Omega Lutra yeast?

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FleEsq

FleEsq

Nobody likes Lawyers.... Until You need One.
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I saw this advertised in one of my magazines. it is supposed to mimic a lager at ale temps. I'm excited to try it but haven't been able to find it. Has anyone used this yeast and how does it perform.
 
I have a pack of it in my fridge and plan to use it for my next beer in a couple weeks. Will be a Kolsch-style beer. I will definitely report back with my results.
 
NolaMonk said:
Made a Munich Hellas with it... Excellent beer it produced. Very clean and crisp. I saved yeast from that batch going to try it out on an Oktoberfest next.
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This is good to hear because it's basically what I'm doing with it starting in a couple weeks. Since my kegerator died (freezer) I've had to repurpose my fermentation fridge back into the kegerator it was originally leaving me without temp control.
 
Circling back to this: This yeast is amazing. I just kegged up the kolsch-style beer I made with it and I let it sit in the fermenter for about 10 days. It was pretty much done fermenting after 4 days or so. Kegged the beer today, it's bright, attenuation was great, and it tastes just fantastic. Clean, maybe a hint of a fruitiness, like a normal kolsch-like yeast. Amazing. I highly recommend this yeast to anyone who doesn't have temperature control for fermentation. And since I lost my fermentation fridge recently, this is a game changer for me. Next up is an Oktoberfest-style beer with it. Should be ready to roll for September and Oktober drinking :D
 
beersk said:
Circling back to this: This yeast is amazing. I just kegged up the kolsch-style beer I made with it and I let it sit in the fermenter for about 10 days. It was pretty much done fermenting after 4 days or so. Kegged the beer today, it's bright, attenuation was great, and it tastes just fantastic. Clean, maybe a hint of a fruitiness, like a normal kolsch-like yeast. Amazing. I highly recommend this yeast to anyone who doesn't have temperature control for fermentation. And since I lost my fermentation fridge recently, this is a game changer for me. Next up is an Oktoberfest-style beer with it. Should be ready to roll for September and Oktober drinking :D
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Wow, somebody who commented that they were gonna make a beer, then actually came back to report on it... a rarity these days!
 
I make a lot of hop-heavy NEIPA style beers and just purchased a pack of this fir my next brew. I’ve used all the usual suspects but am interested in trying some new yeasts. I just made one with white labs opshaug which is a very clean fermenting Kveik, similar to what lutra is marketed as. It cane out really good so I’m excited to see how the lutra compares.
 
I would love to try Lutra, but I can't seem to get my hands on any here in Japan. Has anyone tried drying it?
 
NolaMonk said:
Made a Munich Hellas with it... Excellent beer it produced. Very clean and crisp. I saved yeast from that batch going to try it out on an Oktoberfest next.
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I also used this in a Helles Lager. I fermented under 20 psi in korny with a spunding valve at room temp. Fermented in about 3 days and then put it in the fridge after a week. I did not rack the beer off the keg, just put it straight in the fridge. It was a little fruity and cloudy for the first week or so, now its clear and clean. Excellent yeast.
 
rconway91 said:
I also used this in a Helles Lager. I fermented under 20 psi in korny with a spunding valve at room temp. Fermented in about 3 days and then put it in the fridge after a week. I did not rack the beer off the keg, just put it straight in the fridge. It was a little fruity and cloudy for the first week or so, now its clear and clean. Excellent yeast.
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Yeah, it's not absolutely clean like many lagers yeasts. It does have a light fruit ester. But it's very pleasant. I'd put it more in a kolsch category than a lager. But, to me, I'm just as happy with a bright crisp kolsch as I am a nice malty helles. They both serve the same purpose for me. I'm brewing another "helles" today with it. 8 1/2lb Best Malz pils, 12oz Weyermann Barke Munich I, 1oz Mt. Hood FWH, Lutra pitched at 90F. The one I have on tap, which is very similar, is great. Definitely checks that box for me since I now have no ferm temp control.
 
FleEsq said:
Ok, since I started this thread I brewed a pils with it and I can honestly say I'm shocked. Tasted great and cleared without the need for gelatin. I wish I had harvested, but will next time. This is a great summer yeast.
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Man, I can't believe you didn't harvest it. This yeast, I've brewed with 3 times now and every single time it has started fermenting within about 30 minutes and vigorously within a couple hours. It's insane.
 
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beersk said:
Man, I can't believe you didn't harvest it. This yeast, I've brewed with 3 times now and every single time it has starting fermenting within about 30 minutes and vigorously within a couple hours. It's insane.
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The pils I pitched yesterday morning had a nicely hissing spunding valve at about 5psi by the late afternoon. It's been going continuously since then. Not as vigorous of a hiss as Voss at 95F, but this is being held at 70F.
 
marc1 said:
The pils I pitched yesterday morning had a nicely hissing spunding valve at about 5psi by the late afternoon. It's been going continuously since then. Not as vigorous of a hiss as Voss at 95F, but this is being held at 70F.
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Just tested it - a day and a half into fermentation and it dropped from 1.054 to 1.024. The sweetness is very honey like. Gravity samples are often rough tasting during active ferment, with a harsh yeasty taste. This is drinkable.

I'll check it again tomorrow morning and if it's close to done I'll up the spunding pressure to start carbing it.
 
It was done yesterday morning so I started cold crashing it. Tonight it's chilled and carbed so I pulled a glass from the fermenter. Surprisingly good for how young it is, not as rough and yeasty tasting as many beers a week from brew day.
It has some mild background fruitiness, doesn't taste like a super clean 34/70 pils. I'll have to see how it ages after I keg it tomorrow.
 
marc1 said:
It was done yesterday morning so I started cold crashing it. Tonight it's chilled and carbed so I pulled a glass from the fermenter. Surprisingly good for how young it is, not as rough and yeasty tasting as many beers a week from brew day.
It has some mild background fruitiness, doesn't taste like a super clean 34/70 pils. I'll have to see how it ages after I keg it tomorrow.
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Yeah, like I said, it's not lager clean. It's more kolsch-like, I'd say.
 
I made a pseudo-west coast style IPL with Lutra. Fermented from 1.048 to 1.010 in 28 hrs. Tasted great at 28 hrs. Zero acetaldehyde, etc that i expected. Dry hopped w Simcoe and Amarillo. Stellar aroma and extremely drinkable—exactly what i was going for. Grain to glass in 5 days.
 
I made a heavily hopped New England IPA with Nelson, strata, and Citra using this yeast. I pitched the whole pack with twice the recommended amount of yeast nutrient and fermented at 85. It was done in about three days with a starting gravity of 1.072. Obviously with the huge amount of hops used, a pound in all, the yeast contribution can be a little bit hidden. But it is very clean, and if anything slightly fruity. Absolutely zero off flavors and it smelled very clean the whole time it was fermenting. I got it into the keg eight days after it was brewed. I have had some other kveiks give off some weird smells during fermentation and be extremely estery in the final beer. This one is definitely a winner in my book and will be using it again in the future.
914BD17A-2A63-4A3F-AAE0-09E4070702E2.jpeg
 
marc1 said:
It was done yesterday morning so I started cold crashing it. Tonight it's chilled and carbed so I pulled a glass from the fermenter. Surprisingly good for how young it is, not as rough and yeasty tasting as many beers a week from brew day.
It has some mild background fruitiness, doesn't taste like a super clean 34/70 pils. I'll have to see how it ages after I keg it tomorrow.
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I brewed up another beer yesterday and put it straight onto the entire yeast cake. In a day at 70 and ~5PSI it went from 1.048 to 1.019. I increased the temp to 72, and tightened up the spunding valve some to hopefully end up in the 20-25PSI range. I'll bump it up another 2 degrees tomorrow night and it should be ready to crash by the weekend. Today's samples tasted great.
 
Did this with a straight-up blonde ale for a graduation party. It was the first keg of three to kick that day. Clean and easy drinking. Nothing special since it was just a blonde. However, I had fermentation activity for a good week and a half after the initial pitch. I fermented at 68*.
blonde.jpg
 
I picked up a package of Omega Lutra at my LHBS yesterday with plans to brew a Schwarzbier, and ferment at room temperature with it. Anyone know what the recommended pitch rate for a 6.5 gallons of wort (5+ gallons packaged) would be? I know with a recent neipa I brewed with Omega Voss I pitched one tablespoon of slurry. But that was fermented at around 94° Can you under-pitch this when fermenting at 70°, should you? Or just pitch the full package and let it rip?
 
BongoYodeler said:
I picked up a package of Omega Lutra at my LHBS yesterday with plans to brew a Schwarzbier, and ferment at room temperature with it. Anyone know what the recommended pitch rate for a 6.5 gallons of wort (5+ gallons packaged) would be? I know with a recent neipa I brewed with Omega Voss I pitched one tablespoon of slurry. But that was fermented at around 94° Can you under-pitch this when fermenting at 70°, should you? Or just pitch the full package and let it rip?
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From what I understand, the point of under pitching Kveik is to stress the yeast and encourage the production of esters, etc. So what i did was make a small starter for an 8 gallon batch and it came out great. I still fermented hot.
 
gonefishin2 said:
From what I understand, the point of under pitching Kveik is to stress the yeast and encourage the production of esters, etc. So what i did was make a small starter for an 8 gallon batch and it came out great. I still fermented hot.
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I second this. The whole point of Lutra is that it’s “shockingly clean.” The whole point of intentionally underpitching is to the stress the yeast and encourage ester development. Seems counterintuitive. I really, really like the one beer I made with Lutra. I pitched the whole pack, no starter, and doubled the yeast nutrient. Pitched it at 85 and fermented the whole time between 84-86. Zero complaints, just a perfectly fermented beer with little contribution from the yeast that was done in 3 days.
 
gonefishin2 said:
From what I understand, the point of under pitching Kveik is to stress the yeast and encourage the production of esters, etc. So what i did was make a small starter for an 8 gallon batch and it came out great. I still fermented hot.
Click to expand...
HopsAreGood said:
I second this. The whole point of Lutra is that it’s “shockingly clean.” The whole point of intentionally underpitching is to the stress the yeast and encourage ester development. Seems counterintuitive. I really, really like the one beer I made with Lutra. I pitched the whole pack, no starter, and doubled the yeast nutrient. Pitched it at 85 and fermented the whole time between 84-86. Zero complaints, just a perfectly fermented beer with little contribution from the yeast that was done in 3 days.
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Makes sense as I'm not interested in encouraging esters, I just want a nice, clean schwarzbier. I'll pitch the full pack. Just interested, what did you each brew?
 
Looks great!!
I just emptied my keg of New England style ipa brewed with Voss Kveik. Hopped with Nugget, Citra, Mosaic, Galaxy, and a little bit of Azacca.
hazy.jpg


Another one planned for later this fall, hopped with Strata and Mosaic and using some saved Voss.
 
BongoYodeler said:
Makes sense as I'm not interested in encouraging esters, I just want a nice, clean schwarzbier. I'll pitch the full pack. Just interested, what did you each brew?
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I brewed a west coast style IPL type of thing. Next up is a Marzen w Lutra—im really excited for this one.
 
gonefishin2 said:
I brewed a west coast style IPL type of thing. Next up is a Marzen w Lutra—im really excited for this one.
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It will be good. My Oktoberfest bier turned out amazing. Everyone who's had it says it's great and doesn't even question whether it's a lager or not. I'm thinking about brewing another one before the weather turns cooler...
 
Will be brewing the Lutra Kveik Helles Pseudo Lager recipe from Omega Yeast's webpage in a bit. I was originally going to go with Dr Hans recipe, but budget constraints prompted me to find a simpler, less expensive grain and hops bill. I'll report back on this thread soon with overall impressions. :bigmug:
 
Update. Had a brew day from Hell. First time it's ever happened to me, but I wound up with a stuck sparge. Took forever to get the grain bed properly draining and reach my pre-boil wort volume. But, I persevered and got 5 gallons of wort goodness into the fermenter and pitched the Lutra Kveik at 80 degrees. This morning when I went to check on things.... WHOA!!!!!!!!! The airlock was already chugging away! I've never had a fermentation kick off this fast! Lutra is a beast!
 
Snark_Wolf_Brewing said:
Update. Had a brew day from Hell. First time it's ever happened to me, but I wound up with a stuck sparge. Took forever to get the grain bed properly draining and reach my pre-boil wort volume. But, I persevered and got 5 gallons of wort goodness into the fermenter and pitched the Lutra Kveik at 80 degrees. This morning when I went to check on things.... WHOA!!!!!!!!! The airlock was already chugging away! I've never had a fermentation kick off this fast! Lutra is a beast!
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Great. Every beer I've made with Lutra has taken off within an hour. I am absolutely floored by how fast of a starter it is.
 
beersk said:
Great. Every beer I've made with Lutra has taken off within an hour. I am absolutely floored by how fast of a starter it is.
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I was really wanting to ferment this batch in my carboy so I could watch just how vigorous of a yeast Lutra is, but I couldn't find any of my drilled stoppers. Guess I know what I'll be adding to my shopping list next time I hit up the homebrew shop.
 

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