What are you doing with homebrew today?

I got my starter spun up, but in the process, I spazzed out. To build a 1 liter starter of Imperial Loki (Voss), I added ~100 grams of DME to ~1.2 liters of hot, filtered water. What a mess DME makes, due to its being hydrophilic (I would lose my mind as an extract brewer). I let it boil away for 15 minutes, then poured the hot wort into my 1 liter flask, and collected a refractometer sample from the drips from the funnel. The sample read 1.055, so I immediately poured off about 400 mls, and added an equal amount of filtered water to the still very hot starter wort. While the wort in the flask chilled in an ice bath, I dipped a spoon into the wort that I had poured off, dropped that on my refractometer, which read 1.040, my intended target. I sampled again, and confirmed my 1.040 reading. After my diluted starter wort in the flask had cooled, I collected a sample for the refractometer, and it read 1.030 - OK, I guess.

With my starter spinning on the stir plate, I made the decision to brew IPA of the 3 C’s again. I shot off an email to the lhbs, and will be heading there soon to pick up grains and hops. My wife and I will go there together to drink some beer and chat with the friendly staff.
 
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Starter looks very happy, just about two and a half hours after pitching! Glad I covered the stir plate with plastic wrap.
 
Bulin's Milker Bucket Brews said:
I used the same yeast this morning in my Festbier, already rocking right along.
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I'm hoping for a clean fermentation, fingers crossed. Have you used it before? I only used half the pack for 2 gallons and if it turns out tasty my plan is to do a Munich Dunkel with the rest of the pouch that I saved
 
Herm_brews said:
View attachment 17300 Starter looks very happy, just about two and a half hours after pitching! Glad I covered the stir plate with plastic wrap.
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FWIW kviek only need a fraction of the yeast pitch rate compared to regular ale yeast.
You'll be surprised how little you really need.
Sometimes an over pitch can cause Voss to under attenuate dont quote me on it
Quote Lars
https://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/291.html
Recently I brewed for a little over a year or more using Kviek yeasts on my ale fermentations was a great learning curve funny thing this year I've rarely used it just taking a break and exploring other ale yeast strains I suppose.
 
Trialben said:
FWIW kviek only need a fraction of the yeast pitch rate compared to regular ale yeast.
You'll be surprised how little you really need.
Sometimes an over pitch can cause Voss to under attenuate dont quote me on it
Quote Lars
https://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/291.html
Recently I brewed for a little over a year or more using Kviek yeasts on my ale fermentations was a great learning curve funny thing this year I've rarely used it just taking a break and exploring other ale yeast strains I suppose.
Click to expand...
When I was using Voss last summer I think I pitched a tsp of slurry for a 1.5 gallon batch

Buddy coming over today to package the Irish Ale. Stupid rain today so kids will have to play inside.
 
Trialben said:
FWIW kviek only need a fraction of the yeast pitch rate compared to regular ale yeast.
You'll be surprised how little you really need.
Sometimes an over pitch can cause Voss to under attenuate dont quote me on it
Quote Lars
https://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/291.html
Recently I brewed for a little over a year or more using Kviek yeasts on my ale fermentations was a great learning curve funny thing this year I've rarely used it just taking a break and exploring other ale yeast strains I suppose.
Click to expand...

I have read in the March/April 2021 issue of Zymurgy Magazine that to achieve a clean fermentation, it is best to pitch at or near normal ale pitch rates. It seems farmhouse Brewers in Norway pitch at extremely low rates in order to maximize their kveiks’ unique flavor characteristics. My objective is clean to let the 3 C’s shine.
My previous batch of this recipe, using the same yeast and fermenting in the closet at 75-80F, apparent attenuation came in at 82.4%, well above the 73-77% average.
 
Just finished my quicky batch of Rapier. Takes longer to set up and clean up after it than it does to make the beer. So, considering that, I decided to go ahead and make up some Oatmeal Stout to hide from myself for a little while and see what some aging does to it. Gonna age it first in the fermenter with a long ferment time, then bottle and let them sit at least a month before I pull one for tasting. That seems to be my downfall. Tastes good, so drink it, despite knowing time is a beer's best friend (to a point).

Did both starters yesterday, one WLP400 for the Rapier, and one WLP004 for the Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout. Might try some cocoa nibs in this batch to more target a chocolatey breakfast stout, but have no clue when to add them. Should it be done dry hop, or during specialty grain mash, or during the boil? I'm a lost ball in high weeds on this one. Any suggestions? The kettle's waitin' for fire.
 
Herm_brews said:
I have read in the March/April 2021 issue of Zymurgy Magazine that to achieve a clean fermentation, it is best to pitch at or near normal ale pitch rates. It seems farmhouse Brewers in Norway pitch at extremely low rates in order to maximize their kveiks’ unique flavor characteristics. My objective is clean to let the 3 C’s shine.
My previous batch of this recipe, using the same yeast and fermenting in the closet at 75-80F, apparent attenuation came in at 82.4%, well above the 73-77% average.
Click to expand...
Yeah I'd follow the Norwegians recommendations with the yeast not Zymurgy as theyve been brewing with this yeast alot longer than us;)
 
Ok, I've read enough to completely confuse the heck outta me. Cocoa nibs bring out a lot more experts with only ways to use them than I can count. Soaking, not soaking, mash, boil, primary ferment, secondary ferment, you name it, there seems to be no end of ways to use them. So, for this experiment, a 5 gallon batch, I'm gonna add 4 oz Nibs to the mash grains. That way, it goes through the mash and boil, so guaranteed not to leave any critters behind.

This beer is LOADED with extracts, and has several specialty grains for flavoring. Pretty high OG, usually. Hoping I get better attenuation outta the yeast this time since I'm hitting it with a 2L starter that I made yesterday. Smells very beery in that starter. OG in the starter was forward of 1.050, so there's a LOT of yeast in the bottom of the flask. I'm not gonna bother decanting it. I figure whatever's left in the starter will be just that much more stuff for the yeast to munch on.

The LME in this recipe tends to add more color, so I don't mind using it for this one. It's pretty much BLACK anyway, thanks to the Crisp 60 and Crisp Chocolate. Hoping I don't get any weird hurt feelings from anything else in the batch. When I get ready to bottle, gonna put some vanilla extract in the priming mix to take a little of the edge off the cocoa. This one's pretty much at my limit for bitterness, but it's go so many other things going on I don't really notice the IBU. I've done this recipe a few times, and this will be my first mod to it. At worst, I may have to ship it all to @Josh Hughes. I bet he'll hold his breath waiting for it.
 
Trialben said:
Yeah I'd follow the Norwegians recommendations with the yeast not Zymurgy as theyve been brewing with this yeast alot longer than us;)
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But I’m not seeking funky farmhouse flavors, what I’m after is clean “C” hops character. (Anybody digging my use of alliteration)? My first brew with Voss kveik, I underpitched, but got a subpar result for a beer that was really good using US-05.
Remember, I ferment without temperature control, it is late summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and it’s gonna be hot here tomorrow when I brew. I’m trying to take advantage of what kveik has to offer relative to the conditions of my brewing environment.
As for the Zymurgy article, they are talking about what pro brewers and home brewers are doing with kveik to make clean fermented beers, especially with respect to temperature control.
Ben, I have a ton of respect for you and how you brew. You keep up your good work. I hope to keep getting good results with this “new to me” tool that is kveik.
Cheers!
 
@RoadRoach Yeah, you can add cocoa many ways. If chocolate flavor is the goal, then use them the same way as flavor/aroma hops: some time after the boil.

The chocolate flavor comes from oils in the cocoa, boiling drives those oils to evaporate.

No matter what you do, it will be ok.
 
RoadRoach said:
Ok, I've read enough to completely confuse the heck outta me. Cocoa nibs bring out a lot more experts with only ways to use them than I can count. Soaking, not soaking, mash, boil, primary ferment, secondary ferment, you name it, there seems to be no end of ways to use them. So, for this experiment, a 5 gallon batch, I'm gonna add 4 oz Nibs to the mash grains. That way, it goes through the mash and boil, so guaranteed not to leave any critters behind.

This beer is LOADED with extracts, and has several specialty grains for flavoring. Pretty high OG, usually. Hoping I get better attenuation outta the yeast this time since I'm hitting it with a 2L starter that I made yesterday. Smells very beery in that starter. OG in the starter was forward of 1.050, so there's a LOT of yeast in the bottom of the flask. I'm not gonna bother decanting it. I figure whatever's left in the starter will be just that much more stuff for the yeast to munch on.

The LME in this recipe tends to add more color, so I don't mind using it for this one. It's pretty much BLACK anyway, thanks to the Crisp 60 and Crisp Chocolate. Hoping I don't get any weird hurt feelings from anything else in the batch. When I get ready to bottle, gonna put some vanilla extract in the priming mix to take a little of the edge off the cocoa. This one's pretty much at my limit for bitterness, but it's go so many other things going on I don't really notice the IBU. I've done this recipe a few times, and this will be my first mod to it. At worst, I may have to ship it all to @Josh Hughes. I bet he'll hold his breath waiting for it.
Click to expand...

To mash or add to fermentor post primary that is the Question:D

I've done the latter;).
Also there is the question of how much Grams/lt or Gallons to you wanna throw at it to get said flavours.
If were me I'd most likely let the nibs no chill overnight in the kegmenter then Charge it some more after primary in a bag.
As for your starter you wont find any issues with pitching it whole I believe the yeast matabalise any off flavours durin fermentations and I havnt detected any nastiness from doing this routinely in my own brewing ;).
I know you you've herd it before but keep that fermentor warm as you see fermentation starting to finish itll help them last party revelers clean up the remaining sugars.
 
Trialben said:
I know you you've herd it before but keep that fermentor warm as you see fermentation starting to finish itll help them last party revelers clean up the remaining sugars.
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There's something about the image of a big crowd of yeasties partying it up that makes me smile.:D
 
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