Kviek Octoberfest

[z-bob]

Is fermenting melibiose a distinction without a difference? Serious question. (today is the first time I'd heard of melibiose) That is a defining characteristic of true lager yeasts, but how much melibiose is there in malt?

I have some old but not too old packets of W34/70 to use this winter when the corner of my basement is cold enough for lagering. Next spring I may try that Lutra stuff, it sounds interesting.

 

[Brettomomyces]

Since Lutra has been mentioned I thought I'd add my experiences with this strain. 2 weeks ago I brewed a session-strength pseudo lager at 1.042, pitched the Lutra at 90f and it finished out in about 3 days at room temp of 72f. Last Sunday I kegged the session beer and brewed a 1.070 NEIPA, racking it onto the Lutra yeast cake; the airlock was bubbling actively within 30 minutes, by 18 hours the kraeusen had subsided, and at the 24 hour mark the airlock was only bubbling once every ~90 seconds or so. This could have been on tap a day or two later, grain-to-glass in just 3 days. If speed and clean flavors are your goals, building up a big starter with Lutra might be just the ticket.

As for flavors, the session beer turned out really good and clean, not quite as malty as a pilsner but its a light and easy drinking beer and quite tasty.

At some point I'd like to see if I could get a kveik style beer into a keg after 24 hrs with big enough pitch and warm temps. The biggest time crunch would be chilling from ferm temps to serving.

 

[Jayjay1976]

At some point I'd like to see if I could get a kveik style beer into a keg after 24 hrs with big enough pitch and warm temps. The biggest time crunch would be chilling from ferm temps to serving.

Bah, use a spunding valve to carbonate as it ferments, use a floating pickup tube to avoid the yeast cake and dispense it at ferm temps through a jockey box. Grain to glass in 24 hours.

 

[Vale71]

Is fermenting melibiose a distinction without a difference? Serious question. (today is the first time I'd heard of melibiose) That is a defining characteristic of true lager yeasts, but how much melibiose is there in malt?

0% but that's not the point. The ability to ferment melibiose is a known and universally accepted expression of pastorianus yeast. As a matter of fact, the melibiose test is still the standard test to check for possible cross-contamination of a brewery's yeast stock. An identification based on genetic data that contradicts that is therefore rather questionable and should not be taken at face value, especially considering that gene sequencing is as of today still a bit more complicated than just slipping in a sample and pushing a button.

 

[DrinkFresh]

Since Lutra has been mentioned I thought I'd add my experiences with this strain. 2 weeks ago I brewed a session-strength pseudo lager at 1.042, pitched the Lutra at 90f and it finished out in about 3 days at room temp of 72f. Last Sunday I kegged the session beer and brewed a 1.070 NEIPA, racking it onto the Lutra yeast cake; the airlock was bubbling actively within 30 minutes, by 18 hours the kraeusen had subsided, and at the 24 hour mark the airlock was only bubbling once every ~90 seconds or so. This could have been on tap a day or two later, grain-to-glass in just 3 days. If speed and clean flavors are your goals, building up a big starter with Lutra might be just the ticket.

As for flavors, the session beer turned out really good and clean, not quite as malty as a pilsner but its a light and easy drinking beer and quite tasty.

Nice! Let us know when you keg that NEIPA and quite interested in how it turns out.

I quite like that idea of building a "starter" from brewing a clean session beer (pseudo lager) with Kveik then brewing a high gravity beer (double IPA) to rack on the previous brew's yeast cake, and was thinking of doing a similar schedule. Sounds like you'd get to turn around two batches of beer pretty quick and then have a couple of options on tap! I've just always been nervous racking new wort directly on the previous brew's yeast cake, but always wanted to try.

Do you have any pointers with this process? For example, how much did you pitch with Lutra? Did you have to double your yeast nutrient? Cheers

 

[Jayjay1976]

Nice! Let us know when you keg that NEIPA and quite interested in how it turns out.

I quite like that idea of building a "starter" from brewing a clean session beer (pseudo lager) with Kveik then brewing a high gravity beer (double IPA) to rack on the previous brew's yeast cake, and was thinking of doing a similar schedule. Sounds like you'd get to turn around two batches of beer pretty quick and then have a couple of options on tap! I've just always been nervous racking new wort directly on the previous brew's yeast cake, but always wanted to try.

Do you have any pointers with this process? For example, how much did you pitch with Lutra? Did you have to double your yeast nutrient? Cheers

Sanitation is important, other than that no need for any special steps to pitch onto a yeast cake. If the starter beer's flavor or color are drastically different than the follow up batch, you'll want to drain off as much as you can while leaving most of the yeast behind. In my case, the session beer was an extract batch so there was less trub in the fermenter; the yeast cake and beer left behind were maybe 2 quarts total.

I didn't bother with nutrients or oxygenating either batch just to see how simple and carefree this Lutra strain can be. The session beer turned out well though at 1.042 its a bit light for my taste, next time it will be at least 1.048.

I'll report back on the NEIPA when I get around to kegging it. Wish I could have done that more promptly but it was a busy week.