Just wanted to report on my use of Loki after air drying and freezing. I pitched roughly 1/3 of the flakes into a 1.06 porter and fermentation start was 16 or so hours, leaving me to believe that was an underpitch. Going strong at 30 hours.
Imperial A43 Loki, dried
- Thread starter tellyho
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How did you keep it sterile during the drying process?
That's a new one. Gutsy!
When I leave any leftover (boiled!) starter wort in the stainless pot with a well fitting lid on it, it starts to gets foamy after 1 day and taste funky.
You know you can store harvested yeast in jars in the fridge?
Let us know how that Porter turns out, very curious.
lupulinaddict
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I don’t want to speak for the op, but with a name like Loki I think he is drying it because it’s a kveik. That type of yeast can be dried and reused. I’m interested to hear the results. Didn’t know imperial made one.
Yes, it's Imperial's Kveik
So domestic microflora landing on it while drying in open air isn't an issue when reusing later on? Infections don't happen or won't matter? Interesting...
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Homergah
Only I didn't say fudge
I'm curious to learn how this turns out as well.
Northern_Brewer
British - apparently some US company stole my name
Your starter lacks most of the things that discourage unwelcome visitors - notably hop compounds and dehydration (but it will have some acidity and alcohol, although probably less than a full beer). The general idea is that during a ferment yeast outcompete most of the nasties through sheer vigour in a beer environment that has ethanol, acidity and hop compounds, and then dehydration at worst will preserve a mix of microorganisms where the kveik is hugely dominant, but more likely the drying process will kill off a disproportionate amount of the bad guys. Yes, you'll pick up a few nasties as the kveik ring hangs in a corner over the summer, but they won't be reproducing without water. Then when you rehydrate, the kveik can outcompete them again.
tellyho
Well-Known Member
Proceeding to bottle today, beer is at 1.016, pretty close to my expected FG. A 5 day fermentation. Gravity sample tasted perfectly fine, for a green beer. Bottling with cold brew, as it's a coffee Porter. Will update further with tasting notes once it's bottle conditioned.
Diomed12
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I've dried out Loki twice now and used the flakes for additional brews.
The first time drying it was on parchment, spreading it out with a spatula and letting it air dry in my kitchen with an upside-down strainer covering it and then a paper towel draped over the strainer; the moisture from the slurry leached into the parchment and then into the counter-top, so I put the parchment on plastic wrap. It took 4 days to dry out completely, getting very dark and flaking up. I collected 3.75g of flakes and stored them in a ziploc bag in the fridge. I brewed an APA that I split into fermenters, one with the recommended volume of Loki slurry and another with the entire mass of dried flakes; I couldn't find a recommendation on pitch rate of flakes. During fermentation, the only difference was that the slurry started much quicker, in about 3 hours versus 12 hours for the flakes. The finished brews were indistinguishable in terminal gravity (81% apparent attenuation for both) as well as in sensory.
The second time drying slurry was just on plastic wrap, but I used the same covering as before. On plastic wrap only, it took closer to 7 days to dry out, so a bit longer, but I went with more slurry and collected 12g of flakes. I vacuum sealed the flakes this time for the purposes of long term storage in the freezer. I ended up using 5.5g of flakes on a Midas Touch inspired brew; my logic of 5.5g was that it was 3G of wort/must, so I'd go with a rough, proportional amount of what dry yeast sachets contain for 5G. The flakes took a long time to get going on this one, about 20 hours. There were no unexpected flavors despite not using a heat wrap when fermenting; I've noticed that Loki will throw noticeable sulfur for me on all grain brews if it isn't kept above 70F but that wasn't present here.
Since brewing these, I found that Sleight Beer Labs (https://sleightbeerlab.com) sells 1g samples of dried flakes, advertising them as sufficient for 5 gallons of beer. I'll try using this as my pitch rate in the future.
The first time drying it was on parchment, spreading it out with a spatula and letting it air dry in my kitchen with an upside-down strainer covering it and then a paper towel draped over the strainer; the moisture from the slurry leached into the parchment and then into the counter-top, so I put the parchment on plastic wrap. It took 4 days to dry out completely, getting very dark and flaking up. I collected 3.75g of flakes and stored them in a ziploc bag in the fridge. I brewed an APA that I split into fermenters, one with the recommended volume of Loki slurry and another with the entire mass of dried flakes; I couldn't find a recommendation on pitch rate of flakes. During fermentation, the only difference was that the slurry started much quicker, in about 3 hours versus 12 hours for the flakes. The finished brews were indistinguishable in terminal gravity (81% apparent attenuation for both) as well as in sensory.
The second time drying slurry was just on plastic wrap, but I used the same covering as before. On plastic wrap only, it took closer to 7 days to dry out, so a bit longer, but I went with more slurry and collected 12g of flakes. I vacuum sealed the flakes this time for the purposes of long term storage in the freezer. I ended up using 5.5g of flakes on a Midas Touch inspired brew; my logic of 5.5g was that it was 3G of wort/must, so I'd go with a rough, proportional amount of what dry yeast sachets contain for 5G. The flakes took a long time to get going on this one, about 20 hours. There were no unexpected flavors despite not using a heat wrap when fermenting; I've noticed that Loki will throw noticeable sulfur for me on all grain brews if it isn't kept above 70F but that wasn't present here.
Since brewing these, I found that Sleight Beer Labs (https://sleightbeerlab.com) sells 1g samples of dried flakes, advertising them as sufficient for 5 gallons of beer. I'll try using this as my pitch rate in the future.
That's remarkable, compared to 11.5 grams of factory grown, conditioned, and packaged Fermentis or Lallemand granules.
yoop89
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When I first started with kveik I kept getting hits on this page with every search. http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/264.html
If you read through here, normal pitching rates for dried kveik can be as low as 1 tsp for 5 gallons! After using both Hornindal and Voss from OYL I dried the slurry from both on parchment paper using a dehydrator with the lid cracked. I know have two half pint jars worth of kveik. Every time I brew with these dried flakes I pitch just a tsp at 95-105F and it’s taking off within a couple hours. The flavors that these strains throw when they are stressed (high heat/low pitch rate) are amazing! I have noticed no drift in attenuation or flavors with my dried flakes but i also haven’t used them in a couple months either. I will get them back into rotation once the the snows gone.
YMMV but I have had great luck with drying these strains. I did take every precaution I could to prevent contamination on my end. If you read through some of the posts on larsblog you can see that these strains are pretty hardy. Most of the brewers store them on wooden rings in the rafters of the brewshed. Haha
If you read through here, normal pitching rates for dried kveik can be as low as 1 tsp for 5 gallons! After using both Hornindal and Voss from OYL I dried the slurry from both on parchment paper using a dehydrator with the lid cracked. I know have two half pint jars worth of kveik. Every time I brew with these dried flakes I pitch just a tsp at 95-105F and it’s taking off within a couple hours. The flavors that these strains throw when they are stressed (high heat/low pitch rate) are amazing! I have noticed no drift in attenuation or flavors with my dried flakes but i also haven’t used them in a couple months either. I will get them back into rotation once the the snows gone.
YMMV but I have had great luck with drying these strains. I did take every precaution I could to prevent contamination on my end. If you read through some of the posts on larsblog you can see that these strains are pretty hardy. Most of the brewers store them on wooden rings in the rafters of the brewshed. Haha
tellyho
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I'm not sure that the pitching recommendations from Lars' page apply to the commercial varieties. My understanding is that the commercial versions are one strain, vs. possibly multiple organisms in an actual Norweigan Kveik. I certainly pitched more than 1g and still had a long time before fermentation was strong.
