweet wort after just 15 minutes--some slight mounding in the middle. I stirred it up good a few times before mashout and reduced the flow after seeing this.
Fly sparging to 12 gallons preboil
Playing around in brewtarget while waiting for the sparge to complete. I sure miss the speed of batch sparging!
My toddler daughter said "That's too very full! Don't make a mess!" LOL
Overall it was a great brew day. I heard Gary Glass on the most recent Beersmith podcast
(link here) talk about his Kveik expermentations. One of the things he notes is how much less water and time it takes when chilling the wort down to pitching temps. I agree 100%--I feel very wasteful blasting water through my plate chiller for 20+ minutes to get to low ale pitching temps, so it's nice to run the wort through at about a gallon a minute and be done quickly.