Omega Lutra yeast?

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Snark_Wolf_Brewing said:
Good thing you mentioned that. I had totally forgotten about Voss being on the fruity side when fermented.
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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
 
ba-brewer said:
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.
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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?
 
shoreman said:
How long have your beers taken to drop clear with Lutra? My hydro sample was pretty cloudy - does it floc well at low temps?
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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.
 
BrewerBrad82 said:
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.
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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
 
beersk said:
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.
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thx for the info, I let it ferment to 8 days and it cleared up nicely, noted to let this thing go for a bit longer.

kegged it yesterday, will post a photo/tasting soon but hydro sample was excellent, very clean
 
woof said:
any word on this? brewing a pseudohelles today and haven't quite decided what temp I want to run lutra at.
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I apologize for any delay, I was stuck at home for nearly a week awaiting COVID test results. Thankfully it was negative. In any case, I am pretty darn impressed with Lutra. Between the batch fermented at 68 and the one fermented at 90, I can only detect an ever-so-slightly higher ester expression in the 90F version, but not much at all. The only other difference I noted is that the batch at 68 finished at 1.008, while the batch at 90 finished at 1.007 (OG 1.046), so pretty insignificant. As far as speed of fermentation is concerned, the cooler version fully attenuated in 4 days, while the hot version took 3. If I were to do it again, I would likely choose a fermentation temperature between 75 and 80F to compromise between ester formation and fermentation speed.

Hope this helps!
 
I just brewed my negra modelo-like beer Sunday and less than 2 hours after pitching it was blowing off. Did not expect that. Every single beer I've brewed with Lutra has started within an hour. Some have blown off a little, some haven't. But none have blown off within 2 hours before. Insane. This yeast is an absolute beast. I love it.

I've used it for 6 beers now and plan to keep it going indefinitely.
 
beersk said:
I just brewed my negra modelo-like beer Sunday and less than 2 hours after pitching it was blowing off. Did not expect that. Every single beer I've brewed with Lutra has started within an hour. Some have blown off a little, some haven't. But none have blown off within 2 hours before. Insane. This yeast is an absolute beast. I love it.

I've used it for 6 beers now and plan to keep it going indefinitely.
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Did you shoot for the lower end of ferm temps?
 
Mines down to 1.006. Transferred to secondary and will keg tomorrow and drink on the weekend. Tastes like a blonde ale which is what I was hoping for. Will get a better taste on the weekend. Fairly clear for 3 days in the fermenter haha.
 
Has anyone bottle or keg conditioned with this yeast? I'm not seeing any activity when keg conditioning my recent beer with Lutra - that's concerning for longevity of using this yeast.

Did you have to pitch any more yeast at bottling or kegging?
 
AzOr said:
Did you shoot for the lower end of ferm temps?
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No. I always chill to about 90-95F, aerate and pitch and let it come down to whatever room temp is. Most of the time it's probably done fermenting before it reaches room temp with how vigorous this stuff ferments. But this was a bit more aggressive than normal. Pretty wild.
 
I made an Oktoberfest-ish ale that turned out really good. Standard Festbier recipe fermented With Lutra at about 68F. Kegged it on day 7, then let it cold condition for 2 weeks.
 
shoreman said:
Has anyone bottle or keg conditioned with this yeast? I'm not seeing any activity when keg conditioning my recent beer with Lutra - that's concerning for longevity of using this yeast.

Did you have to pitch any more yeast at bottling or kegging?
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I didn't have to pitch any more yeast when I bottle conditioned a Pseudo Helles recently. I bulk primed using 4 ounces of corn sugar boiled in 2 cups of water and chilled to room temperature before adding to my bottling bucket and racking the beer to it. After bottling, I let the beer condition at room temperature for 2 weeks before sampling. The carbonation was there at two weeks, but seemed a bit lacking, so I left the rest of the bottles alone for another week before sampling again. At 3 weeks, the carbonation was much better. I then moved as many bottles as I could fit into my fridge to cold crash the beer for a few days. While this yeast will tear through a fermentation like the proverbial bat out of Hell, it does seem to be a bit slow when bottle conditioning, and definitely benefits from an extended conditioning period.
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Thanks for the info, I ended up pitching some k97 since the temps are getting low here.

I’m going to try to keg condition with Voss as well but it looks like there has been inconsistent results with conditioning- see the video below. It makes sense since most of the farmhouse beers in the regions where these kveik strains come from the beers are rarely carbonated if not lightly carbed.

 
Today my wife and I added potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulphite to the cider, to prevent any further fermentation when we back sweeten with pear juice. Man that Lutra yeast chewed through this apple juice and sugar in 4 days at a cooler 77 ish degrees. I tasted the hydrometer sample and this is very promising so far. It was nice and tart, smelled wonderful and was very clean and bright on the tongue. Still obviously very yeasty but I can tell that this is going to be very good once we cold crash, back sweeten and age for a little bit at 34 degrees. I will report back when we finally tap this one when it is ready and give the final verdict of this experiment.

John
 
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God damn iPhone and sideways pics! 5 days after pitching. Fermented with a heat belt in my garage ( roughly 30c ferm temp ). Light fruitiness which is quite pleasant. Sone yeast bite but so young it’s understandable. Will definitely brew again. Next time I’ll brew on the lower temp range in my ferm fridge.
 
Just wanted to add my experience with Lutra, regarding attenuation. A while back I brewed a 1.065 NEIPA, and due to some mishaps the mash began at 162 and even with vigorous stirring, spent most of the hour in the mid-high 150s. I thought it might be ruined but a starch test confirmed complete conversion so I went ahead and fermented it. The yeast finished up quickly but I let it sit s whole week just to be sure it was done. I kegged it on another hop charge and forgot about it for a week. When I pulled a sample I was surprised at the sweetness, it tasted like a milkshake IPA though it contained no lactose. Hops were great, nice malty backbone too, but it was much sweeter than anticipated. I degassed a sample and the gravity was 1.027 which indicated the high mash had created some unfermentable sugars. I know it's to be expected with a higher mash but I was kinda shocked how responsive the yeast seemed to be to this variable. I've brewed other recipes over and over, mashing both high and low to manipulate residual sugars but for the most part the conventional yeast strains seemed to finish the beer out identically regardless. The Lutra strain seemed more sensitive to this, though my example is a bit extreme. I'm going to keep brewing with it, playing with mash temps a to see if I can improve on some old recipes by omitting crystal malts.

Yikes, sorry for the wall of text! :ghostly:
 
That seems in line with how the farmhouse beers are brewed anyways - Lars mentioned higher mash temps and they are generally sweeter than modern craft beer.

These yeasts have centuries of landrace in them, so to hear they have characteristics that they have been selected for doesn’t surprise me.
 
jdr01 said:
Do this type of yeast require more headspace in the fermenter?
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I've had to use a blow off tube a couple times with a gallon and a half headspace, so it doesn't hurt to use one initially. I think with a higher pitch rate and temperature, at least initially, makes for a more vigorous start.
 
I see comments about some esters from lutra, anyone else getting a welches grape juicy like flavor?

I did an all grain helles a few weeks back, fermented at 90 for a 2 days then allowed to natural cool. The ferment chamber had a pretty strong grape/fruity aroma and the warm hydro sample had both the grape aroma and flavor. It has been in the keg for about 2weeks so I gave it a try and the aroma is clean(not fruity) but the welches grape flavor is still there. Not really a bad thing but quite noticeable. The beer is quite clear just a slight chill haze(could be just first pour), seems more bitter than the 20IBU calculated. Attenuation was a modest 75% and finished in about 4 days.

I have an extract session IPA with about 10% corn sugar going now, fermenting at 85 and it had a pretty strong sulfur smell for the first two days. It definitely took off faster and attenuated quicker than the first pitch. Checked gravity at 48hours post pitch and it was 75% attenuation and airlock activity was slowing. 72hrs only a couple more points to 78% attenuation and airlock activity very slow so I plan to dry hop it later.

I have more slurry and plan to do a cream ale next at 80F to see if the grape flavor is less noticeable.
 
ba-brewer said:
I see comments about some esters from lutra, anyone else getting a welches grape juicy like flavor?

I did an all grain helles a few weeks back, fermented at 90 for a 2 days then allowed to natural cool. The ferment chamber had a pretty strong grape/fruity aroma and the warm hydro sample had both the grape aroma and flavor. It has been in the keg for about 2weeks so I gave it a try and the aroma is clean(not fruity) but the welches grape flavor is still there. Not really a bad thing but quite noticeable. The beer is quite clear just a slight chill haze(could be just first pour), seems more bitter than the 20IBU calculated. Attenuation was a modest 75% and finished in about 4 days.

I have an extract session IPA with about 10% corn sugar going now, fermenting at 85 and it had a pretty strong sulfur smell for the first two days. It definitely took off faster and attenuated quicker than the first pitch. Checked gravity at 48hours post pitch and it was 75% attenuation and airlock activity was slowing. 72hrs only a couple more points to 78% attenuation and airlock activity very slow so I plan to dry hop it later.

I have more slurry and plan to do a cream ale next at 80F to see if the grape flavor is less noticeable.
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I’ve only used it once so far, and I found it to be extremely clean with no off smells/flavors. However, I used it in a pseudo-lager Oktoberfest and fermented at the low end of the temperature range (67F)
 
Here’s the blonde ale I made with Lutra - 4.2% - pilsner, wheat, magnum, palisade.

it fermented clean and fast. I keg condition and had to pitch some k97 in this batch which I think made it a bit hazy and contributed some yeast character I wasn’t happy with. I’m going to use champagne yeast in the future.

I’ve brewed a Cali common since and that came out much clearer and super clean.



both fermented around 76degrees. I’ll definitely keep this kveik strain around.

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shoreman said:
Here’s the blonde ale I made with Lutra - 4.2% - pilsner, wheat, magnum, palisade.

it fermented clean and fast. I keg condition and had to pitch some k97 in this batch which I think made it a bit hazy and contributed some yeast character I wasn’t happy with. I’m going to use champagne yeast in the future.

I’ve brewed a Cali common since and that came out much clearer and super clean.



both fermented around 76degrees. I’ll definitely keep this kveik strain around.

View attachment 707003
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Looks delicious. I’m curious why you had to pitch a second yeast for conditioning? Were you concerned that the Lutra had dropped and couldn’t consume the priming sugar?
Thanks for reporting out. I have a pack of Lutra in fridge now but I lost a bit of interest since my brew area is too cold now.
 
Thanks, yeah I didn’t see any activity on my keg when conditioning with lutra - I use one of these Keg Pressure Tester

generally I’ll see activity on a yeast within a couple days, but didn’t see anything after about 5 to 6 days. Then saw this video



It does have to do with flocculation.
 
My first lutra beer is a bit yeasty. I did keg it on day 5 though, which was a bit silly. I like it, I find some very mild esters but otherwise clean. Will definitely use again though I’ll try to ferment lower and definitely leave it longer before kegging.

My fermenting fridge is getting a bit sluggish to drop down to lager temps, so I need to get the hang of lutra before that happens haha
 
On 11-11 I pitched a 1.25 L starter of Lutra on a 1.042 lite lager at 64*. I kept itself there until day 3 then slowly went down to 59* (56* ambient) and on 11-16 it was at 1.016. Today 11-21 it's at 1.010 and 57* and has a malt flavor that's deep and has matching bitterness at 30 IBU's. At this point I wouldn't have a problem passing this off as a green lager. When I have room(week or so) I'll keg it and in a 33* lagerator it gose.
 

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