Your experience and input on weekend Yeast options, please.

[ndhowlett]

Long time homebrewer here, back in the U.S. from an overseas move. Did a little bit of home brewing there, but just didn't brew much. Back in the US of A and I have caught the bug again.

I've searched the forums, and there is a good amount of stories and experience to draw from, but if you have your own specific experience I would love to hear it (and your advice).

This weekend I'm brewing two beers. A lot has changed in the years I was only lightly brewing, specifically the use of a spunding valve and pressurized fermentation and using Kviek yeast at high temperatures. I'm feeling a little trepidation doing either. What are your experiences? What would you recommend based on your experience?

Beer 1 - Festbier
OG - 1.056
Yeast - Wyeast 2803 Munich II lager (doing a 2L starter the day of)
Option 1 - Ferment at 51 degrees (temp controlled) and diacetyl rest near tail end of fermentation.
Option 2 - Ferment in a corny keg at room temperature with a spunding valve set to 12 PSI. (considering putting in keg with a floating dip tube and ferment, super kleer to clear it up, but may go keg to keg then super kleer).

Beer 2 - Citra IPA
OG - 1.063
Yeast - See options (no starter both dry yeast)
Option 1 - Mangrove Jack's dry Kviek yeast, using a plastic tub and sous vide at 95 degrees.
Option 2 - Safale05, good old war horse which has produced great beers for me in the past.

Thanks!

 

[Franktalk]

Beer 1 looks like a solid plan. If you are doing your starter on brew day, check out "shaken not stirred" starter or "vitality" starter. They are both the same thing, and it works very well.

Beer 2 I would go with the Safale 05, but that is just my preference. Either will make a good Citra IPA. IMHO the 05 will give you a cleaner, softer and smoother result.

 

[ndhowlett]

Beer 1 looks like a solid plan. If you are doing your starter on brew day, check out "shaken not stirred" starter or "vitality" starter. They are both the same thing, and it works very well.

Beer 2 I would go with the Safale 05, but that is just my preference. Either will make a good Citra IPA. IMHO the 05 will give you a cleaner, softer and smoother result.

Thanks @Franktalk. So in your experience the kvieks finish a bit less soft than other traditional ale yeasts? Interesting you hold the pressure fermentation the same as traditional lager yeast schedule.

I just thought about it, maybe I'll split them up and see which one I prefer or if I can tell any difference at all. Thanks for the input!

Good read on the shaken not stirred. I've got a stir plate, using it for the first time this weekend. The SNS method makes sense for sure. I think there is some merit however with stir plates and oxygen reaching the yeast if have the correct size stir bar. I saw that in a couple posts when researching SNS.

 

[marc1]

For 1) I would do the temp controlled fermentation. You can up the pressure at the end to get some carbonation going, but I would not rely on 12PSI to make a lager without temp control.

For 2) it depends what you want. Both would be fine. If you've never tried Kveik, then maybe test it out. At 95 the Voss will go crazy and you'll be done really quick.

If you are making your starter the day of, you are not growing very much new yeast. You're waking it up and getting it ready to hit the ground running. I use a stirplate, and make my starter well in advance. I give it a day and a half or so with spinning, then another day on the counter, then crash it out in the fridge for a couple few days. When pitching, I decant off most of the supernatant and pitch just the yeast.