Rare yeast, and I'm getting ahold of some!

[joshesmusica]

Do you get anything from the Pacific Jade bittering in terms of flavor? I have Galaxy and Cascade, so I will try that combo. I thought Galaxy alone was a little one dimensional (passion fruit dimension).

I'm not one of those that will claim that a bittering addition doesn't add any flavor, but I think it doesn't make too much of a difference when you have a lot of late hops.
In this case it was a cheap high alpha acid hop my LHBS had.

I have yet to taste the final product, legged it yesterday, but it smelled amazing so far. They liken galaxy to citra, and I think especially adding cascade really helped to bring out the more citrusy notes from it. I ended up only dry hopping with cascade because I had whole leaf of that one, and because of the infection, ended up dry hopping in the keg. So I left out the Galaxy since they were pellets. I'll brew an ipa this weekend with the two though.

 

[joshesmusica]

Well, I got really excited because I brought the infection to the school's lab. But then they didn't have any dye for gram testing. Nor did they have this one oil you need for the 1000x lens. So it's not super clear at that level. I think to tell just by looking at the cells that you probably need way more than 1000x to identify different characteristics. But at least you can see that they're rod-shaped.

 

[Warthaug]

Those are yeast; not likely a Saccharomyces species based on the elongated morphology, bud size & bud location. Other than that, its not really possible to nail down what they are.

Bryan

 

[joshesmusica]

Those are yeast; not likely a Saccharomyces species based on the elongated morphology, bud size & bud location. Other than that, its not really possible to nail down what they are.

Bryan

Seriously? What about the size and location tells you this?

 

[Warthaug]

The big give away is the formation of rosettes (clusters of cells attached at the poles) and chains, and the very large bud sizes (some upto 2/3rd the size of the mother cell). Sacch species separate completely upon cell division (so no rosettes or chains) and tend to form buds that are much smaller than the parental cell. You also have some cells that are budding axially, which Sacch doesn't do.

It may also be a mixed culture, again that's not really possible to tell from simple microscopy

 

[joshesmusica]

The big give away is the formation of rosettes (clusters of cells attached at the poles) and chains, and the very large bud sizes (some upto 2/3rd the size of the mother cell). Sacch species separate completely upon cell division (so no rosettes or chains) and tend to form buds that are much smaller than the parental cell. You also have some cells that are budding axially, which Sacch doesn't do.

It may also be a mixed culture, again that's not really possible to tell from simple microscopy

So bacteria don't behave in the way you just described?

 

[m00ps]

Hey so I just pitched my starter of the Omega Yeats Hothead that is the ?Stranda? strain in that blog.

And man....the starter wort was as fruity as the Brett Blend I use. Not spicy or tart like most other farmhouse yeasts. I dot have a good enough palette to pick out the fruitts but holy crap was it fruity. Fruitier than any sacch yeast ive ever tasted. I cant wait for the beer to be ready. Currently fermenting at 95F cause I figured I had to make the beer according to its namesake

 

[joshesmusica]

I just brewed up the famous centennial blonde yesterday, using this strain. I made the starter on Thursday, but for some strange reason the activity didn't really start up until Friday evening. Which put a kink into my plans a bit. There was still a bit of krausen, though it was starting to drop, on Sunday when I pitched. I figure in the end it's not a bad thing since I had the starter going at around 25, and I planned on fermenting at 25, so any off flavors from the starter would already be something that I would want.
My process is ghetto and I kind of do a batch sparge but I only boil those runnings for like 5 mins. I do this instead of topping up with water, hoping it will help my efficiency go up.
So then I just counted the ~2 liters of the starter as part of the wort top up.
Anyways, I pitched the yeast at around 5, and by 9 it was already bubbling like crazy!
So we will see how it turns out in a few weeks.

 

[Warthaug]

So bacteria don't behave in the way you just described?

Bacteria are much smaller than what you have there.

Edit: Here is a picture comparing normal brewing yeast (slightly out-of-focus) to an average-sized bacteria

 

[Biobrewer]

Lars sent me some of this as well about a year ago. Once I streaked it out and isolated what are pure strains I gave some to a friend and am now just getting around to using it and testing myself. Very excited!

 

[joshesmusica]

Lars sent me some of this as well about a year ago. Once I streaked it out and isolated what are pure strains I gave some to a friend and am now just getting around to using it and testing myself. Very excited!

Were there all kinds of wild strains mixed in with sacch strains? Any bacteria present?

 

[GQT]

Lars sent me some of this as well about a year ago. Once I streaked it out and isolated what are pure strains I gave some to a friend and am now just getting around to using it and testing myself. Very excited!

That's what I was wondering about (not me alone) earlier in the thread, how to get hold of a sample of this strain... Like, there is some yeast exchange sort of club but looks like it its membership is a pretty tricky thing to obtain.

 

[Biobrewer]

That's what I was wondering about (not me alone) earlier in the thread, how to get hold of a sample of this strain... Like, there is some yeast exchange sort of club but looks like it its membership is a pretty tricky thing to obtain.

Well, I can't speak for anybody else, but owning your own yeast company (The Yeast Bay in my case) definitely makes people more likely to want to send you yeast to try out and evaluate!

 

[joshesmusica]

Lars sent me some of this as well about a year ago. Once I streaked it out and isolated what are pure strains I gave some to a friend and am now just getting around to using it and testing myself. Very excited!

Was it the Voss strand that you got? How many different strains were there? Any non-sacch strains? Any bacteria?

 

[Biobrewer]

Was it the Voss strand that you got? How many different strains were there? Any non-sacch strains? Any bacteria?

No idea, though I'm pretty positive there was no bacteria. All I know is I streak out any culture I get from anyone regardless of whether it's claimed to be a pure culture. I want to know that what I'm evaluating is a pure source and will be consistent.

 

[joshesmusica]

No idea, though I'm pretty positive there was no bacteria. All I know is I streak out any culture I get from anyone regardless of whether it's claimed to be a pure culture. I want to know that what I'm evaluating is a pure source and will be consistent.

I'm wondering because of the pictures I took above, that another guy said was some kind of wild yeast, and likely not a sacch strain. Are you propagating this yeast? I know there are several followers of this thread in the US who would love to get this yeast.

 

[joshesmusica]

I forgot to take any pictures, but a friend and I just kegged/bottled the Centennial Blonde recipe on here, but used the kveik. I have my half kegged, and I usually try to let it have 12 or so hours at 40 psi, then I let it sit for a couple of days at serving pressure. So I'll know in a couple of days how that one turned out. And no pellicle on this one, so it seems that I effed up that last batch somehow.

The one that got the supposed wild yeast, just doesn't really seem to be getting any clearer. It is a wheat beer, but I just assumed that it was the wild yeast that was leaving it what seemed like extra cloudy. But with the centennial blonde, even with a 3 day cold crash at near freezing temps, it wasn't really that clear. I didn't use gelatin though, because I didn't want the gelatin in with the harvest yeast. I did dry hop in the bucket though, but luckily all of those were just kinda sitting on top of the yeast cake. So I just scraped that off with a sanitized spoon before harvesting.

Yesterday we brewed up a typical Norwegian christmas beer. It's a brown, slightly spicy type of ale. My step-father-in-law brewed it last year, and I really enjoyed it. Since Lars described the characteristics given from this yeast as orange and christmas spices, I had my mind set a long time ago that I would brew this beer with it. It's already cranking away; airlock sounds like a machine gun. Pitched at around 6 p.m. yesterday, and when I went to bed at around 1 a.m. there was already significant airlock activity. I decided to not go very high on this one. I have it sitting in my ferment chamber with the lid open. It seems to still be trapping in quite a bit of heat, as the ambient air is 21C, yet the thermometer probe to my temp control is reading 27.2! That's not even taped to the bucket, it's just sitting at the bottom of the chamber.

 

[juan_bernado]

Hej joshes,

so what has been the result of your 2 beers that you brewed with the vossakveik?

i brewed mine with Pils, Rye and CaraAroma @ 1.060; 40 IBU from Tradition and fermented @ 25°C / 77°F.

I got a ridiculous attenuation of 66% and a cloyingly sweet beer. Gladly i could market it as Christmas Ale / Jule Öl.

Any tips for a higher attenuation?

cheers from Münster

 

[joshesmusica]

Hej joshes,

so what has been the result of your 2 beers that you brewed with the vossakveik?

i brewed mine with Pils, Rye and CaraAroma @ 1.060; 40 IBU from Tradition and fermented @ 25°C / 77°F.

I got a ridiculous attenuation of 66% and a cloyingly sweet beer. Gladly i could market it as Christmas Ale / Jule Öl.

Any tips for a higher attenuation?

cheers from Münster

Not really sure. Mine had great attenuation, including all of the starters.

I did three with that yeast, and to be honest, I won't use it again. My next one to attempt with it was going to be a more yeast-character-forward style, as the first two I did were a hoppy wheat beer and the centennial blonde from here, and a brown christmas ale. I was hoping to get some background yeast flavors from it on those three. The flavors it produces are not bad at all. But it doesn't clear at all. Maybe months and months down the line. But I brewed the centennial blonde in mid-october. 2 weeks fermentor, 3 weeks bottle conditioning, since then in the fridge. I just drank the last 1-liter bottle from that batch on New Year's Eve, and after about a month and a half in the fridge, it still didn't clear whatsoever.

I don't mind a little yeasty cloudiness, but this was like drinking orange juice. This was like those horrible examples from the "do you clear your beer" thread. I have a hoppy witbier in the keg right now, and the little bit of yeasty cloudiness in that one is perfect. This one I just can't get over. It pretty much ruined the christmas brown ale for me. My FIL brewed the exact same recipe last year for christmas, and used nottingham, and that beer was great.

So while it was really fun experimenting with this one. I think I'm done with it. There's a chance that I'll give it one more go, with a very plain recipe, and use a bunch of clearing agents to see if that helps. That's one thing I didn't use because I didn't want to rack to a secondary, and I didn't want a bunch of gelatin in with the saved yeast. But I've never had a beer sit in the fridge for 1 1/2 months and not clear. This one didn't budge at all in that time.

 

[joshesmusica]

Here's one last update. I found out my brew partner had one last bottle, and it's even in a clear ikea swing top. We'll probably drink it tomorrow night. Put a kolsch yeast harvested from a starter next to it in order to show the difference. Also put another jar of yeast sitting behind the two, half and half. It's been sitting in the fridge for nearly 3 months, still as cloudy as this. Talked with Lars, and he said that the voss kveik is typically a very good flocculator, so it's hard to understand unless the people before me didn't take good care of it. But this is one that has just been repitched and repitched for centuries, so that shouldn't have been what caused it.

The group of guys who have the Hornindal kveik (and are talked about on Lars' blog) were at Norway's second biggest homebrewers competition, although it was only a prize for the public's favorite. They had a raw ale brewed with the kveik. It was super hazy, but it could've been because of it being a raw ale, and they do super short fermentations, with no fining agents or anything. So it was very fresh.

Either way, still unsure if I'll use it again. I'll keep it around in the fridge, but I've got so many other brews I want to try right now, I can't really commit my time, energy, etc. to such thick, yeasty beer.

 

[Biobrewer]

The Voss Kveik strain is ultra floccant, and creates massive flocs especially during propagation. We actually banked the strain (thanks Lars!) with White Labs recently for The Yeast Bay, and should have some White Labs propagated product for homebrewers and craft brewers soon. In the mean time, we actually have some beta propagated vials currently up on The Yeast Bay website:

http://www.theyeastbay.com/brewers-yeast-products/sigmunds-voss-kveik

If you think yours was infected, try a vial we currently have up! The strain is really great. Orange zest ester, drier, massively large temperature range. Definitely a unique yeast!

 

[senegalego]

@Biobrewer: Do you have any idea if it is available in Europe?

The Voss Kveik strain is ultra floccant, and creates massive flocs especially during propagation. We actually banked the strain (thanks Lars!) with White Labs recently for The Yeast Bay, and should have some White Labs propagated product for homebrewers and craft brewers soon. In the mean time, we actually have some beta propagated vials currently up on The Yeast Bay website:

http://www.theyeastbay.com/brewers-yeast-products/sigmunds-voss-kveik

If you think yours was infected, try a vial we currently have up! The strain is really great. Orange zest ester, drier, massively large temperature range. Definitely a unique yeast!

 

[Biobrewer]

The Yeast Bay strain will be available to anyone who buys wholesale vials from us in Europe. I just spoke with White Labs about it and the banking is going very well, so I'm guessing no more than a couple weeks before White Labs produced culture is available to both homebrewers and craft brewers.

 

[Biobrewer]

@Biobrewer: Do you have any idea if it is available in Europe?

White labs just finished the banking. Any stores that carry our products can get it wholesale now with their Yeast Bay order. It is also on the Yeast Bay website for purchase by US homebrewers.

Cheers!

 

[RedIvan16]

Late to the party, but definitely thinking of trying out a farmhouse style beer with the kveik yeast. Do I need to get another fermentor or bucket like I would an American sour? I know those yeast strains are tough to clean out and often will contaminate clean beers fermented in the same vessels

 

[Biobrewer]

Nick from The Yeast Bay here. Our strain is a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae that is as easy to clean away as most other strains. Go ahead and use your normal equipment!

 

[RedIvan16]

Nick from The Yeast Bay here. Our strain is a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae that is as easy to clean away as most other strains. Go ahead and use your normal equipment!

Thanks for the reply! That puts my mind at ease. I'll be ordering some in the next few weeks!

 

[anotherbeerplease]

Man this is awesome! You should make your own stirplate - I did and it's super great. Hope the yeast works out for you.

 

[Biobrewer]

Reviving this to let folks know in the coming weeks we'll be releasing this Sigmund's Voss Kveik blended with our new Metchnikowia reukaufii isolate, a new "rare" yeast that was isolated from raspberry bushes in the Berkeley, CA hills. You can click on the link above for more info on M. reukaufii and it's properties in co-fermentation, but here's some info on the blend:

Kveik’n Hills - Since we received data a couple of months back from Oozlefinch Brewing, we’ve been working on our own in-house M.reukaufii blends with a number of other strains we market for use in hop-forward beers. This culture will be the first blend to be released, and is the marriage of our M. reukaufii isolate from the Berkeley Hills of California with Sigmund’s Voss Kveik.

 

[Coffeeturnal]

Reviving this to let folks know in the coming weeks we'll be releasing this Sigmund's Voss Kveik blended with our new Metchnikowia reukaufii isolate, a new "rare" yeast that was isolated from raspberry bushes in the Berkeley, CA hills. You can click on the link above for more info on M. reukaufii and it's properties in co-fermentation, but here's some info on the blend:

Kveik’n Hills - Since we received data a couple of months back from Oozlefinch Brewing, we’ve been working on our own in-house M.reukaufii blends with a number of other strains we market for use in hop-forward beers. This culture will be the first blend to be released, and is the marriage of our M. reukaufii isolate from the Berkeley Hills of California with Sigmund’s Voss Kveik.

Am I understanding correctly that this is sort of marketed towards NEIPA brewing as a catalyst for "biotransformation"? I don't have a strong understanding of a lot of the terms used in the description of M. reukaufii. What sort of characteristics would be noticed from using it in worts that are less hoppy?

I live ~20 min away from Oozlefinch and love their beers... So when they get name dropped I get excited Are you at all at liberty to talk about anything related to their use of this yeast? (Totally understand if you're not)