Parti-Gyle Session Beer w/ Kveik

[Yeroc]

PARTI-GYLE SESSION BEER using Tomasgard dry kveik from Mainiacal Yeast
03/17/19 (BREW DAY)

I wanted to do a parti-gyle beer to take advantage of the 15 lbs of Pilsner malt I mashed for a Belgian Style Quad. Unfortunately I didn’t think ahead. So I scrounged up what odds and ends grains I had on hand.

1lbs 6 oz spelt (Bob's Red Mill)
1 lbs steel cut oats (McCann’s Irish Oatmeal)
7.3 oz red wheat berries (from Whole Foods)
7.8 oz buckwheat (from Whole Foods)
Subtotal: 4lbs 1.1 oz new grains
Plus the 15 lbs of spent Pilsner malt that had already been Mash at 149F for the quad.

I used my coffee grinder to mill the wheat, buckwheat and spelt. Added that to the steel cut oats and did a cereal mash that also included some of the Pils grain and about a 1 cup of first runnings from the Quad for some enzymes. Added that to the mash tun with the pilsner. Sparged with 5 gallons room temp water (maybe 68F) and drained.

Pre boil gravity 1.024

I boiled the wort until the gravity hit 1.034. NO HOPS. This produced a very cloudy, milky wort. Probably from the grain flour produced milling with a coffee grinder.

Cooled naturally to around 90F, and late at night I poured with a funnel into a 3 gal carboy. Added a little Tomasgard dry Kveik (less than half a recently purchased packet). Heat pad wrapped around carboy set to about 88 degrees. Covered with foil for the first few days before adding the air-lock.

Day 5 Dry hopped 1 oz Citra pellets split between a few tea bags.

Day 14 Bottled using coopers sugar drops for carbonation.

Final Gravity 1.012, which seem high. ABV 2.89%.

Sample at bottling was heavy with pineapple and citrus. A lot of flavor and aroma for such a low ABV.

Day 20 (6 days in the bottle)
Cracked one open to see how the kveik was doing with carbing. Well carbed already. Taste/aroma seems green; a little rough. First hit on the nose is pineapple but it dissipated fast, leaving a slight Yeasty/rubber aroma. Why the rubber??? Hope that goes away with conditioning. Taste is crisp and tart, citrus that lingers in the aftertaste. Perception of a dry finish considering the gravity. Aftertaste is sort of like orangina or watered down orange juice… but in a good way.
The Mainiacal Yeast site mentioned this kveik includes some lactobacillus, which I guess is what’s providing the very nice tartness. Would the dry hopping stop or slow the lactobacillus or do you think this will continue to sour in the bottle?

I think this will be a nice summer beer after yard work.

 

[Diomed12]

This is quite a delayed question but do you have any other tasting notes for the Tomasgard kveik? I picked some up from a seller on eBay, and his information identifies the aroma imparted by the yeast as a milky caramel, which is what made me purchase this strain. I'd be interested in whether you picked up on that characteristic and how hopping the wort altered the aroma or flavor profile outside of the tartness. Thanks.

 

[Yeroc]

This is quite a delayed question but do you have any other tasting notes for the Tomasgard kveik? I picked some up from a seller on eBay, and his information identifies the aroma imparted by the yeast as a milky caramel, which is what made me purchase this strain. I'd be interested in whether you picked up on that characteristic and how hopping the wort altered the aroma or flavor profile outside of the tartness. Thanks.

Interesting timing. I think I just had my last bottle of this last weekend. At least I can’t find anymore, but I’m hoping to discover a few bottles squirreled away in the basement someday. It turned out to be a very taste beer.

I didn’t really get any milky caramel, but that might have to do with the grain bill and the low OG. Any hint of tropical flavors I mentioned originally dissipated from the beer fairly soon after bottling. No pineapple. The last few times I made notes about the beer I mentioned peach/stone fruit flavors and a light citrus vibe. The stone fruit flavor is the star and makes for a nice summer beer. Crisp and refreshing with a little bit of a rustic saison type vibe. Slightly tart but not sour. Very highly carbonated because it dropped a few more points after bottling. I think I did bottle a little too soon, but still happy with the results.

Curious to hear what you do with the yeast and how it turns out. Good luck!

 

[Diomed12]

For an update, I brewed a Kentucky Common and utilized Tomasgard and another kveik, Ner-Saure, to see how these would ferment out the same wort. My tasting notes are:

Both beers pour a burnt orange with almost no head; Ner-Saure has a bit of lasting head but Tomasgard does not despite both being well carbonated. Tomasgard has a tart brown sugar smell. Ner-Saure has a weak bready aroma, nothing else perceptible. Tomasgard flavor has a full malt profile, somewhat sweet wheat bread flavor with light yeast phenolic and an almost tart - not sour by any means but just slightly tart - and a touch of chocolate at the end. Ner-Saure flavor has an almost orange and bread presence but not sweet, and emphasis on malt as expressed by the wheat bread flavor. Body on both is medium and both have slightly sharp nucleation; it is notable that Tomasgard FG was 1.003 while Ner-Saure was 1.006, both from an OG of 1.052, and neither beer had what I would call a very thin body. Of the two, I prefer the Tomasgard variant as it is more complex with the way it weaves in a tartness and yeast phenolics with the malt. Ner-Saure is cleaner and flocculates much better along with fermenting out faster; granted, both Tomasgard and Ner-Saure finished within 24 hours of pitching from starters. Tomasgard promoted itself as having a milky, caramel, and toffee flavor, which I did not pick up on at all, so perhaps this will increase with age. Ner-Saure promoted its flavor contribution as "difficult to describe" and what I pick up on is difficult to describe as it’s not noticeable at this time This is my first crack at brewing and tasting a Kentucky Common so I can’t say how successful these were for the style. I do enjoy both beers, probably a 4 out of 5 for both as they are enjoyable to drink, but I’m disappointed in how normal these beers are.

In the future, I think that I will go for a SMASH approach to see if I can't pick up on what may be more delicate flavor contributions from these yeasts. I will age what I have to see how things change in time. In the picture below, Ner-Saure is on the left and Tomasgard is on the right; unfortunately I don't have matching beer glasses.

 

[Yeroc]

Thanks for the update. Sorry for my late reply. I haven't been able to brew for a while and stopped checking the site as often. Smash is an interesting idea. I don't know how one brings out that milky, caramel, toffee flavor. Maybe a higher OG grain bill? I've got a dried, unopened packet of Tomasgard in the fridge, and I need to figure out a recipe to brew.