BeerBorg

I've heard that Lutra is more subtle than other Kveik yeasts. So far, I've only tried Hornindal, Kveiking (Imperial yeast blend) and recently the dry Lallemand Voss.
I did get a packet of Lutra dry to try an IPL soon.

I do like having the option of using this Kveik yeast to get a quick turnaround on brewing something fast. I just got my Oktoberfest Märzen (Novemberfest) Lager to the 38 degree temperature and have to wait on that 4-6 weeks before bottling. Now I can be drinking something in 2 or 3 weeks with this yeast.

I wish we could actually get full Kviek strains like would be found on someone's Nordic farmhouse yeast ring here (a true Kviek strain as found there isn't an isolated monoculture like our packaged Kviek strains here, it is literally 6, or 8 or more different things). But that would of course be difficult for the yeast manufacturers to deal with and keep from getting corrupted / out of proportion and totally consistent in results, so it's much simpler for them to isolate the primary yeast.

Bottled the Oak Smoked Dunkle.

Brewing something spooky. 10# of AIH "WunderGrain" that I got real cheap (as in "I wonder what it is", because it's a random mix of over milled grains) along with 5# of Viking Pale Ale malt. The only thing I know for sure about the grains is there is a little bit of flaked rye in it, and a little bit of something dark, but the wort looks to be a pale amber color. So I'm going to use 4oz of Comet and 2oz of the "American Nobel Hop Simcoe" in it and call it an IPA. Will use Nectar yeast.

Kegged a modified version of the sweet little red I make a lot. The sample tasted good warm and no carb.



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I bottled the spooky IPA made with the mystery grains. It tasted like an IPA, it smelled like an IPA, it looked like an IPA, so I guess it is an IPA!

I have a lot more Wundergrain that I got cheap (IE wonder what it is... some mystery mix of overrun milled grains), so I brewed another beer with them. This bag smelled smoky and didn't seem to have any flaked grains, so I mixed it with some pilsner and decided to go German smoked beer like I was making a Gratzer with it. The wort turned out pretty much red, so it obviously had some kind of crystal or dark munich and/or a pinch of roasted barley or something like that in it, or else a bunch of the base malt in it was Red-X, I dunno... so it won't look like a Gratzer, but it tasted good, I don't think it will be so smokey that I will dislike it. I used Tettnanger, and will use K-97 yeast. So a "Smoked Beer of Mystery" as such.

It is actually kind of fun using this Wundergrain as I have to decide seat of my pants what I'm going to make with it based on what it looks like and tastes like after mashing it (and in this case how it smelled coming out of the bag).

It will stay fun until something turns out nasty, but hopefully that won't happen LOL.

I bottled the "Smoked Beer of Mystery". It seems that I wasn't wrong and that there was a lot of smoked malt in the mix, likely beechwood smoked malt as it's what AIH stocks. I don't think it was overrun from a kit beer they sell because the only smoked kits they sell are porters and this is not really dark colored and I didn't see any dark grains in the mix. I think there is a good bit of Munich malt in the mix though.

So call it a Rauchbier.

I brewed some kind of beer of mystery with more wonder grains. This batch for sure had some toasty malt of some type, some kind of dark crystal, some flaked oats and flaked barley, and a tiny bit of some really dark roasted grains of some sort. No smoke this time yay. I supplemented it with pale ale malt. It is going to turn out dark amber colored I think. I used 2oz of Mt. Hood hops because why not. I'll use S-04 I think. So it will be something like an ESB I guess.

After reading mashani's posts about wundergrains, I bought some (as in enough to get the free shipping).

I haven't opened any bags yet and have no idea what may be in them. They seem to be a mixture of everything from unmilled to almost flour. I was hoping I'd be able to just dump them in the M&B, but I think I'm going to have to run them through the mill. I may also mix a 10 lb bag of wundergrains with a 5 lb bag of base malt just to make sure there's conversion. That might make for a big beer, but I'm ok with that.

bpgreen wrote:After reading mashani's posts about wundergrains, I bought some (as in enough to get the free shipping).

I haven't opened any bags yet and have no idea what may be in them. They seem to be a mixture of everything from unmilled to almost flour. I was hoping I'd be able to just dump them in the M&B, but I think I'm going to have to run them through the mill. I may also mix a 10 lb bag of wundergrains with a 5 lb bag of base malt just to make sure there's conversion. That might make for a big beer, but I'm ok with that.

FWIW, mine have all been milled, but AIH's crush for me has always been inconsistent, there are always some grains that are cracked but not truly crushed, even when I just buy a bag of say RedX from them. Which is why I usually buy my grains from MoreBeer where I always get a more consistent crush. I just always do 90 minute mashes with AIH grains when I buy them.

I've mixed every batch if the Wondergrain with a good amount of base malt that I got from MoreBeer for the same reason you describe, I don't know what it is, so I want to make sure it will convert. I've also been doing 90 minute mashes as I learned to always do with AIH milled grains.

I have gotten good efficiency with it though doing those things (so far).

That said, I'm sure there is a good bit of base malt in it, since it is all overruns that were mixed together and bagged up. Most of what they would mill would be base malt, so much of what is in this stuff should be as well.

The first batch - the "Wonder IPA" I made with it is actually quite excellent, although it is more colored like an "American Red" ale. I will take a picture whenever the sun comes out here in the winter land of gray skies. But it's delicious. I'll never be able to duplicate it though. It is too malty for a West Coast IPA type, but if you like certain IPAs from the Midwest or East that have that vibe, that's what it turned out like. (Like an English IPA with American Hop presence).

mashani wrote:

bpgreen wrote:After reading mashani's posts about wundergrains, I bought some (as in enough to get the free shipping).

I haven't opened any bags yet and have no idea what may be in them. They seem to be a mixture of everything from unmilled to almost flour. I was hoping I'd be able to just dump them in the M&B, but I think I'm going to have to run them through the mill. I may also mix a 10 lb bag of wundergrains with a 5 lb bag of base malt just to make sure there's conversion. That might make for a big beer, but I'm ok with that.

FWIW, mine have all been milled, but AIH's crush for me has always been inconsistent, there are always some grains that are cracked but not truly crushed, even when I just buy a bag of say RedX from them. Which is why I usually buy my grains from MoreBeer where I always get a more consistent crush. I just always do 90 minute mashes with AIH grains when I buy them.

I've mixed every batch if the Wondergrain with a good amount of base malt that I got from MoreBeer for the same reason you describe, I don't know what it is, so I want to make sure it will convert. I've also been doing 90 minute mashes as I learned to always do with AIH milled grains.

I have gotten good efficiency with it though doing those things (so far).

That said, I'm sure there is a good bit of base malt in it, since it is all overruns that were mixed together and bagged up. Most of what they would mill would be base malt, so much of what is in this stuff should be as well.

The first batch - the "Wonder IPA" I made with it is actually quite excellent, although it is more colored like an "American Red" ale. I will take a picture whenever the sun comes out here in the winter land of gray skies. But it's delicious. I'll never be able to duplicate it though. It is too malty for a West Coast IPA type, but if you like certain IPAs from the Midwest or East that have that vibe, that's what it turned out like. (Like an English IPA with American Hop presence).

I've been doing overnight mashes. Maybe I'll take another look at the wundergrains. If they're crushed, maybe I'll use 10 lbs wundergrains as is, with 5 lbs morebeer base grains crushed in my mill. Or maybe I'll run the wundergrains through the mill if they don't look like they're crushed.

I brewed another batch with the Wundergrain and some MoreBeer pils added. 4 bags down, 1 to go. This batch had nothing smoky but did have a good bit of very dark grains. But they didn't taste roasty and they were little chunks (grain guts without a husk) so I think they were all I think dehusked carafa type grains. The wort was brown, malty, and a bit chocolaty tasting, but not roasty. It reminded me of something like a diluted "Ayinger Celebrator Lite". Sol I decided to call it WunderBock and boiled it down an extra long time so it would be a 5.25 gallon batch in the fermenter vs my usual 6, used Tettnanger hops, and will use some of the Mangrove Jack 34/70 equivalent yeast I have to ferment it. I'll just use my "Big Cooper" fermenter for the whole batch vs. splitting it.

I can verify that it was all crushed but some of the grains were bigger chunks that were more just cracked vs. crushed. Still those grains did not taste sweet post mash, so they did convert. I did do a 90 minute mash and a 20 minute mash out though. Mash & Boil makes it easy to just ignore it and do that sort of thing. But it was really just the normal inconsistent crush I've always gotten from AIH. I think their mills are gapped bigger then some folks would do on their own with their own equipment, maybe that helps them turn around stuff faster, I don't know. MoreBeers crush is more consistent.

I set my mill to a gap slightly smaller than what many BIABers do and only crush once. Since doing that, I pretty much hit my numbers.......90+% of the time. I don't change the gap except for rye and some odd grains such as spelt because the grains are a bit smaller.
My LHBS recently bought the SS Brewtech mill. It's a thing of beauty and though he doesn't crush my grains, I've watched him crush others. I could stare at it long enough to look like a freak. The grains come out perfect! He's said his customers, especially those who BIAB, have noticed an increase in their efficiency since getting the new mill. Though it's easier to adjust, he rarely does so unless a customer requests it and is getting a good amount of grain crushed.

I brewed a Creme de Menthe Holiday Stout today. It's a 5G Extract w/steeping grains recipe from Jasper's Homebrew Supply.

Something I did a little different this time, the water I used came from a local Artesian Well/Spring. The water tastes very good and quite a few people take some home for drinking, especially those that live in town. My son thinks it tastes softer than the hard water we have from our well. It's fermenting fine now, so I guess in a few weeks we'll see how it tastes and if it tastes any different.

I bottled that "WunderBock", I think it's going to be real nice.