Testing the limits of Hornindal

[Bassaholic]

So I brewed up a Russian imperial stout today and it was the first time I’ve ever brewed a huge beer. I used Brewer’s Friend to calculate my recipe and I lowered my efficiency 10% to account for a larger grain bill. I’m not sure how, but I ended up at an OG of 1.120 when I was aiming for 1.100.

Anyway, I had some dried Hornindal from a previous batch that I pitched 5g of into this beast. I oxygenated it for 90 seconds with my diffusion stone and may hit it again in the morning depending on how fermentation looks. I know Kveik yeasts are used to high gravity worts, but I haven’t found much info on second doses of o2 for bigger beers. I’m starting the fermentation at 86*F and I might raise it up depending on how fermentation goes. I’m excited to see how this yeast handles a big beer!

 

[yourlastchance89]

O2 dosing can be hard to guage as there are so many factors that affect absorption. I do know worts of higher temps and higher gravities absorb oxygen more poorly, how much worse I have no idea though.

 

[Bassaholic]

It was off to a rather sluggish start. I had just a few bubbles on top of the wort after 24+ hours so I hit it with another 60 second of o2 to hopefully kickstart the yeast.

I also made a 500mL starter and pitched 3g of my dried Kveik in just in case I didn’t see any activity in the main beer. I also wanted to verify that the dried yeast was healthy since this was my first time using it. In retrospect I definitely should have done this in the first place. Anyway, I saw activity within just a couple hours.

I decided to wait until this morning before pitching the starter into the beer. When I went to check on it it was actively chugging away with a decent krausen on top. Should I still pitch my active starter in or just wait to see what happens?

 

[505-Brewer]

I would wait. What did u do? Hows the beer?

 

[Miraculix]

It was off to a rather sluggish start. I had just a few bubbles on top of the wort after 24+ hours so I hit it with another 60 second of o2 to hopefully kickstart the yeast.

I also made a 500mL starter and pitched 3g of my dried Kveik in just in case I didn’t see any activity in the main beer. I also wanted to verify that the dried yeast was healthy since this was my first time using it. In retrospect I definitely should have done this in the first place. Anyway, I saw activity within just a couple hours.

I decided to wait until this morning before pitching the starter into the beer. When I went to check on it it was actively chugging away with a decent krausen on top. Should I still pitch my active starter in or just wait to see what happens?

Dry the starter or store it in a plastic bottle and just let the beer run it's course

 

[Beer666]

For a high gravity wort like that I have often seen fermentation within an hour sometimes 15 minutes. The only kveik beer I had stall was around 1100 so I always pitch lots of yeast for high og beers now.

 

[Bassaholic]

I decided to wait since fermentation ramped up pretty quickly. I just tossed the starter in a mason jar and put it in the fridge. I still have 140g dried from my first yeast cake.

I took a gravity reading 2 days after fermentation started. The krausen had fallen, but the beer was still pretty murky. The gravity was at 1.040 and tasted decent considering how young it is. A little bit of a warming from the alcohol (10% at that point) and decently bitter. Didn’t have much yeast character which I’m totally fine with. If anything I was hoping for the milky caramel flavor some people report with Hornindal.

I was away on vacation for a week and took another gravity sample today. The beer is pretty clear and is sitting at 1.030 so it’s clocking in just under 12%. I’m happy with the FG, but I’m going to let it sit for another week or so then transfer to a corny keg for bulk aging.

If I had to do it over again I would definitely make a vitality starter with the dried yeast for a big beer like this. An oversight on my part, but it seemed to work out well in the end. Pretty impressive that 5g of dried cake fermented this beer like a champ!