Voss Kveik stalling at 3.5 %

[CrouchingLidar]

My brewing career is half way into it's second year.
I live in SEASia where the ambient temp is around 35 C most of the year.
After a chat with a friend and some research I decided to have go. I'm on a limited budget re equipment, and have decided to impose operational constraints of only using Voss Kveik because of it's temp tolerance (cost space of refrigeration is an issue) and for convenience the local tapwater (dechlorinated) which is relatively hard.
I've done some meads (which I may ask about on a dfferent thread) and fruit wine and then jumped straight in with alll grain.
My brew diary has around 12 beers in it and I'm guessing 80% are stouts a couple of lagers and a wildcat I made with leftovers.
Mashing sparging is an amatuerish combination of brew in abag with fly sparging and a mash tun using a 5$ pump which works 10 to 80 % of the time.
Because of rudementary equipment getting the SG close the recipe has varied from between 1 to 3 hours.

Most fermentations have been at ambient ( lows of 35% at night mid 30's day) and I tried one in my weed grow room ( legal state) which has been kept at about 22 C.

I'm keen to stay organic, but FErmaid O is expensive, I'm probably going to resort back to Fermaid K but have tried both homemade and shop bought amylased yeast.

The problem I'm having at the moment is that under all the variations I've tried the fermentation seems to stop at bang on 3.5% ABV I'm not looking for anything in the region of 8% but I wouldn't mind getting closer to 5 or 6 %.

Have any of the more experienced brewers got any suggestions ?

 

[Jeroen79]

What are you mashing? normal pils malt?

Voss should do 10% with its pants down without even any fermaid.

Maybe you should share you recipe so we could have a better idea of what is going on.

 

[DonT]

Recipe? Really can't help without that...

 

[CrouchingLidar]

https://brewingmischief.com/kveikur-oats-oatmeal-stout/,
https://homebrewingaustralia.net/recipe-summer-lager/,
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/755340/117-singha-clone
https://web.brewfather.app/share/RMU3HZmEUiLZ1p9S50WFNlw2E3p3rZ

 

[DonT]

Thank you for the recipes, now we need your actual numbers/results... It would be helpful to concentrate on just one recipe as it might be a process issue as well...

 

[marc1]

Are you using a refractometer to measure FG?

 

[IslandLizard]

the fermentation seems to stop at bang on 3.5% ABV

How do you determine ABV?
How and when do you measure gravity?

 

[CrouchingLidar]

SG, with a fract, I had a vinometer to final check some of he earlier ones but they're fragile.

 

[Jeroen79]

You cannot use a vinometer on beer, it only work on wines.

 

[CrouchingLidar]

less than a week in and thats valuable info, thanks very much

 

[marc1]

SG, with a fract, I had a vinometer to final check some of he earlier ones but they're fragile

Refractometers don't work well when there is alcohol in the sample, they read the FG as much higher than it actually is. There are conversions you can do if you want (I'm not sure how accurate they are, but they might get you in the ballpark if you find an online calculator for it), but a hydrometer works great - I recommend that for FG. You would also need to know what the starting gravity was to calculate the ABV with the final gravity reading from the hydrometer.

So if you are using a refractometer, and you are not correcting for alcohol in the sample, your SG will read too high, causing you ABV calculation to come out erroneously low.

 

[IslandLizard]

Refractometers don't work well when there is alcohol in the sample, they read the FG as much higher than it actually is.

That's likely the issue the OP is experiencing, incorrect use of the measured data.

There are conversions you can do if you want (I'm not sure how accurate they are, but they might get you in the ballpark if you find an online calculator for it)

Brewers Friend has such a calculator and it's fairly accurate:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/refractometer-calculator/
Use both parts I and II.

The problem with small batches is that a hydrometer sample takes a relatively large volume off your batch. The refractometer method only uses 1 drop, so using the correction calculator is very handy.

 

[DuncB]

What is your measured final gravity after conversion or the brix reading on your refractometer?

Given your mention of limited budget I hope you are / have dried some of the kveik post use and then reuse it.

I followed the advice on David Heaths video


did this with my first batch and have been using flakes from that ever since.

 

[CrouchingLidar]

one of the lagers was Pre Boil G of 1.035, pitched yeast at 1.048, 2 days later stuck at 1.035 (ish) added DAP, cold crashed a week later at 1.031, readings taken with uncorrected refractometer

 

[DuncB]

I have a digital refractometer that reads out in brix that I then convert.

Is 1.031 a reading you get directly off the refractometer?

 

[DuncB]

This is what calculator makes your alcohol based on your info.

Kveik isn't a yeast without its' likes.

Oxygenate it lots ( unless a fresh dry packet) , double your yeast nutrient at the start of ferment.
Keep it warm but less than 40C, remember it will generate it's own heat so if you can pitch or keep around 30C or less.
Lager is a more challenging beer to make than it appears.
That being said cask would be more of a challenge.

 

[CrouchingLidar]

thanks for the input, I'm planning a stout next week.but fancy getting closer to 5% if I were to stay with Kveik has anyone got any hints. I'm also considering RedStar Champagne as an option, has anyone got views/experience on that .

 

[DuncB]

I'd go with the Kveik.
Measure the original gravity.
Aim for around 30C,
Don't forget the yeast nutrients.
If you haven't got any some old yeast thrown in at the end of the boil will help.
Keep us updated.

 

[marc1]

Don't use champagne yeast for beer.

 

[CrouchingLidar]

I'll probably ferment my next one in the grow room, ambient's lower, can UV light affect yeast ? Last one I went farmhouse and now have 20 L vinegar, other than cleaning the WC are there any other uses for it ?

 

[DuncB]

As vinegar!

 

[Whisky River]

I'll probably ferment my next one in the grow room, ambient's lower, can UV light affect yeast ? Last one I went farmhouse and now have 20 L vinegar, other than cleaning the WC are there any other uses for it ?

Try to keep it within its optimal temperature range, and minimize temperature fluctuations as much as possible. Is the location you were using before higher than 35/40c ?

 

[doug293cz]

I'll probably ferment my next one in the grow room, ambient's lower, can UV light affect yeast ? Last one I went farmhouse and now have 20 L vinegar, other than cleaning the WC are there any other uses for it ?

I don't know about UV affecting yeast, but it will definitely affect hops, causing a "skunky" off flavor in your beer.

Brew on

 

[IslandLizard]

Last one I went farmhouse and now have 20 L vinegar,

With "going farmhouse" do you mean you left your fermenter open?
Doing that is asking for trouble, unless you have a way to keep spoiling organisms (acetobacter, lactobacillus, etc.) and fruit flies out of your beer.