Kveik Lager

“Lager yeast at body temperature” it’s very hard to believe it. But hope dying last so I had to try it. I don’t have any experience with kveik yeast, the information on producer website is terse and I can’t find any opinion on homebrew forum. I wasn’t sure should I keep it on lower temperature or middle for this strain. So this brew is more experimental than casual brewing and unless I get perfect lager I can’t give any objective opinion like say that this yeast doesn’t work for lagers. I used my competition winning recipe grain base (Pilsner malt + Carapils) for this beer and as I didn’t know what profile I can expect I didn’t worry too much for hopping and I used Czech hops Saaz and Sladek. So let’s see how it works…

RECIPE DETAILS

Batch size: 25L (6.5 gal)
Mash water: 19L RO filtered water + 3g Gypsum + 4g Calcium Chloride
Sparge water: 16.5L RO filtered water
Pre-boil gravity: 1.043 (10.7 BLG)
Boil time: 90 min
OG: 1.050 (12.4 BLG)
FG: 1.010 (2.5 BLG)
IBU*=31 EBC*=5.5 SRM=2.8 ABV=5.3%
BH Efficienty*=82% Est Mash Eff*=88.6%
* – EST by Beer Smith3

FERMENTABLES:

AmtName%
4.8 kgPilsen Malt (Best Maltz)88.8%
0.50 kgCara-Pils 9.3%
0.10 kgAcidulated Malt1.9%

HOPS:

TimeNameAmountAlphaUseForm
60 minSladek25g5.6%BoilPellet
15 minSaaz25g3.6%BoilPellet
10 minSladek25g5.6%BoilPellet
5 minSaaz25g3.6%BoilPellet
20 minSaaz50g3.6%WhirlpoolPellet

Yeast:

WHC Lab – UBBE Kveik

Mash:

TempNameTime
66°C (151°F)Mash Step60 min
72°C (161°F)Mash Step15 min
76°C (168°F)Mash Out15 min

BREW DAY– 30.07.2019

Fermentation started from 26°C and go up to 34°C at the end of primary fermentation.

07.09.2019 Racking to secondary

26.09.2019 Bottling

Beer has been bottled with addition 148g glucose. I got 41 bottles.

13.09.2019 Tasting

I have a problem with this beer. When I was racking to secondary fermentation, beer seems to be perfectly clean and clear with a nice hop aroma. I had to leave it for almost 3 weeks due to my holidays. When I was bottling, I found some esters like a red apple aroma (not acetaldehyde) and I suspect ethyl hexanoate in high concentration. Now this aroma disappeared, but it looks like all aroma disappeared too. I can not find aroma hops or anything else except some esters, not similar to ale yeast character, which I can not identify. No tone of sulfur, like in german lagers or a bit of diacetyl like in bohemian pilsners.  I cannot say what is wrong but something is. Beer is not bad. But I fell that something missing. It does not smell like oxidized beer but a long time on secondary fermentation could be a reason.  I will definitely try again this yeast with different hops composition and without secondary fermentation. 

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6 thoughts on “Kveik Lager

  1. I’m attempting a larger with this yeast for my next brew, i’ll be using Hallertauer hops and kegging mine. ill post how it turns out. cheers

  2. Heya, your fermentable percentages are off. 0.5 kg of carapils is closer to 10% of the grist, unless I’m missing something (which is usually the case.)

      1. The Pils was off too. Should be…
        Pils: 88.8%
        Carapils: 9.3%
        Acidulated: 1.9%
        (It’s still over 100% just due to rounding.)

        I’m glad to see percentages used. It makes scaling and converting units quick and simple.

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