Omega Hornindal Kviek

[Kealia]

I popped a bottle last night and it was fully carbed with no off-flavors from drinking too early.
The yeast does have some subtle citrus notes, but I'm betting I need to push the temp closer to the top range to really get them to pop.

The beer is "ok". Mandarina Bavaria hops just don't impart enough flavor and aroma for me. I've never used Motueka before so there really were too many variables in this brew to draw any clear conclusions except that this yeast works hot, fast and well.

[BlackDuck]

Mandarina Bavaria hops just don't impart enough flavor and aroma for me.

I agree 100% with this statment. Breweries that use this in a single hop beer must use a s%&t ton of it!!!

[Kealia]

Adding a link to this blog which has a lot of great information on the Kviek yeast strains.

[Beer-lord]

What kind of attenuation did you get?

[mashani]

The yeast does have some subtle citrus notes, but I'm betting I need to push the temp closer to the top range to really get them to pop.

I think if you pitch less yeast it will help too. I think one of the Omega packs is a lot more yeast then anyone in Norway would be pitching. You could probably split one between 3 or 4 batches and be fine. German wheat beer yeasts are like this too, all the banana gets hammered if you pitch too much. I like to pitch a hella lot of yeast most of the time, but not for those.

Adding a link to this blog which has a lot of great information on the Kviek yeast strains.

Yep, I posted links to LarsBlog in the past here, I've done many brews - and even my no-boil brew beers - based on information from LarsBlog.

[Kealia]

What kind of attenuation did you get?

75%, actually finished a bit higher than I thought @ 1.014 (from1.058).

Edit to add: As of now, I'm planning to use this yeast when I need a quick finisher and/or when I need to ferment warm/hot for space reasons. I'll plan on pitching 1/4 - 1/2 the packet next time to see if I can get more esters from it. But if I can't, I'll rely on this for the speed and clean fermentation.

[Kealia]

Since Beer-lord is thinking about using this I thought would add something. After more reading, I did find a number of people who mentioned that they thought the yeast may have muted their hops.

But, there was no consistency in when they added the hops they were talking about (during primary fermentation or a 'normal' dry-hop). That was my impression (little hop character from my beer) but I used a new recipe and hops I had not used before so it's not fair for me to say one way or the other.

I say this to Beer-lord as it may be wise to try a tried-and-true recipe when you use the yeast to get a good representation of how it impacts the beer.

[Beer-lord]

Thanks, that's my plan. Or at least a similar recipe.
I've read a shyte ton about these yeast variants. There's oodles of them too! I'm not going to buy online due to the heat so I'm going to ask my LHBS a few questions. Based upon their tweets, they've been doing lots of Kveik beers.

[mashani]

Since Beer-lord is thinking about using this I thought would add something. After more reading, I did find a number of people who mentioned that they thought the yeast may have muted their hops.

It is possible. Lots of home brewers who are using Kviek (if not most of them) are using it to brew things it's not used for *at all* where it actually came from. IE they are using it for the convenience of high temperature IPA brewing since it's not phenolic.

But it's not used to make IPAs at all where it comes from. It's a farmhouse yeast used to make beers without much hop presence, often with Juniper to give it a piney note to go against the citrus esters it makes.

Since it is estery, the esters might mess with hop perception. It also ferments very vigorously at the high temps people are using it at. And hop oils are going to be more volatile at 90 degrees then they are at 64 degrees or what not, so they will blow off easier. Between vigorous fermentation and that temperature volatility, stuff could very well get scrubbed that otherwise would not have.

[Beer-lord]

mash, if you read Milk the Funk or Larsblog and others like them, you'd be surprised. Even small breweries are using these yeast strains for literally everything now by just adjusting the temperature. Yakima Valley Hops even has a number of beers showing just how this yeast and it's many, many derivatives, can be used. From stouts to saisons and yes, Farmhouse ales but many are just pales and IPA's.
I just heard a podcast where they used the same wort and same version of the yeast but fermented at 3 different temperatures and got an amazing amount of differences on the 3 beers from very clean to almost spicy.
But I do agree, in Norway, they were (not so much thanks to us Yanks) using these strains for a much different beer.

Dry hopping heavily is suggested.

[mashani]

I just heard a podcast where they used the same wort and same version of the yeast but fermented at 3 different temperatures and got an amazing amount of differences on the 3 beers from very clean to almost spicy.

That behavior is not unique to Kviek yeast. This is also true with many Belgian/French Farmhouse Saison strains and Belgian strains as well. You can make beers with very little or even no phenols with some of them if you use the right temperature range (varies by yeast). IE French/Bella saison is pretty much just citrus if you ferment at low temps. I've made IPA like beers with it many times. Abbaye dry strain, 3787, etc. can make lovely sweet fruit esters and very little phenols at low temps as well. But for whatever reason Americans (except for those that brew Belgians and Saisons) are afraid of using Saison and Belgian yeast in anything, but have fallen in love with Kviek.

I'm very familiar with Larsblog, I've made beers based on those Norway breweries recipes with Kviek.

Mostly on forums and facebook recipe posts when I see American homebrewers (not micros... homebrewers) making beer with Kviek it's IPAs they ferment at 90 degrees to get them done in 3-4 days and/or to not have to worry about temperature control. Even if Micros are being creative with it a bit, most Micros are going to churn out more IPAs then anything, kviek or not because it's what sells.

[swenocha]

I've been following this thread intently, as I have been curious to try this yeast. Glad to hear you had good success. Instead I'm going to go local and use Bootleg Biology's kviek yeast, Oslo once I can get a pitch of it (Jeff says it will be back available next month). Here's the Basic Brewing guys using it for a 98 degree two day beer...

[Beer-lord]

I watched this last night. Not sure if you have to go thru the trouble of keeping in a warm bath. He's in Arkansas and last year left the fermenter on his back porch an it got to 105 though he didn't make a pilsner with it then.
For me, I can likely sit it upstairs and it would keep things in the lower 90's once fermenting started.
I'm not going to order any from Jeff, I'm going to use something I can get locally and try my hands at about 95 degrees and just make something hoppy. Hard to believe you can drink a beer that's kegged in just a few days. I can see how this yeast is so popular in the summer.

[Beer-lord]

Saw this today and thought it might slightly add to the conversation:
Since I'm not a huge farmhouse lover (though I do enjoy a well made version sometimes), I liked reading this:

It should be noted that kveik’s association with “farmhouse” brewing is strictly colloquial. Kveik doesn’t generate the peppery/spicy phenolic compounds associated with farmhouse saison styles. It does contribute some slightly fruity and tropical ester compounds, but their intensity nests quite comfortably into the standards of many modern IPA and British styles. More importantly, kveik is fully domesticated, so there’s none of the potential for contamination that accompanies a wild yeast.

If things turn out to my pleasure, I may be needing a heat belt to brew these in the winter.

[mashani]

More importantly, kveik is fully domesticated, so there’s none of the potential for contamination that accompanies a wild yeast.

So, pardon my French, but this is the most bullshitty comment ever. Saison and other "farmhouse" yeasts we uses these days are also "fully domesticated" in the same sense.

And the Real Kviek yeast that is used in Norway is often a combination of many different strains, and even bacteria. It is "domesticated" only in the sense that the people using it have it on yeast rings, and if one of them starts to make off beer they will boil the snot out of it, and then dip it in something that made good beer.

What WE buy as Kviek yeast from yeast manufacturers is more "domesticated" as in the yeast manufacturers took those samples from Norway and then stripped out and cultured specific cells. But this is the same as Bella Saison or 3711, or Belgian Saison, or "Juice" yeast or others, which are just as "pure" and domesticated as Kviek yeast we buy.