Hornindal Kveik is blowing my mind

[Saunassa]

I have another batch of beer fermenting with Hornindal. Did not notice until ready to pitch that it was packaged the end of August. Smelled ok, maybe a little 'tangy' but thought what the heck, they say good for 5 months and it is six and under pitch is good. Fermenting at 88f simply because I like the number.
Nothing noticable for 8 hours and beer was nice and clear so I was worried.. At 10 hours post pitch when I checked I could see some bubbles starting.and four hours later krausen started to form and I could relax.
According to the tilt it has only dropped 7 points so far but yeast is still multiplying. Yes I gave the fermenter a shake because the tilt is surrounded by krausen.

 

[HopsAreGood]

I brewed a beer last Thursday and pitched in a full pack of Omega’s Hornindal At 7pm. The pack was only 8 days old so it was super fresh. I did not make a starter. The SG was 1.070 and this morning at 7am ( 84 hours from pitching) it’s at 1.012 and
appears completely finished. Soft crashing it now to 60 degrees, and am planning to transfer it tomorrow morning, carb it up, and pour the first glass tomorrow evening around 7pm. So grain to glass in 5 days. I’ll report back tomorrow.

 

[Saunassa]

Amazing after 10 hours of nothing and about another 24 hours if yeast multiplying and slight fermentation happening it really took off. Went from 1.053 to 1.017 between 7am yesterday and 7 am today. 36 points in 24 hours. Today it has slowly dropped to 1.012 and steady there for 3 hours and the yeast has been floculating like crazy. Numbers are courteous of my tilt.

 

[jacobitti]

I just ordered this yeast and just started to think about the temps and realized that I cant really keep the temps up in the 80's and above. low to mid 70's at best. Should I still use or table until the summer?

 

[k-os]

I just ordered this yeast and just started to think about the temps and realized that I cant really keep the temps up in the 80's and above. low to mid 70's at best. Should I still use or table until the summer?

You can still use it, you might not get as many of the esters it's known for. I use a seeding mat with an Inkbird when I use my Kveik and am able to hold it at 85 easily with an old sweatshirt over the whole thing.

 

[Beer-lord]

I haven't used any Kveik yeast all winter. Not sure how it works below 80. But in NOLA it's already almost summer weather so I'm gonna try a number of my recipes with this year this summer. Can't wait.

 

[Saunassa]

Awesome! How does this strain compare to a more "traditional" NEIPA yeast (ex:1318). Seems like you can brew any style with the Kveik. (someone phonetically spell Kveik for me )

I brew a blonde that I use Balsam fir tips in near the end of the boil.
Pronounced a variety of ways so I just say it as kwake so it rhymes with my recipes name East Lake Kveik ale.

 

[jacobitti]

You can still use it, you might not get as many of the esters it's known for. I use a seeding mat with an Inkbird when I use my Kveik and am able to hold it at 85 easily with an old sweatshirt over the whole thing.

Thanks for the info! I have a seed mat that I'll try...

 

[beersk]

I just ordered this yeast and just started to think about the temps and realized that I cant really keep the temps up in the 80's and above. low to mid 70's at best. Should I still use or table until the summer?

You can still use it. It'll just be a bit cleaner. But the biggest benefit is that you can chill down to the 90's and pitch the yeast without aeration. It'll take off fermenting really fast and eventually chill down to room temp after it's done (in a matter of days). I'm about to make my Hornindal order for the summer. I think I'll kick it off with a bitter.

 

[Saunassa]

Bottled my Hornindal yeast beer today.
On brew day I found when about to pitch the packet of Omega yeast was 6 months old. Did not smell bad so pitched. I knew a lot of yeast was dead but after 24 hours it started to bubble. Fermented at 88F, this stuff is amazing. Most of fermentation was done after 24 hours. Top cropped the yeast and dried so I have enough for another batch. Nice malt with citrus flavor.

 

[Sbe2]

Do you guys let the yeast free rise to room temp or just pitch the yeast directly from the fridge? I have a half a quart of Hornindal in my beer fridge and am wondering if I should pitch the spoonful from the jar right out of the fridge or let it rise to room temp while mashing and boiling.

 

[BreeBrew]

Do you guys let the yeast free rise to room temp or just pitch the yeast directly from the fridge? I have a half a quart of Hornindal in my beer fridge and am wondering if I should pitch the spoonful from the jar right out of the fridge or let it rise to room temp while mashing and boiling.

Let it rise to roomtemp, that is what the package says anyway

 

[Dave Sarber]

Omega's Hornindal blowing thru some 1.150 barleywine wort, 6 hours after pitching.
For this recipe, see Omega's site, 10 day barleywine.
(But I also added a pound each of rye malt, flaked oats, and carafoam).

 

[universalfrost]

My back of the fridge find of two year old hornindal kviek... made a starter and brought back to life. Now in a wheat based ale with light magnum and citra late hop additions.. this sucker was chugging away building huge krausen after only a couple of hours. Glad I used a 6.5 gallon carboy..

 

[kingmatt]

I'm finding Hornindal to be really slow when fermented on the lower end of its temp range. I brewed an IPA on Wednesday 4/15 with a 1.061 SG and have been fermenting it at 78 F. I took a gravity reading yesterday and was surprised to see it had only dropped to 1.040! I already have a brewbelt on it so I moved it from my finished basement to the first floor to hopefully ramp up the temp to get things going.

 

[universalfrost]

Mine is also in the basement and chugging along at 65 degrees. No clue what it’s taken the beer down to from an Sg of 1.50 but it’s been very active based on krausen alone.. I had planned on putting it on a belt but I forgot and at this point it’s really not that important to me

 

[VirginiaHops1]

I'm finding Hornindal to be really slow when fermented on the lower end of its temp range. I brewed an IPA on Wednesday 4/15 with a 1.061 SG and have been fermenting it at 78 F. I took a gravity reading yesterday and was surprised to see it had only dropped to 1.040! I already have a brewbelt on it so I moved it from my finished basement to the first floor to hopefully ramp up the temp to get things going.

When I used it last summer it didn't seem to rip through the wort much quicker than other yeasts. I didn't keep the ferm temp consistently in the 90s though. It was in my garage during summer so got into the 90s during the day but dropped some at night.

 

[kmarkstevens]

So, is there a "consensus" preferred Kviek strain and manufacturer?

I got the Opshaug from White Labs about a year ago, and the two tries I did in the 70F range were not remarkable. I'll re-culture and try one more time. That said, after 18 pages I would expect there is a broad consensus on a preferred strain. Please share

 

[seatazzz]

I brewed an IPA this morning that I pitched Kveiking A44 on; 4 hours after pitching had full krausen. It's probably at about 85-90 still, wrapped in a fleece blanket and towel to help it stay warm. In a day or two I'll take the blanket and towel off and let it ramp down to room temp for dry hopping. Hoping for good things from this yeast.

 

[Saunassa]

I think one of the key things is to keep it warm.

 

[BreeBrew]

I brewed an IPA this morning that I pitched Kveiking A44 on; 4 hours after pitching had full krausen. It's probably at about 85-90 still, wrapped in a fleece blanket and towel to help it stay warm. In a day or two I'll take the blanket and towel off and let it ramp down to room temp for dry hopping. Hoping for good things from this yeast.

My experience is that it will not ramp down to room temp by itself, it will stick at 75-ish. But I am talking about the Hornindal Kveik(OYL-091 HORNINDAL KVEIK by Omega yeast), not the blend of 3 strains that you used, that could be completely different.

 

[Julian Høstan Urrea]

I think one of the key things is to keep it warm.

Not really, if you can put it in a room at room temp, just pitch the Kveik when the wort is around 40degrees celcius and cover it. The beer will be finished long before the wort has managed to cool down. The heat from the actual Kveik working is enough. Of course if you have fermenting fridge and you can manage that kind of heat. That would be better for consistency in the results.

 

[BreeBrew]

Not really, if you can put it in a room at room temp, just pitch the Kveik when the wort is around 40degrees celcius and cover it. The beer will be finished long before the wort has managed to cool down. The heat from the actual Kveik working is enough. Of course if you have fermenting fridge and you can manage that kind of heat. That would be better for consistency in the results.

Just to back this up, the folllowing pic shows fermentation of a brew I did last year where you can see that I pitched the yeast at 28.5C(83F) within a couple of hours it went up to 30C(86F)-ish and it kept itself more or less there for one and a half day then it went down to 25.5C(78F) as primary fermentation was done. After that I siphoned it for the secondary and let it stay in there for 2 weeks or so with some dryhopping in the last 4-5 days after that I bottled. I brought the temp down to 21C(70F) for the secondary(in my fermentation fridge).

 

[The M]

Just to back this up, the folllowing pic shows fermentation of a brew I did last year where you can see that I pitched the yeast at 28.5C(83F) within a couple of hours it went up to 30C(86F)-ish and it kept itself more or less there for one and a half day then it went down to 25.5C(78F) as primary fermentation was done. After that I siphoned it for the secondary and let it stay in there for 2 weeks or so with some dryhopping in the last 4-5 days after that I bottled. I brought the temp down to 21C(70F) for the secondary(in my fermentation fridge).

I just want to make sure if I got this right since I haven't brewed with Kveik before. If I'm going to pitch the yeast (Omega Hornindal Kveik) to 30C (86F) wort it should stay there the whole fermentation assuming the fermentation lasts about 2-3 days? I have a fermentation fridge with heating and cooling capabilities in it but at the moment the current heater is able to keep the fridge temp up to 25C (77F). I've been thinking should I buy a new heat source to the fermentation fridge since my next brew is going to be brewed with OYL-091 yeast or would I be OK if I just pitched the Kveik to 30C wort. The pic BreeBrew posted would indicate that the Kveik might be able to keep the temp up by it's own. I assume that you didn't use any external heat source while fermenting?

 

[BreeBrew]

...
The pic BreeBrew posted would indicate that the Kveik might be able to keep the temp up by it's own. I assume that you didn't use any external heat source while fermenting?

The yeast keeps the temp up on it's own indeed, but at night it dropped a bit so I did use an external heatsource to keep it around 30C.

 

[Saunassa]

Not really, if you can put it in a room at room temp, just pitch the Kveik when the wort is around 40degrees celcius and cover it. The beer will be finished long before the wort has managed to cool down. The heat from the actual Kveik working is enough. Of course if you have fermenting fridge and you can manage that kind of heat. That would be better for consistency in the results.

You are keeping it warm by wrapping it. He said that he was.fermenting it at 70 so to me that was a bit low. I pitch around 85 and use a fermwrap with a towel wrapped around ,to hold it at 88f. Just a number I like. Once it gets rocking about 6 hours in, the fermwrap does not do anything as hornindal keeps itself warm. After two days the wrap keeps it warm for a few more and then I let it cool down to room temp.

 

[The M]

It's my first time using Kveik so I have couple of questions. Planning to brew pale ale or NEIPA with OYL-091 next week and I was thinking about overbuilding a starter so I can repitch in the future. Do you think that pitching about 1-2 teaspoons of slurry from overbuilt starter would be enough for 5gal batch? Many people have commented that 1-2 teaspoons is enough for underpitching 5gal batch but is that advice aimed for original Kveik (Hornindal) strain or does the rule also apply for commercial strains like Omega? Or would it be wise just to pitch half of my 1000ml starter and store rest of that starter to mason jar? The OYL-091 pouch I got is about three weeks old now so it's pretty fresh.

What about the yeast temp when pitching. Should I follow the common practise and pitch the yeast into couple degrees cooler wort? I guess I mean that how sensitive Kveik is concerning to temperature while pitching? My plan is to ferment around 90F and I would also like to underpitch to get those fruity esters shine

 

[k-os]

It's my first time using Kveik so I have couple of questions. Planning to brew pale ale or NEIPA with OYL-091 next week and I was thinking about overbuilding a starter so I can repitch in the future. Do you think that pitching about 1-2 teaspoons of slurry from overbuilt starter would be enough for 5gal batch? Many people have commented that 1-2 teaspoons is enough for underpitching 5gal batch but is that advice aimed for original Kveik (Hornindal) strain or does the rule also apply for commercial strains like Omega? Or would it be wise just to pitch half of my 1000ml starter and store rest of that starter to mason jar? The OYL-091 pouch I got is about three weeks old now so it's pretty fresh.

What about the yeast temp when pitching. Should I follow the common practise and pitch the yeast into couple degrees cooler wort? I guess I mean that how sensitive Kveik is concerning to temperature while pitching? My plan is to ferment around 90F and I would also like to underpitch to get those fruity esters shine

I overbuilt Omega's Hornindal and split up into smaller containers. When using it I shake the container up and then pull 1 or 2 teaspoons off and pitch into my 5 gallon batches. I typically chill into the fermenter to around 85-90F and then pitch yeast.

If OG is under 1.060 I use Wyeast Yeast Nutrient at twice the recommended rate.

 

[beersk]

I overbuilt Omega's Hornindal and split up into smaller containers. When using it I shake the container up and then pull 1 or 2 teaspoons off and pitch into my 5 gallon batches. I typically chill into the fermenter to around 85-90F and then pitch yeast.

If OG is under 1.060 I use Wyeast Yeast Nutrient at twice the recommended rate.

Talk about stretching your yeast out. Wowza...

A friend of mine recently used a jar of Hornindal from last September and it took right off and made a great IPA. This stuff is crazy resilient. Which is why I'm not worried about shipping it in the summer nor am I worried about making sure I use it in time like I do other yeasts.

 

[BrewCityBaller]

Talk about stretching your yeast out. Wowza...

A friend of mine recently used a jar of Hornindal from last September and it took right off and made a great IPA. This stuff is crazy resilient. Which is why I'm not worried about shipping it in the summer nor am I worried about making sure I use it in time like I do other yeasts.

What do you mean stretching your yeast? 1-2 tsp is the best practice pitching rate for Kveik in a 5-gallon batch.

 

[beersk]

What do you mean stretching your yeast? 1-2 tsp is the best practice pitching rate for Kveik in a 5-gallon batch.

By getting multiple uses out of one packet........................................ Major money saver.

 

[BrewCityBaller]

By getting multiple uses out of one packet........................................ Major money saver.

Got it! Yes, smart move.

 

[nine9bullets]

I picked up a few packs for Bootleg Biology Aurora from my LHBS that were on sale due to the date of 12/19/19. After reading most of this thread it seems like I can avoid making a starter and just pitch the whole back with no issues due to the small amount of yeast needed for fermentation. Even if there has been some yeast die off since it was packaged its probably more than enough to have a successful fermentation.

 

[Julian Høstan Urrea]

I picked up a few packs for Bootleg Biology Aurora from my LHBS that were on sale due to the date of 12/19/19. After reading most of this thread it seems like I can avoid making a starter and just pitch the whole back with no issues due to the small amount of yeast needed for fermentation. Even if there has been some yeast die off since it was packaged its probably more than enough to have a successful fermentation.

I agree. Should be fine

 

[Brewmasher]

First time using this yeast (Omega). I am trying to get the most esters, so I know where I stand. Simple grain bill; 19 lbs two row, 1 lb crystal 10L. 1 oz Amarillo hops, half at 60 min. the other half at 15. My aim was to pitch at 90, but turned out to be 88. I have to get used to controlling hotter pitch temps. Usually it is just cold as I can get it. Pitched right out of the packet, 7 gallons at 1.073. I am fermenting outside on my patio. First night it got cool out, and the wort temp dropped to 67. I moved the Fastferment into direct sunlight, covered in a black quilted ferm wrap. Ambient temp went up to 107 in the sum, but so far I I have not been able to break the 88 deg mark. Next time I will use the seedling mat. I didn't think it would be this hard to get wort temps up into the 90's when fermenting outside in direct sunlight wrapped in a black blanket!

After 20 hours I had a nice krausen to harvest. It seems when I skimmed the krausen off, it pissed the little bastards off! My flask sample looked like it was carbonated! After the first 20 hours, I went from 1.073 to 1.062 for an 11 point drop. So, I am 3 days in, and it is still bubbling away. It seems like this yeast is a workhorse rather than a thoroughbred. It doesn't take off with a bang, and then slowly clean things up like a lot of yeasts do. It just keeps chugging away at a steady pace, no matter what the temp.

I am hoping to bottle by Friday. I am going to condition hot too and see how fast that that goes as well. Most of the info I have read so far has all been forced carbed. I really enjoy saisons and big Belgians, so I am thinking of using the kvriek as a finishing yeast after I I get the phenolics off of Belgian yeast. On deck I have a pack of Omega Saisonstien's Monster. Should be interesting!

 

[hottpeper13]

It's funny you mention bottle conditioning . I was able to join a webinar on brewing with Kveik and my question was about that. So the answer was when conditioned at 75* it took 7 days to finish. I thought that would be great for highly hopped beers,so I made an IPA with maple sap that ended up being 8% and I keg conditioned it with 5 oz of pure cane juice sugar and that wasn't enough,still had to carb more once on tap. How To Brew's graph only gose to 75* , mine went to 96* and when done the "S" type lok was even. There's like no CO2 entrained at that temp.

 

[Brewmasher]

From what I understand (Kveik is new to me) Norwegian Farmhouse Ales are typically consumed low carbed. Traditional way was to not even add priming sugar, what ever carbonation you get is fine. I also know some strains flocculate hard, leaving very little yeast to carbonate. More yeast may have to be added at bottling. I don’t know about Hornidal.

I like my beers highly carbonated. A “problem” with the FastFerment is that some yeast sticks to the plastic sides. Maybe this will be an advantage with this yeast.

 

[Brewmasher]

The airlock stopped bubbling yesterday evening, so I tool a reading today. 1.008! In 5 days! The hydrometer sample tasted clean, a little fruity, but no “orange bomb” or any other flavor that stands out. I did feel the alcohol ”burn” on the back of my throat, but no off flavors. The sample still tasted a bit sweet, but that could be because of the low bittering charge. I will bottle tomorrow or Sunday depending on the better half’s plans.

 

[Brewmasher]

Bottled today using honey to prime. FG was 1.10, I forgot to compensate for the warm temp. A lot of trub, presumably because of the extra fine crush. Wort temp fluctuated 61-91 degree, with outside temps (full sun) 115-48. Bottle conditioning outside as well.

I also have some PET bottles chilling to force carbonate.

 

[The M]

Two days ago I brewed a pale ale and it was my first time using Kveik yeast. I pitched the Hornindal (Omega) and it was still going nuts after 40h. The krausen was absolutely huge and thick, never seen that before with other yeasts. My only concern was the taste when I took a sample and did some dry hopping. I got some mushroom/earthy almost dirt like taste. The aroma was very fruity. Pitching temp was about 30C (86F) and today it was fermenting at 32C (90F). Should I be worried about the taste and has anyone else experienced same kind of taste during early fermentation phase?

Here's a pic I took today. Does it look like "normal" Kveik krausen to you?