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Omega Lutra yeast?

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^^^ This. It's not perfectly clean like a lager, but Lutra is the closest I've come across in kveik. I'll be using it for my next batch, schwarzbier.
I don't think you'll really notice much of a difference between something like 34/70 or S-189 and Lutra in schwarzbier. It's a game changer yeast for me, it's my house yeast now.
 
I brewed an IPA yesterday and pitched an entire pack of Lutra at 3PM. I did not make a starter and I pitched it into the fermenter with the wort at 88°. It started bubbling away last night around 9 PM, so about Six hours until it started to takeoff. Right now it’s about 9:45 in the morning, and it’s chugging away like a machine gun. It’s sitting right at 89° and while there is still a hefty Krausen, it looks like it’s already starting to fall a little bit.

OG was 1.072. Used Columbus cryo and Nelson in the whirlpool and will be dry hopping with an additional 8 oz. of Nelson after it reaches terminal and a soft crash. Will come back with an update.
 
Is krausen going to be an issue with this yeast? Some of my fermenters I fill up pretty high and they can't handle say 6 inches of krausen or anything absurd like that. Thanks in advance.
 
Is krausen going to be an issue with this yeast? Some of my fermenters I fill up pretty high and they can't handle say 6 inches of krausen or anything absurd like that. Thanks in advance.
When I used it recently to ferment a Schwarzbier I used a 1/2 inch blowoff, 3 or 4 feet long, into a plastic pitcher. Pretty much the entire inside of the blowoff tube was coated with krausen and the 5 inches or so of water/Starsan bubbled up and overflowed the pitcher. I had to put a towel under it. I’d never seen such a violent fermentation before. YMMV but you’ve been warned. o_O
 
Is krausen going to be an issue with this yeast? Some of my fermenters I fill up pretty high and they can't handle say 6 inches of krausen or anything absurd like that. Thanks in advance.
Krausen has been 2-3 inches max both the first time I used it and this time. In my setup it’s a complete non issue but I usually have about 5.5 gallons in a 7 gallon fermenter.
 
Made an Oktoberfest with it, pitched at 90, fermented at 70 degrees ambient temp, finished in about 4 days. Taste at kegging was very clean, cleaner than beers I've made with Oslo. Quite dry and crisp with some hints of sulphur in the fermentor. Harvested it and excited to make some Kolsch-esque beers with it. So far I am a fan.
 
When I used it recently to ferment a Schwarzbier I used a 1/2 inch blowoff, 3 or 4 feet long, into a plastic pitcher. Pretty much the entire inside of the blowoff tube was coated with krausen and the 5 inches or so of water/Starsan bubbled up and overflowed the pitcher. I had to put a towel under it. I’d never seen such a violent fermentation before. YMMV but you’ve been warned. o_O
Let me clarify. In my case the blowoff tube contained whatever matter gets carried off with the CO2 during fermentation. The actual ring that remained behind after the krausen fell was about an inch or two above the beer.
 
Time heals all things they say. After a few weeks of bottle conditioning at room temp, and moving as many bottles to the fridge as I can fit at one time to chill for a couple days, my Lutra Kveik Pseudo lager is absolutely DELICIOUS! Flavor and carbonation are right where I want it to be. I guess the take away here is that even though Lutra ferments like a beast and finishes out within a few days, if you bottle your beer, it will benefit from an extended bottle conditioning period at room temperature before moving your batch to cold condition at lower temperatures.
Lutra Pilsner (2).JPG
 
Has anyone smaller beers like 4% within yeast? Do you need to add nutrients like some other kveiks?
 
I contacted Omega on this particular strain. One very interesting thing they stated was to keep it to the low temp side to make it cleaner. I did a pseudo Mexican lager. It wasn't as fast as everyone is experiencing. It was about 6-7 days. But it was very clean. That keg didn't last long. Mu testers put a damn hurt on that batch. Very clean with no aftertaste.
 
Looking forward to that as I'm about to try to work on some clean beers with this yeast and was thinking of pitching warm.
 
I contacted Omega on this particular strain. One very interesting thing they stated was to keep it to the low temp side to make it cleaner. I did a pseudo Mexican lager. It wasn't as fast as everyone is experiencing. It was about 6-7 days. But it was very clean. That keg didn't last long. Mu testers put a damn hurt on that batch. Very clean with no aftertaste.
It makes sense that it'd be cleaner on the cooler side. I don't actually do anything to keep my beer at 90F. I pitch the yeast at 90 and let it drop to whatever my room temp is (68-78F) and keg it after about 7-10 days. It's crystal clear going in to the keg. But the thing I really love about this yeast, and it has already been noted by another poster, is that it starts fermenting IMMEDIATELY. It's insane.

@shoreman I still use nutrients with Lutra, but I use the Wyeast yeast nutrient regardless of it being kveik or not. Something I picked up from Gordon Strong years back.
 
Has anyone smaller beers like 4% within yeast? Do you need to add nutrients like some other kveiks?
Interesting. I hadn’t heard that about kveik. I do like brewing a session Pilsner several times a year. I’ll be sure to add nutrients.
Fermaid O ok? I have lots of that at the house for ciders and meads.
 
A friend of my better half sampled some of my Lutra Pseudo Lager and it was a big hit with her. She made the suggestion that if I brew it again, to add some orange flavor to it. Doesn't sound like a half bad idea. 🤔
 
Good thing you mentioned that. I had totally forgotten about Voss being on the fruity side when fermented.
I've used Voss on my last two hazy ipa's. I've heard it can lend an orange flavor if stressed, but to be honest I can't taste any. Probably because I hopped them pretty aggressively.
 
I brewed 2 lawnmower Kveik Blonde ales recently, basically the same recipe, aiming for a pseudo lager (hopped with Nugget and homegrown Cascade). One batch with Omega Voss, the other Omega Lutra. Both were done fermenting within a week, even kept at lows 70s. Both also tasted great (neither lasted long!)

Preferred the (very) subtle orange from Voss. Also I found that Voss cleared up better and finished drier. Lutra seemed to under attenuate for me. Granted both beers were lower gravity 1.045 OG.

I harvested from both batches, top cropped the Lutra, and bottom harvested from Voss trying to follow Lars' info:
https://www.garshol.priv.no/download/farmhouse/kveik.html
Interesting that Hornindal (Lutra's parent strain) was usually dried while Voss was preserved as "Jar in the fridge". I haven't tried repitching these guys yet.

I'm sure it's been shared before on a thread, but Lars talk here was fantastic and I highly recommend:

I've taken to yelling my "yeast scream" on pitching with every batch, no fails yet :D
 
I have used Voss a couple times but did orange either, it actually seemed pretty clean. One batch I did at 70F and that one seemed to have more character, but still quite subtle.
From what I understand you have to under-pitch and ferment very warm - north of 90° to bring out the orange flavor. For my hazy ipa's I used about one TBS of yeast slurry in each and fermented one around 94° and the other at 88°
 
Brewed a simple blonde ale with Lutra over the weekend - magnum & palisade hops. Fermented in the middle at 76 degrees - will report back but it finished in about 3 days but won't keg it right away since my kegs are full at the moment.

Clean nose coming out of the fermentor.
 
How long have your beers taken to drop clear with Lutra? My hydro sample was pretty cloudy - does it floc well at low temps?
 
How long have your beers taken to drop clear with Lutra? My hydro sample was pretty cloudy - does it floc well at low temps?
I give mine 7-10 days in the fermenter and they come out super clear into the keg. The chill haze is the thing I typically have to wait for to drop out, not the yeast. It floccs pretty well.
 
Today I will be kegging and force carbing 2 batches with Lutra. I split a 10 gallon batch of an American adjunct lager (2-row and flaked rice) into 2 fermentations. Pitched Lutra in each and fermented one at 68 and the other at 90. I will report back with my findings.

any word on this? brewing a pseudohelles today and haven't quite decided what temp I want to run lutra at.
 
I’m pitching a blonde ale today. My garage is around 22c. I’ll pitch in the morning and tonight I’ll turn the heat belt on. Looking forward to it as I just blew a keg last night so it’ll be kegged within a week probably haha
 
Pitched this morning at 21c. Looks like cool weather the next few days ( 19c ), so I’ve turned on the heat belt haha.

I notice on the omega site, for best lager like results, cooler temps might be better. I’ll try this one, which should be close to 30c by tomorrow, and next time use my ferm fridge set at 22c for the whole fermentation. Unless this one comes out super clean, then I’ll just keep fermenting in the garage with the heat belt and save my fridge for lagers
 
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