BeerBorg

We were watching Breaking Bad a couple of years back, my wife told me I'm just like Walter White. I'm still not sure if it was a compliment.
Yesterday I brewed a split batch of BoPils. Having found Notty quite crisp at low temps, half will get that at 57 degrees. The other part will get 34/70 sort of as a control. All of my lagers have been decent but no better. I'm not giving up.

John Sand wrote:We were watching Breaking Bad a couple of years back, my wife told me I'm just like Walter White. I'm still not sure if it was a compliment.
Yesterday I brewed a split batch of BoPils. Having found Notty quite crisp at low temps, half will get that at 57 degrees. The other part will get 34/70 sort of as a control. All of my lagers have been decent but no better. I'm not giving up.

Try it with Kolsch yeast sometime if you haven't.

Thanks, I'll keep it in mind.

Brewing up 5.5 gallons of German Hefewiezen in my Grainfather. 3rd batch with it, first 2 were a learning curve. This pot kicked up my brewing efficiency a good 10 points, first 2 bathes were my normal mash/pot set-up recipe. Both came out quite a bit above my expected numbers. This batch was changed up a small amount to bring it up to my new efficiency numbers. Got my fingers crossed. So far I'm liking this pot. I'm not using the Bluetooth brew controller to brew it for me but I am using it to watch and set temps/timer/pump control, etc. This will be the maiden voyage with a new conical carboy also. Wish me luck!

Pilsner (2 Row) Ger 5.00 lb
Wheat Malt, Ger 5.00 lb
Rice Hulls 1.00 lb
Carafoam 4 oz

Saaz 1 oz 60 minute boil
Saaz 3/4 oz heat out

Washed WLP 300 (from previous American wheat batch)

Ferment 14 days
Condition 1 week @65
Fridge condition 1 week @34
Drink

Edit: Nailed it, 5.5 gallons at 1.048 OG

Next up, either a winter IPA or perhaps, a Jalapeno ale. Would be a good early winter warmer-upper. Yea, winter comes early here every year. Maybe the Jalapeno, is takes 3-4 months to come to it's prime. I have a recipe for a blonde ale I've used many times over the years, or maybe a wheat beer, have not tried a Jalapeno Wheat yet.....

Got a vacation brew planned for tomorrow using Hornindal (Kveik) yeast (doesn't Kveik mean yeast in Norwegian??) Read too much about it, listened to too many podcasts, watched too many youtube videos and talked at length to the LHBS who's done 32 brews with it. So, I'm doing an IPA (what did you expect from me?) with Citra, Amarillo, Cascade and Simcoe which I hear should help the tropical notes of this yeast. One way or another, it'll be beer!
And I've given it a stupid name, "Kveik It To Yourself".

Doesn't Kveik mean yeast in Norwegian

I think the more generic word for yeast in Norwegian would be "Gjær".

Kveik is more specifically a word for local/family owned/preserved strains used for brewing from specific parts of Norway, that are pretty much all mixed cultures because they are preserved in an old world manner, typically dried on wooden yeast rings (and sometimes more then just yeast, there may be a bacterial component). So although it means the "yeast" it carries a more specific meaning, it's really tied to the people/place it comes from.

What WE get as Kveik is most often the dominant yeast strain from that mixed culture taken from one of those places, that has been isolated into a more purified easier for yeast manufacturers to wrangle thing. Technically it is no longer Kviek by it's real meaning, as it's no longer tied to the land/place and has been manipulated for mass consumption into something different then it's original "landrace" form.

So what we get as Hornindal is the dominant yeast strain that was found in that mixed culture from that place.

Now there are some Kviek/Landrace yeasts available in their true form as special/limited edition yeasts, at least in theory (I've never actually seen one in the wild, or I would have bought it), but what you get from Omega or the likes as Kviek tends to not be those things anymore.

In other words, although we get similar results because it was the dominant strain, we don't necessarily get the same results as a Norwegian farmhouse brewer would get. Ours is effectively less complex and more focused on what the main strain brings to the party. Plus we are likely pitching at a much larger effective pitch rate then they would be.

This works ok for most people here, since most homebrewers and Micros are using it (mostly) for beers totally unlike what a Norwegian farmhouse brewer makes with it and are relying still primarily on hops for flavor and thanking the yeast for just adding a little bit of citrus or tropical or what not that is not getting in the way of their IPA and letting them brew without bothering with temperature control and/or just plain getting it done fast. Not saying it's a bad thing. But it makes the end result even more removed from well... the land/place as such.

Also some of what we get as Kviek isn't Kviek at all, because they came from other places, where it's not called Kviek at all to begin with but some other term the locals use for their landrace yeasts. But we are apparently calling all of it Kviek even if it came from Finland or Lithuania or wherever out of convenience and because Kviek is the cool new thing that is actually many centuries old and the more the merrier from a $$$$ standpoint.

If someone here were to brew with a full mixed culture Kviek and then try to preserve it using the same methods as a Norweigan farmer, they would quite possibly end up with a totally different blend over time that would in effect become their own personal "landrace" strain. Because wort conditions (what they brew) will affect what strain functions the best and which one ultimately becomes dominant, and also their own local wild strains could get into the mix. IE in my house, if I did that I'd get Brett C as part of the end result for sure. So my own personal land race blend would become more and more pineapple flavored over time and potentially ferment out drier then it started off at the beginning. I don't know if my Brett C would ultimately dominate the strain, but it would certainly have a presence. If someone did it in Flanders, the Kviek strain would pick up some of the local wild yeasts that blow around on the wind there and turn into something more Belgian over time. You get the picture.

This is what Hornindal did in the starter overnight. No doubt it’ll go thru today’s beer fast.



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Today I brewed another Beer.Simply Beer 5G Extract recipe. This one was the American Wheat Ale and I've got a bottle of Cherry Flavoring to add day before bottling day.

Setting up to brew a Kolsch in the morning. Need to get a keg cleaned out and put on the yeast starter.

I bottled the "SoRawChi Ace" Saison.

It was as expected, bone dry with lots of lemon and dill. I will like it because I like "A Sorachi Ace" from Brooklyn Brewery quite much and it's modeled after that beer, except for the raw beer part.

No flaws from it being raw that I can taste, so now I've done a solid handful of them that way with 0 issues.

Brewing "Darth Patersbier" AG version, 6 gallons worth. Basically a "session dubbel". Previous results have all been winners, so I expect this to be as well.

Kegged 2 beers today----Hopulation, a DIPA at 7.2% with mostly Gleneagle Maris Otter. Maybe too much Idaho 7 but we'll see. And also kegged the Kveik mentioned in another thread.
I'm ready for football baby!

Brewing a Wee Heavy Scottish Ale. First brew in several months. I have too many great local breweries around here. It is so easy to get great beer I have just not brewed much of my own. Hope to brew more in the next few months.

I've settled on the Standard Nong Brew (similar to Red Hook IPA). I did however, make a Nong Red last week. I'm waiting for my Buddha Hand Plant to provide a Buddha Hand fruit to make my Nong IPA Special.

I Brewed a Bastard Stepson Root Beer recipe from Midwest Supplies. It's basically a Cream Stout 5G Extract recipe with rootbeer flavoring & sweetner added about a week before bottling. But it's the family's favorite beer of all the ones that I've made, this is probably the 4th time I've made it. So I've got to keep it made, some of us have it so rough..