Kveik Yeast Discussion

I believe a correction is needed… Grain 1 should be more like… grainy? :joy: Sneezles61

I think I’ll keep it around 80F overnight then let it adjust to room temp of 72 on it’s own. I leave on Saturday for a week so there will be no D rest…that’s ok…good process…proper pH…hard boil…lid off…we’re good. Quiet over there @voodoo_donut.

Today I read more of the blog referenced earlier in this thread. The amount of imformation there is almost overwhelming. Most of it points to variance in esters produced by the varying strains of kwiek which each have multiple variations within a strain, maybe even some wild local yeast… all saved on a piece of wood and passed around the community…

I would assume lab produced strains would begin to show some consistency over time but maybe our home harvested slurry will not. Regardless our efforts at sanitation, there must be local wild bugs present and ready to get involved at the slightest opportunity right? Like my open bucket lids and our general familiarity with the process…

I’m looking forward to dipping my shillelagh in this yeast when I rack the beer off it. Then using that yeast from a wooden stick dried in my basement for weeks/months to innoculate fermentation of a future beer? With virtually no effort wasted on temperature control? This is gonna be fun boys. Hell I may move this whole operation to the barn if temperature is of no concern. Between the horse manure and bird guano combined with whaever the wind blows in…there have to be some interesting bugs could affect a beer right?

I may have gone off the deep end but what about an open sour mash say 2-3 days…then open fermentation at ambient temperature? If I came here in the 18th century and wanted to make beer I’d have to brew it that way right? Maybe the only yeast I could get was from that Norweigen guy’s piece of wood. (easy now let’s keep this SFW) Just thinkin’ outside the box…

2 Likes

That’s what I really like about this style of brewing. Really lends itself to local terroir. Although I’d skip the sour mash part, and maybe try raw ale… I think I’m going to try heating the mash with stones one of these weekends. Run off the beer through some hops, open cool, pitch yeast.

It’s interesting that although most of these local yeasts contained multiple strains, more than half of them were found to be pure sacch. No bacteria or other wild yeasts. Somewhere along the lines of hot pitching, drying, etc the yeast became so robust that it can outcompete microbes that would cause an infected batch.

And how many other yeasts could you direct pitch from the factory packaging into a 5 gallon batch and have active fermentation within a few hours? That’s ridiculous!

My Kviek sits in the fridge, and the bag is swelled a bit… It really wants to get to work… Soon I hope… I find it really interesting of how the yeast was handled, er, should I say abused, but it didn’t mind. AND, a piece said, if the yeast went bad, they’d just walk over to the neighbors and harvest some more like its no big deal… And here we are so worried about “outside bugs” getting into our airlock, sanitized brews… Maybe I shouldn’t embellish until I start using it? Sneezles61

If you change your mentality outside bugs are desirable. After all without outside bugs nobody would have discovered beer and wine. Take the time to google image coolships sometime. My favorite is the one in this link although the El Camino coolship is a pretty sweet ride.
http://oecbrewing.com/galleries/photo/beer-coolship/

Yea I agree. It’s pretty impressive. I kept them around 80 overnight. Krauesen looks like it peaked about an inch from the bucket rim in both buckets at some point last night and has fallen a bit since. Probably a good thing I left the bucket lids loose.

So, I’m somewhat naive… A copper coolship is a large vessel, made of copper which their brews cool off in? I mean, it all looks very cool… Again, I’ll go back to my squeamish ignorant ways of thinking. OMG !!! Infection!!!
I don’t suppose you can talk me off the ledge… Sneezles61

Not just for cooling…

Anchor has used one forever. I think they ferment the steam beer in it.

Yes, it’s how most breweries cooled their wort prior to active refrigeration (or at least water chillers). Commonly used in Belgium with the lambic breweries still. But yes, you’re exposing the wort to ambient microbes, including wild yeasts, bacteria, the whole nine yards. It’s a fun way to inoculate the wort if you’re doing a mixed fermentation, but very likely to end up with infected beer if you want clean beer. There are ways to minimize the chances of infection (hops, pH adjustment) but the opportunity is still there. I do a few a year by just cooling overnight with the kettle lid off.

However, Kveik has a very good chance of outcompeting whatever ambient microbes get into the wort, which will not be as readily adapted for beer fermentation. Between open fermentation and minimal sanitation, Kveik still manages to stay fairly pure. It’s barbaric stuff!

2 Likes

I looked into Anchor’s open fermentation practices and it turns out all their beers are open fermented! Of course they’re diligent about sanitation and the rooms have air filtration systems so they take no chances.

Maybe when i rack off these kveik yeast cakes I’ll leave half of one in the bucket and do a farmhouse ale or common and open ferment it just for giggles.

My fermenters have cooled down to about 70 since I pulled the space heater yesterday. Still a pretty fluffy head of krauesen on both.

1 Like

I’ve been scanning a fair bit of this blog and one thing I notice is their “preferred temperature” ranges seem to range a bit but mostly from 28-37C and many of them mention fermenting for a fairly low time by our standards. One said 30 hours another 3-4 days. I still have a fairly thick krauesen layer on my fermenters after almost 3 days.

Do you think they’re just racking off at a preferred time?

I would follow your normal brew practices this first time. I think the beers in the Lars blog that you are looking at are “raw” beers. While I’ve never had one I have tasted beer a week into fermentation and it was raw and young. I prefer a little more maturity. But if you want to know take a sample (using a sanitized thief or some such thing) and put it in a jar and seal it. Wait a day and stick that in the fridge for a day or so. Then report back :yum:

Yea I intend to let it run it’s course. Just found it interesting that their process involves taking it off the yeast while likely still fermenting. I guess it makes sense from a “raw beer” perspective. I’m not a big fan but may try doing a more traditional farmhouse ale that way. Maybe just a gallon or so since I don’t think it will be a hit around here.

There’s an idea for a couple small batches. Farmhouse or common, open fermented, one batch pulled off the yeast early.

Well, lets look at it with this perspective… They open ferment, so they can’t see the air lock bubbling… Maybe the krausen has subsided, so they decide… Lets transfer… Just trying to think how they would have done with out all these “tools” and things we use… Sneezles61

A lot of those beers are served flat and consumed quickly, so they’re probably pretty yeasty and sweet. I do my Berliner Weiss and gose as raw ales, and they certainly have a more “doughy” flavor than boiled wort. Makes for a quick brew day though.

So would then the paradigm then be as bread dough is “doughy” before its cooked, as the same as brews, then? Would the reaction be related to the malliard reaction… Or, does heat evaporate the doughy flavor? Sneezles61

I made my first batch using the Hornindal Kevik. I pretty much made a session IPA I tried to keep it simple and use up as much hops as I could which have been hanging out in my fridge for too long.
8 lbs 2 row
1 lb Munich
8 oz Special B
8 oz Flaked wheat
1oz Mosaic 60 min
2oz Jarrylo 20 min
1oz El Dorado 10 min
20 minute hop stand at 170F with 1 oz El Dorado, 1 oz Belma, 1 oz Jarrylo.
I pitched 1 sacko’ Omega Hornindal at 85F

Edit: 2 hours and there is airlock activity

Roughly 20 hours after pitching Hornindal the high krausen is over and we are back to a more compact krausen. Still lots of activity and at 88F, which is 6 degrees over ambient.

Just ordered a Voss and a Hornidal. Can’t wait to try the Hornindal. My experience with the Voss was great.

I also got 4 lbs of caramel 20. NB is really reasonable on specialty grain and I had $7.99 flat rate anyway. Now if only 50lb sacks of grain were included. :smirk:

1 Like