At a big Oktoberfest party, one of the guys in my club brought a Märzen brewed with a Kveik Yeast. I was floored as to how good it was. He fermented at 90F under pressure in a modified Sanke keg. It was brewed, fermented, carved and finished ready for serving in a week! There was a minor fruity note mid swallow, but nothing too objectionable.
I’ve got to get my but in gear and brew with the Kveik blend I got handed to me at HomebrewCon.
Boo! It ferments all of the flavor out of a beer - I don’t like it. If you’re going to brew an Oktoberfest - then do it right and honor Bavaria. This ain’t Finland.
You don’t really know that unless you tasted the same one Jeff did. I have no doubt that some are as you describe. I also have no doubt about his tasting abilities.
I was getting nice German malt character. Finish was good. Was very Märzen like, better than some US Märzens I’ve had this year.
I just dry hopped my first Kveik ale last Sunday. Will be able to say more when I get back home in a week.
I could not disagree more. This yeast is used almost exclusively by one of my local commercial brewers and they have many beers that are truly outstanding.
There is lots of testing and experimentation going on using the Kveik strains of yeast and I have yet to read any of the published results that would sway me away from using it.
+1
I’m going to give it a try in my Vanilla Porter when I brew it next month.
When talking homebrew (even with a homebrewer of the year), the term ‘do it right’ is kind of irrelevant. I’ve seen a whole lotta variety of ‘right’ in this community.
I was dubious of a Kveik Oktoberfest, until I tasted it. Then I said, this is almost on target!
Just wondering - which Kveik strain was used? I have had some differing results, depending on strain. Hornindal is a bit spicy, leaning to clove, to me. Voss seems cleaner and fruitier, at least in the Bitters in which I have used it.
The OP mentions the Kveik that was handed out at Homebrewcon this summer. That would be from Escarpment Labs. I have been reading good things about Imperial Yeasts A43 Loki which is a Voss strain, and their A44 Kveiking which I believe is a blend of two or three strains.
I will have to ask what he used. Voss or Oslo, but I can’t remember which one. He also fermented in a modified Sanke at 25 PSI, at 95 F. The pressure will limit ester formation. If I wanted to try that high of a pressure I would have to use a Corny keg, and a sounding valve.
My bet would be Oslo from Bootleg Biology. I haven’t used it, but I’ve tasted some fairly clean beers brewed with it. I’ve been brewing almost exclusively with kveik for the last two years, but I wouldn’t call them “lager like” at lower (60-75 F).
This certainly surprises me. I’ve brewed with Hornindal and Stranda (hothead) and wouldn’t say I’ve gotten lager-like results. Although, they’re both beasts. I’ve brewed a couple blonde ales that are very pleasant, but not helles-like. They have a very interesting estery/fruity character that is pleasant. My go-to summer yeast now.
I started a thread last week about Loki Imperials A43. I used 2 pouches, each direct pitched into a 1.051 APA at 78°. It was blasting away 5 hours later (tilt read 1.038 by that time) and both buckets were reading 1.010 7 days after pitching. Transferred to kegs yesterday and transferred mostly clear wort all the way down to the yeast cake. No cold crash, cake was over an inch thick in my 7(?) Gallon speidel. Each half was almost dead on at 5.5 gallons into the fermenter. First samples (after dry hopping and some carbing) will be this weekend, after 5 days kegged
Now I’m wondering: I bottle condition my beers and as fast as this yeast settles, will there be enough yeast in suspension to bottle condition?
Considering how little is needed on repitching from batch to batch, I am sure your bottle conditioning should be fine, unless you wait several weeks to bottle it.