Hey everybody, it's Brad with Northern Brewer,
and today we're gonna talk about Norwegian Kveik yeast.
Uh unless you've been brewing under a rock for the last handful of years,
you've probably heard about kveik.
It's been all the rage lately, a lot of people love it. Uh for many reasons, these strains
can kick off some crazy awesome esters, aromas, flavors, and probably the single biggest thing
that draws people to kveik yeast is its ability to ferment at incredibly high temperatures.
Temperatures you would likely would never ever take any other yeast strain to.
Let's go over a few of these yeast strains, and what you can expect from them.
First what is kveik? Kveik strains are cultures of yeast that are indigenous to many farmsteads
in Norway where they have been used to ferment farmhouse beers for hundreds of years.
In its purest form, it is often pitched as a slurry, or as dried flakes.
Here in the US many yeast labs have isolated single kveik strains from those cultures,
and some have also created their own custom blends.
Because of the incredible temperature range these yeasts are capable of fermenting, at
we're talking 80's 90's even into the 100's fahrenheit, this can be extremely beneficial to a
home brewer who lives in either warmer climates, or doesn't have accurate temperature control.
As a bonus, kveik also ferments incredibly fast.
At higher temperatures, some of these strains ferment standard strength,
or even much denser worts to terminal gravity in just two to three days.
So it comes in handy when you want to turn around a beer very quickly.
Most importantly, kveik is known to produce some very interesting flavors and aromas.
To help you choose a kveik that will work for your fermentation we're going to take a look at few of
the most popular strains we offer here at Northern Brewer, and talk about what to expect from them.
Arguably the most popular of all kveik strains is a strain
that originates from the farm of Sigmund Uranus in Voss Norway.
In liquid form, you'll find it as Omega Yeast Voss, or Imperial Yeast Loki.
The dry yeast option is the Voss strain from Lallemand.
The temperature range for Voss Strains is about 65 to 100 degrees fahrenheit,
and on the cool end of the range it is super clean, producing little to no esters and phenols.
As you increase fermentation temperatures it tends to throw tons of fresh citrus notes,
citrus zest, and stone fruit esters such as peach and apricot.
Hornindal Kveik from Omega Yeast is a blend from the original Norwegian yeast culture.
It produces an intense tropical flavor and aroma with notes of fresh pineapple,
mango, and tangerine. This complements fruit forward hops and adds another dimension to
beer made with traditional "C" hops, centennial, cascade, and the like.
Warmer fermentation temperatures increase the aromatic profile and fermentation speeds,
it ferments well without off flavors at 90 plus degrees fahrenheit.
Things start to get really interesting with Omega Yeast Lutra,
which is a single strain isolated from Hornindal.
Homebrewers have been touting it for its clean lager-like profile, and you
can ferment pseudo lagers by fermenting with Lutra anywhere between about 68 and 72 degrees.
This is really cool if you're a fan of lager styles like pilsner,
vienna lager, oktoberfest, but you don't have the temperature control for cooler fermentation,
or the lead time of a true lager.
Lutra is also shockingly clean when pitched at 90
degrees for beers like west coast IPAs and American styles as well.
Omega yeast also offers a Kveik strain called Espe
which originates from the village of Grodas in Norway.
Espe offers a unique profile of lychee, pear, and tropical fruit. The strain bolsters the
sweet aromatics of modern IPAs, but is versatile enough for your pale ales or seasonal brews.
Espe is most expressive when fermented at above 90 degrees,
but still reveals its character at lower ale pitching temperatures.
Another blend worth experimenting with is Kveiking from Imperial Yeast.
This started as a limited edition release,
but became so popular that it's now part of imperial's year-round offerings.
Kveiking is a blend of three Kveik strains that produce an insane amount of pineapple, guava, and
other exotic tropical fruit aromas. We're talking about some big complex esters when fermented hot.
Pitch Kveiking into anything from new school hazy IPAs to traditional Norwegian farmhouse brews,
it also works well when fermenting kettle-soured worts for a strong tropical fruit character.
It's been exciting to see more and more home brewers using these kveik strains.
You can go to northernbrewer.com and get more information on each one of these strains,
and all the stats that go along with it.
And as always, let us know what you're brewing with these by either
dropping it in the comments below, or tag us on Instagram or Twitter.
Until next time.
Cheers.