Kveik: all things Opshaug strain version

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kmarkstevens

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White Labs just released their Kveik Opshaug strain WLP518, and looks to be a core strain now. Thought it would be a good idea to consolidate a new "all things Opshaug" post that is easy to find.

According to White Labs: this kveik strain was isolated from a mixed culture which belonged to Harald Opshaug, a farmhouse brewer in Stranda, Norway. This strain was originally used in the 1990s to produce several kornøl-style beers. It is a clean fermenting yeast and has tolerated temperatures up to 91°F (33°C) while finishing fermentation within three to four days.

I am new to Kveiks, and have Opshaug in my queue. Frankly, waiting for the Seattle area to warm up into what passes for summer heat in this area. Today was the first day to break 80F this summer. Will post back when I get an Opshaug going.
 
I've got the Opshaug (arrived a couple days ago) and I'm planning an IPA with it. Will report back.
 
I'm going to do a 1933 Kidd AK historic English bitter. Actually, I did one with temp control, then did a first time keg spund in the garage for a few days. Completely brain farted that even in Seattle, 80+F in the garage is too hot for an ale yeast. While still drinkable, I don't think this is what my AK should taste like.

I'll re-brew with the Opshaug and post back how that works.
 
So, I poured about 1/4 vial of Opshaug into 7 gallons of Kidd AK this morning. Didn't aerate or anything. Came back 10 hours later and here's the krausen:
upload_2019-7-30_19-39-16.png
 
1010 after 48 hours in a garage that's 80-85F during the day and cools to the low 70's at night. The hydrometer sample does have a "rubber" type taste, which I hope clears pretty soon.

To be fair, I had one of those messed up brew days, so I'm not jumping to conclusions on this batch.
 
Dang it. Dunno what I did but the rubber taste only faded a bit. I poured out the batch and thinking it was owing to one of those brew days...Try again this weekend or next.
 
I pitched Osphaug (WLP518) yesterday, Monday August 12. Typical White Labs vial came half filled (about 15 ml of slurry) as usual for their yeasts. Directly pitched half the vial (about 1-½ teaspoon or 7.5ml) into 3.5 gallons of 1.070 OG wort at 74F. IPA recipe follows below. Used ½ teaspoon of yeast nutrient in the boil and heavily oxygenated the wort. Filtered trub and hops. Bucket is fermenting indoors at 75F.

My goal with the use of this yeast is to be able to ferment indoors year round without any temperature control and get my beers in quicker. White Labs has the optimum temperature range as 77-86F, so I am just below the optimal range at 75F, might explain the slower start. I also want to cut my brew-to-drink period from my current 6 weeks (3 week primary + 3 week bottle conditioning) to 4 weeks. I will hopefully be bottling at 2 weeks (though I’m up to shortening this further if others have had good experience) and conditioning for another 2 weeks.

Fermentation has been rather calm for the first 24 hours. I was expecting it to be vigorous, so left some room in the bucket. I will post photos as time goes by, for now, here is one at 14 hours and one at 20 hours. White Labs has fermentation completing 3-4 days. Based on the Registry, Lars blog, and White Labs info this yeast has been top cropped at between 20 and 30 hours from pitching. I’ve never done this before, so I’ll be watching it closely during this time. I’ll scoop out a bit for drying and see what it ends up looking like. I filtered the trub and hops, so I should also have a clean yeast cake for harvesting.

____________________


Meridian IPA

Recipe: Meridian DIPA- As Brewed
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0) Mashed at 148F for 2 hours. Sparged at 156F for 10 minutes.

Recipe Specifications:

Batch Size: 3.50 gal
Boil Size: 4.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.071 SG
Estimated Color: 7.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 77.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 62.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

Amount Item Type % or IBU
10.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 89.85 %
0.50 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 4.49 %
0.25 lb Carafoam (2.0 SRM) Grain 2.25 %
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) 2.25 %
0.13 lb Acid Malt (3.0 SRM) Grain 1.17 %

1.00 oz Horizon [9.80 %] (60 min) Hops 43.2 IBU
1.00 oz Meridian/Centennial 67/33 [6.75 %] 20 min Hops 18.0 IBU
1.00 oz Meridian/Centennial 67/33 [6.75 %] 10 min Hops 10.8 IBU
1.00 oz Meridian/Centennial 67/33 [6.75 %] 5 min Hops 5.9 IBU

0.50 item Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)
.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient- Boil 5.0 min
1.5 tsp Osphaug Kveik- White Labs Yeast-Ale (75% attenuation)

Water: RO w/ Ca 100, Mg 5, SO4 205, Cl 42. PH: 5.28.

Filtered trub and hops. Pitched at 74F. Fermenting at 75F.
 
Finally! Krausen has collapsed today (Day 5) and it's looking like it's almost done. I will take a hydro manana. So far, fermentation has been fairly conventional. I might as well have been using WLP001. Mild, slightly fruity and beery aromas, nothing unusual at all.

Opshaug at 120 hours- small.JPG
 
I got this strain from the vault a few weeks ago. Did a series of starters to revitalize and build up cell counts, actually did cell and vitality counts, plated and then added to my yeast bank. I can't wait to try this bad boy out. We're doing a big Triple IPA on Monday we plan on using it on. I plan on fermenting at the max of the recommended range at 86°F but was curious if anyone has had any experience pushing temps beyond that?
Screenshot_20190817-234525_Instagram.jpeg
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Just did a batch using WLP518. OG:1.052 FG: 1.010 in 3 days. Pitched at 85F and airlock activity started in 3 hours . Today is day 7. I just kegged it and i tasted the sample, it was fantastic.
 
jc587491 said:
Just did a batch using WLP518. OG:1.052 FG: 1.010 in 3 days. Pitched at 85F and airlock activity started in 3 hours . Today is day 7. I just kegged it and i tasted the sample, it was fantastic.
Click to expand...
Great to hear! Not sure what I messed up to ruin the batch I tried. Will try to get a second try going soon.

Having a really cool summer here in Seattle, so can't help with pushing the temp beyond the 86F. :)
 
kmarkstevens said:
Great to hear! Not sure what I messed up to ruin the batch I tried. Will try to get a second try going soon.

Having a really cool summer here in Seattle, so can't help with pushing the temp beyond the 86F. :)
Click to expand...

Maybe it was just an off batch for whatever reason. I have those from time to time.

They say that Kveiks like a lot of yeast nutrient so i added a little extra for this batch, maybe that would help? FWIW, i prefer this strain much more than the Hornidal Kveik i have used in a few other batches.

Hope the next brew day goes better!
Cheers!
 
Got around to taking FG today (Day 7) and it came in at 1.013 for an 81% attenuation and 7.5% ABV. I believe it finished on Day 5. I plan on bottling on Day 10 and then tasting at Day 17 and then assessing from there to determine when it is "good enough." One of my goals here was to determine how quickly I can bring a beer in (shooting for 21 days from brew day to stupor day), as the kveiks are supposed to not only ferment quickly, but also be drinkable sooner. The sample was a bit cloudy and I'm going to have to do some additional fining if it hasn't cleared up in 3 days. I did use whirfloc in the boil. Tasted fine. Meridian is a mild flavored hop, so hop intensity is low. At 70 IBUs I was expecting some additional bitterness than what I found.

wlp518 opaque.JPG
 
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Round two and had a brew day that went very smoothly (vs the first try from hell -- I think I scorched the rubber washers in my converted boil pot hence the nasty burnt rubber taste). I'm leaving on a business trip in a few minutes, so pitching at around 90F from a small starter vial.

It's an ordinary bitter OG 1042. 2 ounces of EKG, and about 1/2 pound of East Seattle Goldings fresh of the vine for the last 10 minutes. Hydrometer tasting is good. Will update in a week or so when I'm back from China
 
Gravity is high at around 1020 after 7 days in the fermenter. Cloudy. Tastes like an ordinary bitter with fresh hops. In other words, at least in this mix, seems pretty neutral. I'll keg with a spunding value and see it that revives the yeast and carbonation.
 
I added 1/2 cup of cane sugar and put on the spund 2 days ago and left it in the 80-85F ambient garage. Since it is Ogshaug, I am not concerned about the garage temp producing off flavors. Pressure in the keg is up to 22. Will let it go a few more days and/or until my other keg runs out.

Scope creep. Started with capping bottles, graduated to 1 liter swing top bottles, eventually to help my daughter with a high school soda making senior project I forced myself to buy a keg, and now it's two kegs. Is there a monkey on my back.

At least I rationalize it as.
1. a session keg lasts me 7-10 days
2. with a second keg, then I've always got a batch ready to drink
3. brewing once/week keeps me ahead of the curve
4. brew the odd non-session beer that should keep a while in bottles, and now I don't drink those early because I've run out of stock
5. I think spunding is cool. If the gravity is too low, then add some sugar for keg carbonation
 
Some final notes on this effort, as I don't think there is a great deal of interest on White Lab's version of the Norwegian yeasts. Omega jumped ahead and left WL in the dust on these, IMO. So goes the score when a company goes corporate as WL has.

I did not get to bottling until Week 3 after pitching due to pure sloth. Beer was still somewhat cloudy, so I fined with gelatin and bottled posthaste. At three days after bottling, the beer looked to be quite clear in the bottle at room temperature and I was hopeful for a showcase brew, but that was not to be. I poured the first beer at Day Six and that is what you see in the picture. Somewhat cloudy when chilled. Though I forgot to check if it was cloudy in the bottle prior to pouring to rule out haze. But carbonation is good enough for a drinkable beer, it is about a week ahead of typical yeasts.

I can't really detect yeast character, certainly nothing offensive. This is a clean yeast and the orange notes of the Meridian hops come through. Not very exciting, but certainly drinkable. It may improve with further conditioning. I think you can get to the bottle with this yeast in 21 days at room temperature. 14 days or even less in fermentation and 7 days in the bottle. I bagged some post fermentation yeast as well as dried some top crop to ensure I can continue to brew without temperature conditioning in the future, if that is what is in store for me. My fermentation chamber tends to get confiscated for meat dry aging and other crazy stuff, so it will be nice to have a single strain yeast that will produce year round at room temperature without conditioning.



Kveik @ 6 Days.JPG
 
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I made an ordinary bitter harvest ale using fresh East Seattle Goldings hops. I used 2 row, English Crystal 50, invert and flaked maize. Sat in my garage around 80F fermenting, and then in the keg spunding. Pulled off a couple of pints from the natural spunded carbonation today. It's tasty with some fresh hop taste, mildly hopped, no overbearing yeast flavors. spund carbonation seems to be the way to go with very fine bubbles and a good mouth feel.
 
Hmmmm..... alrighty, then! 9 days in the bottle and this beer has improved substantially from Day 6. Obviously, this is not a freshly poured brew, 1/3 gone, yet nice head retention, carbonation, and lacing. The beer is clear, not bright clear, but not bad at all, there is a bit of condensation making it look cloudy, but this is a beer I'd be happy with from the clarity standpoint as is. Yeast cake in the bottle is very tight. At only 9 days in the bottle, I'd say this beer is progressing twice as fast as a typically yeasted brew. At 14 days it is going to be done and ready to drink and share, I'd say. I slammed this baby down in 10 minutes, very easy to drink and at 7.5%, and some very interesting flavors coming through, all good. I'm gradually losing my initial skepticism about this yeast.


P9100737.JPG
 
I've got some dried opshaug that i want to use. I don't drink my kegs fast enough to make IPAs (especially NEIPAs) worth it, so i'm always looking for different beer types to use these kveik strains.

Any thoughts on a good beer style to use opshaug? I have a bunch of mild malt (breiss Ashburne) and maris otter. Maybe i could do something along the lines of an ESB?
 
From my very limited experience, this would be a very good IPA strain. Similar to WLP001 in disappearing, but much faster in its fermentation and bottle conditioning. Probably can take 1/3 less time, maybe even half, from brew day to drinkability. And the end result is more interesting. The grain bill on this was the base grain bill for Hop Stupid, pale malt with some Vienna. But I have to say that I have made quite a bit of single and dual blend flavor hop IPAs with WLP001/S05 over the last few months, but none have grabbed my interest right off the bat like this one. I usually sip my brews over a 30-60 minute period, this one went very quick with no hint of the alcohol content. Dangerous, it is.
 
My ordinary bitter with fresh harvest hops is mighty tasty but has not cleared after being in the keg for a ~week. It was spunded, so that might contribute to less clarity. It is tasty but no real yeast esters that my palate can detect.

upload_2019-9-14_18-5-10.png
 
Also curious why this strain has the lowest temp range of all Kveik strains I've seen. Has anyone taken this beyond the temp ranges recommended by Whitelabs?
 
Day 4 on a 1.065 and I'm still experiencing airlock activity, krausen, and clear evidence of ongoing fermentation. And this at 85F. Half a vial pitched into 5G. Pretty much same as last batch, but that was at 75F. Everyone is getting quick action with this yeast but me.
 
smata67 said:
Day 4 on a 1.065 and I'm still experiencing airlock activity, krausen, and clear evidence of ongoing fermentation. And this at 85F. Half a vial pitched into 5G. Pretty much same as last batch, but that was at 75F. Everyone is getting quick action with this yeast but me.
Click to expand...
I still did a traditional starter targeting 0.75 cells/per ml/per °P and oxygenated my wort before pitching which may have sped up my fermentation time
 
I pitched 1 1/2 tsp into my first batch and 1 tsp into my second (both 3 G) from the original vial. For the second, I had it in a Better Bottle so I could see what was going on. For the first 10 hours, there was zero activity, I was considering pitching in some slurry from the previous batch, but between Hour 10 and Hour 14, the fermentation took off like a rocket and has been fermenting in rather conventional fashion since. At Day 4 it is slowing down, with a pop at about every 10 seconds. First brew was all grain and this one is all extract. I want to see if I can get better attenuation with the Kveik, the particular LME I'm using has only been able to get down to 1.019 with a variety of yeasts.
 
Some guidance from White Labs on pitching this yeast:

White Labs ([email protected]) <[email protected]>

Sep 16 at 1:02 PM

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out! For best results, we recommend using (2x) Homebrew Pack per 5 gal up to 1.065 SG, which can be pitched directly. Since this is a very active strain, you would probably be okay with 1 pack, however, I cannot guarantee underpitching will be successful. Making a start is not necessary if you pitch 2 packs. If you choose to make one, I have provided a link to our Homebrew Starter Tips below. Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.

https://www.whitelabs.com/resources/homebrew-starter-tips

I have pitched half a vial into 3.5G twice now, first time everything went fine, though a bit slow and second time is in progress now. What they are suggesting here is no different than for any other yeast.
 
I totally underpitched with max 1/3 of the tube. Also temp was 80-85F during the day and cooled to the low 70's at night. I didn't record number of days but only 2-3 before I spunded in the keg.

Next time I will make a starter. I doubt if the Seattle area makes it to 80F before next July.
 
It seems to be forgiving as to pitch cell count and temperature, like Kveiks have been reported to be. And faster acting. I'm shooting for 21 days from boil to drinkability on this current batch and that at indoor temperatures. Being able to free up the temperature controlled chamber for lagers is going to be a big deal for me, I have avoided them for years for this reason. I can now brew ales without worrying about temperature control during fermentation.
 
I brewed up a 2 gallon batch of pale beer to blend with a stout and pitched 2g of dried opshaug at 91'F before bed. Fermentation was rocking and rolling when I woke up the next morning. Looking forward to how this turns out and I'll also be using this as a way to harvest more opshaug for drying.

OG was 1.074. I currently have it holding at 86'F in my fermentation chamber.
 
I made a 2 liter starter off the last starter last night. Also brewed up a 2.5 gallon 1045 with pale DME, carafoam6%, melanolid 1% and black patent 2% with a BUGU hop ration of 1:2 with first gold and then did a hop back. Starter was going but not gangbusters in the morning. Pitched 1 liter of starter into the wort, and have my brewer friend set to keep the temperature between 85 and 90F. Expect a strong ferment by the end of the day.
 
upload_2019-10-6_19-26-34.png

I poured off half the starter into the 2.5 gallon wort after 12 hours. Then I added new starter wort to the starter, and 12 hours later it looks like the above.

upload_2019-10-6_19-27-49.png

12 hours after pitching the Opshaug with temperature control between 85-90F, have a decent krausen. See what it looks like 12 hours from now in the morning.
 

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