Hornindal Kveik is blowing my mind

[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.

I pitched the first pack with no starter into some 1.069 wort at about 85 degrees and after the first 12 hours it had shown no signs of fermentation. I pitched the second pack just to be safe at the 12 hour mark and checked gravity at 24 hrs. No indication of fermentation. At hour 30 this yeast began to do its work and now at hour 40 it's going strong, full krausen. After reading this thread I expected to see signs much sooner, and even thought I may have missed it, hence the gravity reading. At this point I think the age of yeast and most probable cause was the health of the yeast culture prior to my purchase. As my first brew with Kveik I may have expectations a little too high but lesson has been learned. A fresh pack of Hothead is en route now for my next brew.

 

[TGFV]

Mushroom/earthy/caramel flavours have been reported with Hornindal since it was first documented. It happens and hopefully it turns out good.

If it keeps happening perhaps it is an interaction between the yeast and either:
water chemistry
Grains
Hops
Just that batch of yeast.

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?

View attachment 684942

 

[TGFV]

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.

I've had problems myself with bottle carbing. If I let it ferment out for 1-2 weeks or do any sort of aging (fruit etc) it can take 3-4 weeks to carbonate.

But for the two batches inbottles on day 3&4 respectively, I had my bottles ready in 3&4 days lol.

 

[TGFV]

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?

All you need to keep the temps up are like other people said, wrap it up (towels work amazing) and pitch hot.

I also started using normal pitch rates as opposed to kveik pitch rates (studies from Escarpment show pitch rate may not be as huge of a flavour factor as originally though), the flavours come out great and the extra yeast activity causes it to heat up and stay hot.

 

[Brewmasher]

I've had problems myself with bottle carbing. If I let it ferment out for 1-2 weeks or do any sort of aging (fruit etc) it can take 3-4 weeks to carbonate.

But for the two batches inbottles on day 3&4 respectively, I had my bottles ready in 3&4 days lol.

I have read that Kveik flocs out so hard, you may need to add bottling yeast. I bottled after 5 days, conditioning at higher temps, outside in full sun. I cracked a bottle after 3 days, while still under carbed, it is coming along nicely. I would say it had about a weeks worth of conditioning using standard yeast

 

[nine9bullets]

I pitched the first pack with no starter into some 1.069 wort at about 85 degrees and after the first 12 hours it had shown no signs of fermentation. I pitched the second pack just to be safe at the 12 hour mark and checked gravity at 24 hrs. No indication of fermentation. At hour 30 this yeast began to do its work and now at hour 40 it's going strong, full krausen. After reading this thread I expected to see signs much sooner, and even thought I may have missed it, hence the gravity reading. At this point I think the age of yeast and most probable cause was the health of the yeast culture prior to my purchase. As my first brew with Kveik I may have expectations a little too high but lesson has been learned. A fresh pack of Hothead is en route now for my next brew.

Fermentation holding strong at 81 degrees. It had been at high krausen for a about 24 hours and I added 2 oz of dry hops. Immediately after adding dry hops the yeast began producing extremely pungent sulfur smell. It lasted for about 12hrs but seems to be gassing off. Prior to the dry hop addition it smelled amazing but I assume the intro of hops caused some extreme stress for the yeast. I am not confident that this batch will turn out great but I will continue to go through the motions until i know for sure!

 

[The M]

Mushroom/earthy/caramel flavours have been reported with Hornindal since it was first documented. It happens and hopefully it turns out good.

If it keeps happening perhaps it is an interaction between the yeast and either:
water chemistry
Grains
Hops
Just that batch of yeast.

Yeah, I did some researching and also found that the mushroom/earthy flavours you described was indeed documented. I took a gravity reading on Tuesday since the air lock was quiet and the Hornindal had done its job. Measured the FG and it was spot on. Down from 1.051 to 1.009 in less than four days. Also the mushroom/earthy flavours had disappeared so the beer was ready for kegging. Aroma was very fruity and from the taste I got strong orange & tropical fruit flavor and some hop burn since I dry hopped it two days earlier. This yeast is truly a beast of its own kind. I'm really impressed

 

[The M]

All you need to keep the temps up are like other people said, wrap it up (towels work amazing) and pitch hot.

I also started using normal pitch rates as opposed to kveik pitch rates (studies from Escarpment show pitch rate may not be as huge of a flavour factor as originally though), the flavours come out great and the extra yeast activity causes it to heat up and stay hot.

I actually bought a new heater for my fermentation fridge and kept the temp @90F the whole time. BTW what is your yeast temp while you pitch? I took a temp reading from my yeast and it was about 90F and the wort temp was about 86F. I was just wondering that should I follow the normal pitching technique meaning pitching to slightly cooler wort? At least that's what I do when I'm brewing ales.

OK, that's interesting about the pitch rate. I spun up 1L starter prior brewday and harvested half of the starter to the mason jar and pitched the other half. I don't know how many cells there was since Omega didn't provide any cell count in the packet. The packet was three weeks old so it was pretty fresh. I might try underpitching next time so I can get some data how it affects to the final product

 

[Brewmasher]

I got earthy, prune like flavors off the sample I force carbonated right after fermentation (5 days). Monday it will be a week conditioning at higher temps. I was hoping to get some orange out of it. I plan to blend with Belgian yeasts that favor orange peel in the boil

 

[Brewmasher]

I cold crashed a bottle last night after a week @80 deg temps. Prett much fully carbonated! The earthy prune flavor is gone. I am still struggling to taste any tropical orange flavors. It is mostly clean with residual sweetness. I am hoping another week or two will dry it out a bit. It tastes more like an English barley wine rather than anything Belgian or French.

 

[firerat]

Took my first dive into kveik this weekend.

Very basic cascade / citra IPA using voss a friend of mine cultured for me (not sure where he got it though) chugging along in my 90F storage unit.

I pitched it around 100F and it started going nuts within 3 hours. I'm going to let it chug away until Saturday, then see what we got.

 

[NobleNewt]

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?

View attachment 684942

That looks perfectly normal to me. My Voss Kveik looks creamy and fluffy like that too. Pretty impressive that your hops are managing not to break the surface tension!

 

[BongoYodeler]

Well, I finally did it. I stopped at my LHBS this afternoon and picked up my first Kveik yeast. Got a package of Omega's Voss strain. It's currently part of a starter on the stir plate. Hope to brew a tropical ipa this weekend using a little Nugget for bittering, and then Citra, Galaxy, and Idaho7 for aroma.

 

[BongoYodeler]

Well, I finally did it. I stopped at my LHBS this afternoon and picked up my first Kveik yeast. Got a package of Omega's Voss strain. It's currently part of a starter on the stir plate. Hope to brew a tropical ipa this weekend using a little Nugget for bittering, and then Citra, Galaxy, and Idaho7 for aroma.

So, this Voss Kveik has only been spinning for 10 hours, and the krausen has already been up to the neck of the 2 liter flask. And fallen. I've only done a few starters, using other yeasts, but this is the first time I've seen such activity.

 

[beersk]

You totally did not need to make a starter. This yeast is fine to underpitch by extreme amounts.

 

[BongoYodeler]

You totally did not need to make a starter. This yeast is fine to underpitch by extreme amounts.

My plan is to decant, step up the starter, then move it to a sterilized Mason jar, and store for multiple future batches.

 

[beersk]

My plan is to decant, step up the starter, then move it to a sterilized Mason jar, and store for multiple future batches.

Good call.

 

[firerat]

Finally sampled my voss citra IPA.

Thus straight up tastes like Hawaiian punch to me. I wasn't sure what to expect but holy cow.

A very interesting flavor for sure. Kind of curious what it will do in a blonde. Or even a stout.

This is gonna be fun.

 

[beersk]

Finally sampled my voss citra IPA.

Thus straight up tastes like Hawaiian punch to me. I wasn't sure what to expect but holy cow.

A very interesting flavor for sure. Kind of curious what it will do in a blonde. Or even a stout.

This is gonna be fun.

By the way, this thread is about Hornindal kveik continuing to blow the minds of those using it There's another thread somewhere about Voss. Not sure it's blowing their minds or not. It's possible those using Voss over Hornindal have decided to keep in mind not to let their respective minds be blown and stay rather, well, whelmed ;D

 

[firerat]

nevermind

 

[beersk]

I don't mean to offend. Sorry if I did. By all means, continue to talk about all things kveik. Was just saying this is specific to Hornindal, is all. I plan to brew my next string of beers with Omega Hornindal starting with a kolsch-style. I think I'll do a wheat beer after that. But I definitely plan to do another black IPA as I made one last year with Hornindal and it was probably the best black IPA I'd made in ages. That yeast works incredibly well in that style.

 

[Beer-lord]

I don't mean to offend. Sorry if I did. By all means, continue to talk about all things kveik. Was just saying this is specific to Hornindal, is all. I plan to brew my next string of beers with Omega Hornindal starting with a kolsch-style. I think I'll do a wheat beer after that. But I definitely plan to do another black IPA as I made one last year with Hornindal and it was probably the best black IPA I'd made in ages. That yeast works incredibly well in that style.

I love BIPA's. Would you care to share your recipe?

I've got a Hornindal beer I'm brewing soon and am working on a recipe and am not sure where I want to go with it this time. I have a shyte-ton of different hops to play with and can't make up my mind for a big pale ale.

 

[beersk]

I love BIPA's. Would you care to share your recipe?

I've got a Hornindal beer I'm brewing soon and am working on a recipe and am not sure where I want to go with it this time. I have a shyte-ton of different hops to play with and can't make up my mind for a big pale ale.

Gladly. Here's what I brewed last year. This year I plan to make it smaller, more like 5% and maybe not bother with dry hopping.

None More Black

​ Amount​ Item​ Type​ % or IBU​ 12 lbs​ Golden Promise (1.8 SRM)​ Grain​ 77.17 %​ 1 lbs 4.8 oz​ Rye, Flaked (2.0 SRM)​ Grain​ 8.36 %​ 12.0 oz​ Carafa III (525.0 SRM)​ Grain​ 4.82 %​ 8.0 oz​ Crystal Rye (60.0 SRM)​ Grain​ 3.22 %​ 1.00 oz​ Blend [10.00 %] (20 min) (First Wort Hop)​ Hops​ 13.7 IBU​ 3.00 oz​ Dry hop blend [10.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 days)​ Hops​ -​ 2.00 oz​ Blend [10.00 %] (10 min)​ Hops​ 14.8 IBU​ 2.00 oz​ Blend [10.00 %] (5 min)​ Hops​ 12.3 IBU​ 2.00 oz​ Blend [10.00 %] (0 min)​ Hops​ -​ 1 lbs​ Turbinado (10.0 SRM)​ Sugar​ 6.43 %​ 1 Pkgs​ Hornindal Kveik (Omega)​ Yeast-Ale​

 

[Beer-lord]

Thanks much! Lately I've been adding some chocolate rye to my BIPA and it's not very noticeble in taste but does help the mouthfeel.

 

[beersk]

Good call on that. That sounds good. I also do short boils, 20-30 minutes, for everything. For this one, I think what I'll change is to do what I've been doing lately, which is to add 4oz of hops at flameout and do a hopstand, then add more after chilling down to 170F and rest for a bit longer. I often times find I don't need to dry hop when I do that; I get plenty of hop flavor and aroma for my liking.

I'm hoping to do a kolsch-style beer to get my Hornindal started. I don't want too funky of flavors, so my plan is to chill to 75F, aerate well, and pitch the yeast, maybe a starter. I want it clean. I will get it a little fruitier for the Norwegian Wheat I want to make after that. Should be a nice mid-late summer drinker.

My kegerator recently died on me, so I'm having to go back to using what was being used as my fermentation fridge (it was my original kegerator, a Haier fridge with a tap tower) as a kegerator. Thus, no more fermentation temperature control. Which is fine, I can make it work for the most part. Lagers might be out, but if I can make some good clean kolsch-style beers, I'll be happy enough with that.

 

[porterguy]

By the way, this thread is about Hornindal kveik continuing to blow the minds of those using it There's another thread somewhere about Voss. Not sure it's blowing their minds or not. It's possible those using Voss over Hornindal have decided to keep in mind not to let their respective minds be blown and stay rather, well, whelmed ;D

Hornindal is in the thread title, but as I read through the entire thread, there are MANY comments related to other kveik strains, Just any FYI, no attempt at starting a flame war.

 

[beersk]

Hornindal is in the thread title, but as I read through the entire thread, there are MANY comments related to other kveik strains, Just any FYI, no attempt at starting a flame war.

Touche. Kveik on, then. I just ordered some of the Lutra. As I explained above, my kegerator died, so went back to my old fridge kegerator with a tower and now am without fermentation temp control. Really looking forward to seeing how these "pseudo-lagers" turn out as they say. A helles would be more like a kolsch I guess. Either way, I'm pretty excited to try it. Might be a total game changer!

 

[gonefishin2]

I just tapped a Marris Otter Galaxy SMaSH fermented with Hornindal. This is my second attempt w Kveik. Fermented in the 90s, grain to glass in four days—a little hop bite right now, but that will mellow. The flavor is wonderful.

This feels like cheating!

 

[Andrew7447]

By the way, this thread is about Hornindal kveik continuing to blow the minds of those using it There's another thread somewhere about Voss. Not sure it's blowing their minds or not. It's possible those using Voss over Hornindal have decided to keep in mind not to let their respective minds be blown and stay rather, well, whelmed ;D

I mixed them. The power is over 9000

 

[Beer-lord]

This feels like cheating!

It is amazing that it can taste as good as it does with a 95 degree ferment. And the aromas while fermenting are better to me than any version of Fabreze!