Toxxyc
New and loving it
Good afternoon guys,
So, a while ago I started playing with Kveik yeasts, mostly because hot sunny South Africa gets nice and warm and I was wondering if there's perhaps a nice yeast that can be used to ferment at room temperature. Anyway, that led to me using the first Kveik I could find - Voss. That led to using Oslo, reported at the time as a very clean Kveik strain and that produced very average results (for me).
Eventually though, Lutra popped out here in South Africa and I made a few brews with it, including a cider and a Pils-styled beer. The cider was very sulphury and the Pils took a while to get good, but eventually both brews turned out really great. It took MONTHS to get there, but still.
Anyway, this prompted me to do a side-by-side test. People keep raving about Lutra, and I'm a fan of lager yeasts, so I figured to give it a shot - test Lutra side-by-side with a decent lager yeast. So that's what I did. I brewed a beer and I'm currently fermenting the wort. The test information follows.
The Goal
The goal is to run Lutra against Diamond Lager yeast, side by side, using the same wort and to see what kind of beer is being produced by each yeast. This test is not to see if Lutra will make a beer that's lager-clean per se, but more to see if it's actually worth using Kveik yeasts like Lutra to make a beer, without having the same conditioning time assigned to it like I've seen assigned to a true lager yeast. The reason for this is because, to date, I haven't had a single beer made with Kveik that was as good after the same time as it is when made with a regular ale yeast, such as US-05 or S-04. I'm using Diamond Lager to compare because it's a lager yeast and typically needs some lagering anyway.
The Test
I made a batch of wort and split it between two fermenters. Initially I aimed for 44l of wort, but due to a terrible spillage on the brew day I ended up with less than 40l in the end, unfortunately. Still enough for two kegs, though, so that's good. Both are fermenting, the Kveik actually being done by now, but still conditioning, and the Diamond is happily and slowly fermenting now.
The Beer
Because of the yeasts in use, I figured a clean, easy drinking beer with little to hide behind would be a good choice. I chose a German Pilsner styled beer, for two reasons. First, I absolutely adore the style and I've never made a bad one. Second, it's an easy recipe with VERY little to hide behind. Any and all yeast flaws will be shown, clearly. The recipe therefore, ended up being:
9kg Crisp Extra Pale Ale Malt
250g Crisp Dextrin Malt
Mashed at 65°C for 60 minutes.
Boil included:
50g Tettnang @ 60 minutes
24g Magnum @ 60 minutes
Two teaspoons Irish Moss @ 15 minutes
Total IBU - 26 IBU (aimed). This was then poured into no-chill containers, and before sealing I added 20g of Mittelfruh hops to each container for flavour and aroma.
The Fermentation
After cooling, the wort was moved to fermenters and the yeasts pitched. With the Lutra I pitched a full packet and with Diamond Lager I pitched two packets. OG before pitching for the batch was a nice and round 1.050. Lutra has been fermenting at 25°C and 48 hours later the airlock died down. It's going to sit on the yeast cake for 2 weeks to clean up. Diamond Lager is in the fermentation chamber set between 10.5°C and 11.5°C. I have a thick, creamy, snotty krauzen on top, typical of the yeast and the fermentation is nice and slowly progressing. It'll stay in the fermenter until it's completely done + 1 week, at least.
The Last Bit
After fermentation I'm cold crashing with gelatin for a week, and then moving both beers into kegs, slightly pressurizing them and then moving them to the conditioning fridge to keep them conditioning for at least 4 weeks before carbonating and tapping. I'll then post my findings here. It won't be scientific, but I'll pour two beers and taste them, and let you know what I prefer and what I pick up. That's it. I'll then also be able to make the final call - is Lutra (or any other Kveik, for that matter) worth using, for me personally, or should I continue to stick with the yeasts I'm familiar with?
Hope to see some people posting their own findings or feelings on this as well. Thanks for reading my crap!
So, a while ago I started playing with Kveik yeasts, mostly because hot sunny South Africa gets nice and warm and I was wondering if there's perhaps a nice yeast that can be used to ferment at room temperature. Anyway, that led to me using the first Kveik I could find - Voss. That led to using Oslo, reported at the time as a very clean Kveik strain and that produced very average results (for me).
Eventually though, Lutra popped out here in South Africa and I made a few brews with it, including a cider and a Pils-styled beer. The cider was very sulphury and the Pils took a while to get good, but eventually both brews turned out really great. It took MONTHS to get there, but still.
Anyway, this prompted me to do a side-by-side test. People keep raving about Lutra, and I'm a fan of lager yeasts, so I figured to give it a shot - test Lutra side-by-side with a decent lager yeast. So that's what I did. I brewed a beer and I'm currently fermenting the wort. The test information follows.
The Goal
The goal is to run Lutra against Diamond Lager yeast, side by side, using the same wort and to see what kind of beer is being produced by each yeast. This test is not to see if Lutra will make a beer that's lager-clean per se, but more to see if it's actually worth using Kveik yeasts like Lutra to make a beer, without having the same conditioning time assigned to it like I've seen assigned to a true lager yeast. The reason for this is because, to date, I haven't had a single beer made with Kveik that was as good after the same time as it is when made with a regular ale yeast, such as US-05 or S-04. I'm using Diamond Lager to compare because it's a lager yeast and typically needs some lagering anyway.
The Test
I made a batch of wort and split it between two fermenters. Initially I aimed for 44l of wort, but due to a terrible spillage on the brew day I ended up with less than 40l in the end, unfortunately. Still enough for two kegs, though, so that's good. Both are fermenting, the Kveik actually being done by now, but still conditioning, and the Diamond is happily and slowly fermenting now.
The Beer
Because of the yeasts in use, I figured a clean, easy drinking beer with little to hide behind would be a good choice. I chose a German Pilsner styled beer, for two reasons. First, I absolutely adore the style and I've never made a bad one. Second, it's an easy recipe with VERY little to hide behind. Any and all yeast flaws will be shown, clearly. The recipe therefore, ended up being:
9kg Crisp Extra Pale Ale Malt
250g Crisp Dextrin Malt
Mashed at 65°C for 60 minutes.
Boil included:
50g Tettnang @ 60 minutes
24g Magnum @ 60 minutes
Two teaspoons Irish Moss @ 15 minutes
Total IBU - 26 IBU (aimed). This was then poured into no-chill containers, and before sealing I added 20g of Mittelfruh hops to each container for flavour and aroma.
The Fermentation
After cooling, the wort was moved to fermenters and the yeasts pitched. With the Lutra I pitched a full packet and with Diamond Lager I pitched two packets. OG before pitching for the batch was a nice and round 1.050. Lutra has been fermenting at 25°C and 48 hours later the airlock died down. It's going to sit on the yeast cake for 2 weeks to clean up. Diamond Lager is in the fermentation chamber set between 10.5°C and 11.5°C. I have a thick, creamy, snotty krauzen on top, typical of the yeast and the fermentation is nice and slowly progressing. It'll stay in the fermenter until it's completely done + 1 week, at least.
The Last Bit
After fermentation I'm cold crashing with gelatin for a week, and then moving both beers into kegs, slightly pressurizing them and then moving them to the conditioning fridge to keep them conditioning for at least 4 weeks before carbonating and tapping. I'll then post my findings here. It won't be scientific, but I'll pour two beers and taste them, and let you know what I prefer and what I pick up. That's it. I'll then also be able to make the final call - is Lutra (or any other Kveik, for that matter) worth using, for me personally, or should I continue to stick with the yeasts I'm familiar with?
Hope to see some people posting their own findings or feelings on this as well. Thanks for reading my crap!