Toxxyc
New and loving it
Hi guys, so I made my first kveik beer about 2 weeks ago. I wanted it nice and clean and ready for a party that's coming up on Friday and I decided to use the packet of Kveik Voss I had lying around. First off, the recipe:
For a 21l batch:
3.2kg Pils malt
100g Munich T1
100g Munich T2
350g Dextrose at the end of the boil
12g Nugget @ 60 minutes for 22 IBUs
12g Mittelfrueh @ flameout for flavour
I didn't take gravity readings mostly as I've done this process a million times with similar batch sizes so I just went with it. Not too bothered with ABV anyway. So on to it.
I usually mash, this one was mashed for an hour like always, and then dunk sparge the bag in warm water (not hot). Same was done here. Wort was tapped into the fermenter and placed under airlock while it cooled down (overnight). Next morning the wort was at ~26°C and I pitched the Voss. I wrapped the fermenter in my electric blanket on the medium setting and it kept the fermenter at 28°C for 5 days. Fermentation was complete after 3 (no activity, no CO2 escaping, krauzen dropped) and then I cold crashed the beer.
I kept it at cold crash for 3 days before fining with gelatin as per regular method (boiling water in cup, teaspoon of gelatin into water, stir until dissolves, nuke for a few seconds to make sure it's sterile and pour into fermenter). It sat on the gelatin for another 3 days or so before I tapped into the keg.
Immediately as I tapped into the keg, I noticed a smell in the beer I have not planned for. It smells like rotten or fermenting fruit, but not cider. It's fruity, but not citrussy or spicy, and it's not particularly fresh either. I took a sip of the cold but uncarbonated beer and the taste was less intense than the smell, but still so. On top of that, the taste has a dry, almost puckering finish, indicating to me, tannins. I don't know where those tannins would come from as I didn't abuse the malt during the sparge, and all I can think of is "dextrose", but that doesn't make sense to me. It has a bit of warmth that a 5% beer like this would have, but it's not hot.
So I decided to push through as I need beer for the party, and set it under pressure in the keg anyway. This was on Monday evening. 24 hours later I decided to give it a shot, and while those notes dissipated a bit, it's still there. I'll give it time until this afternoon and check again. I'm not sure what it could be, I'm stumped. Everything logical about this beer screams "infection" to me, but I don't know.
When I cold crashed I moved it into my fermentation fridge, set to 1°C. Because I had another keg in the fridge as well, I had to move the shelf for the fermenter higher, which meant there was no space for the airlock. The fermenter stood in the fridge without the airlock for about a week, but it was super cold, so I almost can't think that's where the infection came in, although it's the only place I can think of.
Any other ideas? I'm really not a fan of this beer and while I hate dumping beer (I drink even my bad beers), this one might be my first dumper in a looooong time. Is this not maybe specific to Kveik? I dunno.
For a 21l batch:
3.2kg Pils malt
100g Munich T1
100g Munich T2
350g Dextrose at the end of the boil
12g Nugget @ 60 minutes for 22 IBUs
12g Mittelfrueh @ flameout for flavour
I didn't take gravity readings mostly as I've done this process a million times with similar batch sizes so I just went with it. Not too bothered with ABV anyway. So on to it.
I usually mash, this one was mashed for an hour like always, and then dunk sparge the bag in warm water (not hot). Same was done here. Wort was tapped into the fermenter and placed under airlock while it cooled down (overnight). Next morning the wort was at ~26°C and I pitched the Voss. I wrapped the fermenter in my electric blanket on the medium setting and it kept the fermenter at 28°C for 5 days. Fermentation was complete after 3 (no activity, no CO2 escaping, krauzen dropped) and then I cold crashed the beer.
I kept it at cold crash for 3 days before fining with gelatin as per regular method (boiling water in cup, teaspoon of gelatin into water, stir until dissolves, nuke for a few seconds to make sure it's sterile and pour into fermenter). It sat on the gelatin for another 3 days or so before I tapped into the keg.
Immediately as I tapped into the keg, I noticed a smell in the beer I have not planned for. It smells like rotten or fermenting fruit, but not cider. It's fruity, but not citrussy or spicy, and it's not particularly fresh either. I took a sip of the cold but uncarbonated beer and the taste was less intense than the smell, but still so. On top of that, the taste has a dry, almost puckering finish, indicating to me, tannins. I don't know where those tannins would come from as I didn't abuse the malt during the sparge, and all I can think of is "dextrose", but that doesn't make sense to me. It has a bit of warmth that a 5% beer like this would have, but it's not hot.
So I decided to push through as I need beer for the party, and set it under pressure in the keg anyway. This was on Monday evening. 24 hours later I decided to give it a shot, and while those notes dissipated a bit, it's still there. I'll give it time until this afternoon and check again. I'm not sure what it could be, I'm stumped. Everything logical about this beer screams "infection" to me, but I don't know.
When I cold crashed I moved it into my fermentation fridge, set to 1°C. Because I had another keg in the fridge as well, I had to move the shelf for the fermenter higher, which meant there was no space for the airlock. The fermenter stood in the fridge without the airlock for about a week, but it was super cold, so I almost can't think that's where the infection came in, although it's the only place I can think of.
Any other ideas? I'm really not a fan of this beer and while I hate dumping beer (I drink even my bad beers), this one might be my first dumper in a looooong time. Is this not maybe specific to Kveik? I dunno.
