Kveik & Nutrients

[cactusgarrett]

Question on the use of nutrients:

I recently made a 2L starter with Hornindal for purposes of overbuilding and storage. Either because it was a lower gravity starter (1.030) or because I didn't use enough nutrients (or both), it exhibited the typical sulfur smell associated with stressed kveik. So in the subsequent step-up, I went bigger (1.040-1.050) and was heavy handed in adding yeast nutrient - about 1 tablespoon in 2L.

From experience, what are people finding sufficient amounts of nutrients (typical homebrew ones) to be for starters or 5gal (19L) batches?

 

[rtstrider]

Question on the use of nutrients:

I recently made a 2L starter with Hornindal for purposes of overbuilding and storage. Either because it was a lower gravity starter (1.030) or because I didn't use enough nutrients (or both), it exhibited the typical sulfur smell associated with stressed kveik. So in the subsequent step-up, I was heavy handed in adding yeast nutrient - about 1 tablespoon in 2L.

From experience, what are people finding sufficient amounts of nutrients (typical homebrew ones) to be for starters or 5gal (19L) batches?

I usually just throw a pinch of yeast nutrient in the starter. Now as far as 5 gallon batches I'll throw in 2 grams yeast nutrient with 10 minutes left in the boil.

 

[thehaze]

I never used starters with Kveik. I think I do overpitch, seeing that I pitch the entire slurry from the package. And I am not concerned if the package is 1 or 2 months old. I only had good fermentation and hit around 80% AA. I know nutrients are useful and it seems to be a consensus that they're needed with Kveik. I just haven't experienced any issues from not adding nutrients.

 

[Dgallo]

Question on the use of nutrients:

I recently made a 2L starter with Hornindal for purposes of overbuilding and storage. Either because it was a lower gravity starter (1.030) or because I didn't use enough nutrients (or both), it exhibited the typical sulfur smell associated with stressed kveik. So in the subsequent step-up, I was heavy handed in adding yeast nutrient - about 1 tablespoon in 2L.

From experience, what are people finding sufficient amounts of nutrients (typical homebrew ones) to be for starters or 5gal (19L) batches?

Just recently have I heard of kviek needing more nutrition but I haven’t experienced that in the 4 beers I’ve brewed with it. Two with Voss and two with hornindal. Lowest og was a 1.052 mashed 154 and it finished in 36 hours at a 1.012. And only pure ester aroma blow off. This was true for all the beers I’ve brewed using kviek. So my experience has not been one of needing more nutrients than the grains provide

 

[cactusgarrett]

I usually just throw a pinch of yeast nutrient in the starter. Now as far as 5 gallon batches I'll throw in 2 grams yeast nutrient with 10 minutes left in the boil.

Thanks. I did throw a pinch in the first step starter, but had the sulfur smell. Maybe it was more related to the lower OG, since the second step up was more around 1.050.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Just recently have I heard of kviek needing more nutrition but I haven’t experienced that in the 4 beers I’ve brewed with it. Two with Voss and two with hornindal. Lowest og was a 1.052 mashed 154 and it finished in 36 hours at a 1.012. And only pure ester aroma blow off. This was true for all the beers I’ve brewed using kviek. So my experience has not been one of needing more nutrients than the grains provide

Thanks! I think i'll chalk this up more to the lower gravity of the first starter than a lack of nutrients. I just kept hearing that kveiks benefit from a lot of nutrients, especially for batches below 1.060, but I wasn't sure what constituted "a lot".

 

[Dgallo]

Thanks! I think i'll chalk this up more to the lower gravity of the first starter than a lack of nutrients. I just kept hearing that kveiks benefit from a lot of nutrients, especially for batches below 1.060, but I wasn't sure what constituted "a lot".

I mean nutrients can’t hurt

 

[Miraculix]

I mean nutrients can’t hurt

According to some people they actually can... Depends a bit on the type of nutrients, but some might leave a taste.

 

[Dgallo]

According to some people they actually can... Depends a bit on the type of nutrients, but some might leave a taste.

The only thing I could see effecting taste would be if you used too much an the phosphate dropped the ph too much. But again I’ve never needed to use it so this isn’t coming from experience

 

[couchsending]

Yeast nutrients contain zinc. Too much zinc is detrimental to yeast health. It doesn’t take much to overdo it.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

On the other hand it's bad to be deficient in zinc and it definitely helps yeast health and ester production - as CS says it's a fine balance but traditionally people aimed for 0.1-0.2mg/l zinc ions (so a touch more than that if you're adding eg zinc sulphate), but 0.6mg/l starts to cause problems. Kveik do seem to be hungry beasts though, and I suspect they can tolerate a little more.

As for kveik, read what Lars Garshol has to say :

Kveik has very high alcohol tolerance (typically 13-16%), probably because it's used to fermenting very high gravity beers. That also means kveik seems to have lost the ability to produce some of the nutrients it needs on its own. It's used to having lots of it available at all times. So fermentation on low-gravity worts can be quite slow and give low attenuation. The same goes for fermenting cider and mead. Putting in lots of yeast nutrient helps....

If there is enough nutrient from the grain bill (OG above 1.050) then you should be OK. Especially if you don't boil the wort. But if there might not be enough from the grain bill, then I really am talking about normal yeast nutrient, yes.

 

[hottpeper13]

Something that makes me go what if? Most of the beers fermented with the Kveik strains are done at 90 + degrees. Cold break happens at 70*. What is in cold and hot break? Nutrients! Maybe these yeasts were raised on this break material and get there high nutrient need from that. The wort that I racked at 90* had a higher krausen ring then the 68* ones ( no yeast nutrient used). Take it the way you want,I'm still experimenting with this stuff and have maybe 20 or so more batches( 60 gal fermented so far) before I get it figured out.

 

[Miraculix]

Something that makes me go what if? Most of the beers fermented with the Kveik strains are done at 90 + degrees. Cold break happens at 70*. What is in cold and hot break? Nutrients! Maybe these yeasts were raised on this break material and get there high nutrient need from that. The wort that I racked at 90* had a higher krausen ring then the 68* ones ( no yeast nutrient used). Take it the way you want,I'm still experimenting with this stuff and have maybe 20 or so more batches( 60 gal fermented so far) before I get it figured out.

They were traditionally used with wort that wasn't boiled at all so all the hot and cold break material was still in suspension.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

I did a pale ale yesterday with kveik and used yeast nutrient. Vigorous activity from the blow-off this morning 12 hours later. And that's with a serving keg hooked up to the fermenter to purge. Often when I do that it takes longer to hear bubbling in my blowoff. I have no side to side to compare what the outcome would've been without it, but they certainly didn't seem to mind.

 

[deadwolfbones]

I've made four starters with kveik and never used nutrients. Just 1.040 wort and a vial of liquid or gram of dried yeast. All have been great, though the dried takes a while longer to kick off.

 

[VVbrewery]

I've made four starters with kveik and never used nutrients. Just 1.040 wort and a vial of liquid or gram of dried yeast. All have been great, though the dried takes a while longer to kick off.

Where are you getting dried kveik? The only place I've been able to find has been promising to have it for home brewers for about a year.

 

[deadwolfbones]

Where are you getting dried kveik? The only place I've been able to find has been promising to have it for home brewers for about a year.

KveikSupply on Etsy.

I've also dried my own from the White Laps Opshaug.

There's active kveik trading on Milk the Funk's FB page, as well as the Reddit homebrewing forum.

 

[Kenmoron]

I use Fermaid K with 10-15 min left in the boil as my standard yeast nutrient with all brews. Instructions state to add 1 gm per gal. Whenever I plan to ferment with kveik I throw in ~1.5 gm per gal. All of my fermentations (kveik and non-kveik) have been healthy and vigorous (*knock on wood) with seemingly no fermentation off-flavors or stalling. The kveiks I've used are Voss, Hornindal, and Oslo.

 

[The_DevilBrews]

Please delete. Thanks.