Saison + Kveik Delay Pitch

[Hayden123982]

Been doing many beers with Kveik yeast lately, specifically been using what was previously "Eastern WA Kveik Blend" from Imperial and is now available as the seasonal "Kveiking." VLike the blend a lot; been using about 1 tsp of slurry per 5.5 gal batch and fermenting ~95-98F.

This beer is Rustic from Imperial (pitched ~76F and let free rise) with a delayed pitch of Kveiking 16 hours after Rustic. The idea was make sure Rustic had its chance to do its thing before Kveik ripped and added some orangey esters to the mix.

Brewed 4 days ago. Yesterday active fermentation looks complete so plan on letting the beer sit on the yeast for about a week before kegging and sampling

Grain bill (5 gal, 30 min boil):
Pilsner 9# 4oz
White wheat 1# 12oz
F. oats 1#
Caramunich 8oz
Acid 4oz

Hops:
Mosaic 1 oz - 15 mins
Mosaic 2 oz - 175F 15 mins

Water (Mash)
Ca - 90
Mg - 2
Na - 0
Cl - 107
SO4 - 79
HCO3 - 0

2g baking soda added to boil

 

[RPh_Guy]

2g baking soda added to boil

Really?

Besides that, it looks like a cool recipe. What's the OG & FG? Mash temp?

Can you please describe the taste of Imperial Rustic, your pitch rate, starter procedure, yeast nutrients, aeration technique, and fermentation temperature schedule? It sounds good and I've been looking for a nice Belgian strain that's fruity with light-moderate bubblegum and low phenol, maybe some clove but little-no pepper.

Cheers

 

[Hayden123982]

The baking soda bumps my Na to 16 ppm and HCO3 to 41 ppm and maybe moved my pH up by 0.1. I find I like a little bit of Na in most of my water profiles and figured the bicarb would be good in the saison

For Rustic I pitch near 0.8 M/mL/P which happens to be one fresh pack of Imperial for this batch. In the past, I've reach low FG's with Rustic without any late nutrient additions with a similar grain bill so I opted to not enter my fermenter to add any nutrients.

Aeration was 60 seconds with my 2 micron oxygen wand.

I do not try to hold temp for the initial climb for my saisons then I'll try to push towards the lower 80s to help finish it off. I did pitch a little warmer than I usually would for Rustic with this batch at 76F but that's because I wanted to make sure the wort was pretty warm once I added in the kveik strain. Also I did allow "open" fermentation for the first 16 hours before adding the kveik

In the past, Rustic gave me good bubblegum and fruitiness with some mild pepper. I do wonder how the higher temp and delayed kveik addition will affect this batch. Updates to come!

 

[Hayden123982]

reached FG of 1.010

Currently do not notice much contribution from the kveik, very much a heavy bubblegum brew. I'm saving this one to bring to a friend's wedding so I'll be able to drink more of it then and see if I can pick up any character from the kveiking or if the Rustic just dominate.

I may try not delaying the pitch next go around if the kveik does not start to come through, but overall I do really enjoy this beer. Might actually consider doing a 10gal next time and splitting rustic vs rustic + kviek

 

[Hayden123982]

Beer was a big hit at the wedding. I really did enjoy this beer myself but really hard to tell if the kveik contributed much. Could be that the banana/clove combo just over powers what kveiking can bring to the table.

Lots of bubblegum and just slight peppery note. I’ll be brewing this one again as a 10 gal sometime in the future and split rustic vs rustic + kveik pitched at same time. Likely going to be my go to saison recipe in the future with maybe some minor playing around with water chem

 

[RPh_Guy]

Sounds interesting.

Why wouldn't you do one with just Rustic and one with just Kveiking to blend?
For best results the kveik is best fermented in the 90s.

 

[Hayden123982]

I hadn't thought about blending... Thanks!

I pushed the Rustic with the blend into the 80s but that could also be a reason why the kveik didn't contribute much. I normally have it up at 95F