My First Go With Liquid Yeast

[AdeDunn]

So, finally giving liquid yeast a go. Gone for Yeast Bay Sigmund's Voss Kveik as seems a fairly bomb proof option.

Struck lucky too, discovered that the bung on my Speidel airlock is the EXACT right size to fit into the neck of my 3 litre flask, so I've been able to use that airlock on the starter. Seriously overbuilt it, as I'm only going to be making a 13 litre batch (target OG of 1.060 though) and I've made a 2 litre starter. Done this though as I want to try to build a stock to use, as if this yeast is as good and reliable as I've heard I'd like to keep it around.

Anyway, 203.4g of dme in 2 litres of water (used the starter calculator in Beersmith 3), boiled for 15 minutes, cooled to 33 degrees C (it's Kveik after all...)... As usual I was beyond obsessive with my sanitising etc, so hopefully should be ok. Had a bit of trouble with the stir bar spinning off, but finally managed to turn the stir plate up gradually enough to get a nice little dimple going without it going whizzing off again...

Brew is planned for early Tuesday morning, plan B will be a packet of Mangrove Jack's M42 New World Strong Ale, but I really would rather not use this if I can help it. Oh, and the beer is going to be a chocolate orange robust porter. So fingers crossed...

 

[Oneflewover]

Nice one. Really must get more into liquid yeast and yeast management in general. Out of interest why don't you want to use the M42?

 

[NIGHTSKY BREWING]

I reuse and lov Liquid yeasts on WLP002 at mo.

 

[AdeDunn]

Nice one. Really must get more into liquid yeast and yeast management in general. Out of interest why don't you want to use the M42?

Because that'll mean the Kveik starter has failed, and I've wasted the yeast. Plus, well, it's a bit boring, it's not even Liberty Bell....

 

[Ben034]

My understanding is that you don't want an airlock on a starter. The reason being you want to draw oxygen in to encourage the growth of the yeast. I would use a piece of foil on the top or some people have a sponge stopper that allows air in and out.

 

[AdeDunn]

My understanding is that you don't want an airlock on a starter. The reason being you want to draw oxygen in to encourage the growth of the yeast. I would use a piece of foil on the top or some people have a sponge stopper that allows air in and out.

I've read the opposite too, that you do want an airlock on there, and that was in a couple of books... I'll switch it for some foil though. I do hate how much contradicting information there is out there.

 

[AdeDunn]

Done, switched it for some foil.

Seems to be doing ok anyway, bubbling away like crazy. Not the biggest krausen layer on the surface.

Took this earlier today, before swapping the airlock for foil..

 

[geigercntr]

One thing I would say though is that kveik beers tend to benefit from underpitching! Some kveik brewers pitch as little as a spoonful per 20 odd litre batch

 

[AdeDunn]

One thing I would say though is that kveik beers tend to benefit from underpitching! Some kveik brewers pitch as little as a spoonful per 20 odd litre batch

I plan to. As mentioned, I've MASSIVELY overbuilt this to try to build up a stock of yeast to keep for future use. I'm only going to be brewing a 13 litre batch (I've actually decided to switch to smaller batches for the future, so I can brew more often and more variety), and I've made a 2 litre starter! A fair amount of this will hopefully be going into a jar/bottle and kept in the fridge.

Pretty much every beer style I like could potentially be brewed using Kveik yeast, so it could very easily end up saving me a fortune on yeast....

 

[geigercntr]

Gotcha! I've a good few vials of kveik sat in my fridge too. Need to get around to brewing with it!

 

[Zephyr259]

Don't have experience with the single strain version but the Norwegian stuff is good and versatile as you've said. Pitched like any other yeast it's clean and super fast. Underpitching seems to be needed for the orange esters which I've not managed to get yet. I also over build starters and store for future, my vial has done 3 brews so far since march and is still going strong.

I've not heard about putting an airlock on a starter before other than when storing bugs and brett over a long time.

 

[AdeDunn]

I'm putting orange zest in the boil anyway, so I probably wouldn't be able to spot orange esters either way to be honest. Just zested 2 oranges in fact, 26.6g of nice, pith free, zest now sat in the fridge waiting for tomorrow morning.

Going to measure out my water and add salts next (literally salt in one case, plus a bit of Epsom salts), might even weigh the grain out so it's all ready to go. That way, come the morning, I can just fill my boiler and go.

 

[Zephyr259]

Makes such a difference being fully prepped the night before. Good luck, sounds tasty. That yeast did good work in my vanilla bourbon stout.

 

[Oneflewover]

Because that'll mean the Kveik starter has failed, and I've wasted the yeast. Plus, well, it's a bit boring, it's not even Liberty Bell....

Fair enough, was just curious as I have just used m42 in my last brew. Boring is fine as it's about the hops hop malt . Good luck with the liquid yeast

 

[AdeDunn]

Fair enough, was just curious as I have just used m42 in my last brew. Boring is fine as it's about the hops hop malt . Good luck with the liquid yeast

Yeah, wouldn't really be the end of the world, as this been a chocolate orange porter it'd work absolutely fine. It'd just be a bit disappointing is all, and probably make it harder getting liquid yeasts past my wife again in the future... Where right now she's talking about my needing a larger stir plate, having noticed my flask perched on my iddy thing... If this goes well, it'll be a win for liquid yeast with my wife basically.

 

[AdeDunn]

Touch wood, starter seems to have gone well! Sniffed and tasted the "starter beer", and seemed fine to me, in fact I thought it was quite nice! My wife pulled her face big time, but agreed there was nothing there suggesting any sort of infection or anything, just didn't taste like beer to her. lol

So, decanted off as much of the starter liquid off the yeast as possible (I cold crashed it in ice water to get a good percentage of the yeast to settle to the bottom), then gave it a good swirl, and tipped the lions share into a hopefully sterile (as in I was pretty thorough with it, but things sometimes go wrong) tub, sealed it up and bunged it in the fridge. I still have a load left though in the flask, so probably still not going to be underpitching enough to get those esters.... I just haven't got the you know whats to go any lower! lol

Anyway, this is the flask post cold crash, with a nice layer of yeast on the bottom. I'm sure there was still more yeast in suspension, and given more time, and a fridge with enough space in it, I probably could have gotten more yeast out of it. But heh, I reckon I got more than enough out of that one vial for my first go... That's a big bottomed flask!

 

[AdeDunn]

Well, I have to say that I'm quite happy with how my first foray into liquid yeasts has gone so far. I've got a nice bit of yeast stored in the fridge under a protective layer of starter beer (as in most of what I produced in the starter), and I plucked up the courage to pitch what I saw as an underpitch. That said, there's a nice thick krausen on the beer in the FV already, and the airlock is bobbing away at the same speed as a dried yeast usually takes a good 11 hours or so to reach.... This Kveik stuff is some eager yeast for sure!

 

[NIGHTSKY BREWING]

Looks good.