I don’t think I’d trust those strips.
Oh, are the strips inaccurate? I wouldn’t be surprised given how far off the colors always are.
Yes, even the best strips aren’t very accurate.
Ah. Are the electronic gizmos any better?
Considerably. although I hardly ever use mine any more. Bru’nwater has been so accurate that I don’t need to check unless I’m brewing a new recipe.
Why on earth did you underpitch by so much? The idea of this yeast is that it can ferment warm and results in a clean beer. One does not underpitch to get those results…
I’ve been using this yeast for the last 4 months and absolutely love it. I pitch and aerate as normal, but only chill the wort to about 90F, ferment at room temp letting the fermentation temp drop from 90F to whatever room temp is. Ferments in about 3 days, I keg in 7-10. It’s bright going into the keg. Always get great attenuation and very clean tasting beers; very kolsch-like, great for pseudo-lagers. This is amazing yeast.
EDIT: Oh, and another thing…every single batch I’ve had fermentation start (and actively fermenting) within an hour. Most of the time I’m seeing bubbles in the airlock before I’m done cleaning up. It starts that fast.
Are you harvesting and re-pitching or just making life easy and going with new yeast each time? I have some sitting in the fridge so curious how many uses you’ve gotten out of it.
I harvest and repitch.
When re-pitching, how much did you use for 5 gallons? I used about 3 tablespoons and had the same results you mention about the noticeable fermentation starting within a couple hours. At the low 70’s. Finished in 3 days.
I pitch the same amount I pitch for any harvested yeast. It’s probably 8-12oz of thick slurry. I don’t adhere to those “under pitch and don’t aerate” rules for kveik. I’m looking for clean beers with the benefit of no temp control and only chilling to 90F, which really speeds up the brew day and cuts down on stress by a lot.
Sounds good - whatever works for you is the way to go. I just have concerns on overpitching any yeast (I know it is hard to do at the homebrew level), as I have read that it can cause formation of petite mutants, since not enough yeast reproduction is occurring (and I want to do serial repitching when I can).
I just took a second sample taste of my Lutra schwarzbier (near end of fermentation, testing gravity to see if I can bottle yet – nope not yet). It is SO clean and lager-like. I’ll be using this strain much more in future, for “lagers” or for whatever styles I want. But for me it’s also been laggy and slow. There’s no krausen anymore but it’s still dropping a couple points every few days so I need to leave it longer. Admittedly it’s in the 60s so not the “ideal” temperature for a kveik, but it’s still working and it’s clean, plus I’m patient, so we’ll see how it ends up. I am adverse to heating the beer at all, opting instead for patience. So I don’t know if I would like the yeast as much at warmer temperatures, no experience with that (yet).
I have my first lutra blonde ale on tap, kegged on day 4, at 30c. Very clean with a light fruitiness, though it doesn’t seem like an ester, almost a kolsh like fruitiness. I really like it. Omega say to ferment cooler for more lager like results and I will definitely try that next. Still, it’s allowed me to brew 2 beers at once, one in my ferm fridge, and lutra in the garage with a heat belt on. It also makes nice beer so it’s all positive for me.
Posted a pic (https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=3331.msg449746#msg449746) of my Lutra brew tapped over the weekend. This is the second NB Dead Ringer kit I’ve done. The first was fermented with US-05. I can’t tell a big difference in flavor between the two batches but one is that slippery aftertaste is gone (mouthfeel?). I like it better than the US-05 for that reason. Second reason would be that I didn’t do any temp control on it. The basement was around 74F the whole time. I’ll definitely use this yeast again - literally since I plan on re-pitching it :J
Are used that strain on a festbier
and per the manufacturers instructions I fermented at 68°F and I did lager for two weeks but it dropped very bright and I would say another week in the keg and I could not really tell the difference between using that strain and ferment is 34/70.
the simple answer to this for alot of brewers is because they can. I have played with some cultures that the difference between pitching a 100ml starter adn a 2 liter starter was negligible. I know pro brewers that love that they can pitch a homebrew size pack of kveik into a 2 liter starter the morning of brewday and use it to ferment a 5 bbl batch of beer
Welp… my first kveik schwarzbier didn’t turn out. Three days ago, smelled like vinegar but tasted absolutely amazing. Wasn’t at my desired FG so I left it 3 more days, and now today… smells like vinegar AND TASTES like vinegar. Oh well, at least this stuff will go really well with fish sticks!! Seriously I ain’t dumping it. Meanwhile, since I split the batch, I’ll still have some schwarzbier later on with a different yeast, so all is not lost. Advantage of splitting batches and trying different things! And better luck next time. I’ll still be trying Lutra again in future, I know it’s a great yeast. I just need to do a better job with sanitization – yeah, I wasn’t stickler enough…
Fishsticks 
Sorry to hear half of it didn’t turn out. Any hunch what went wrong? Can underpitching cause that?
It was a comedy of stupidity. For one thing, yes I underpitched. And, I knew there were fruit flies buzzing around, but the only “airlock” I had on was a sheet of silicone rubber (small one-gallon fermenter), which might not keep stuff out like it should. I just need to do a better job of all this.
Think a teaspoon of baking soda added to a cup of the Fischstäbchen Schwarzbier would turn the vinegar into CO2?