Krispy kveik and expiry dates

Hi folks. After scrubbing all my gear and dusting off the Starsan I attempted to brew a normal beer with Escarpment Labs Krispy kveik. I ordered it online and it was 1 week to expiry when it arrived. I didn’t plan to brew that soon so I was kind of disappointed but figured it would be fine, especially since the pouch is for 5gal and I brew 3gal batches.

Things started off as expected, 12hrs after pitching fermentation was very active and the next day it slowed considerably. I took a sample 5 days later and it had only attenuated 62% (1.053->1.020). 2 days later I took another sample and it was 1.018. 5 days later (today) I bottled and it was 1.017 (attentuation 67.5%). I mashed around 66.5C, the recipe had 8% medium crystal, ferm temp mid-20s. Escarpment says the attenuation should be 70-82% and people talk about 3 day fermentation times. The uncarbed beer tasted pretty good and the yeast cake had an amazing fruity aroma so I kept it in a mason jar.

Any ideas what went wrong here? Should I ask for a refund or discount from the vendor? Would you dump the yeast or repitch it?

Cheers,
Marc

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The low attenuation is surprising. Are you sure about your measurements? Did you correct for temperature difference with the calibration temperature of your hydrometer?

I’d suggest that you contact Escarpment directly. They’ve been very responsive with my inquiries in the past.

Hi Norm. Yep hydro samples are always at calbration temp or very close. I didn’t think of contacting Escarpment Labs directly, thanks!

Do you have any temp control? Kveik likes it hot so maybe the temp lowered and the yeast went dormant?

Manuel

HI Manuel. I had the fermenter in a small room with the heater on and the temp sticker on the side said 26C when it was very active. I suppose it could have been a really cold evening and the temp dropped but probably not enough to put the yeast to bed…

That’s fairly close to my experience with Krispy - super slow for a kveik, mine stayed in primary for two weeks at ~23C, and I think it finished at 12 points (for an Octoberfest, not great). The beer tasted great, but with that strain, I didn’t see much advantage over using 34/70…

-James

Interesting! I wrote Escarpment Labs over the weekend, curious to hear what they say.

In any case, buying yeast that expires the week after is disappointing. I would give the feedback to the online retailer and ask for a discount.

Manuel

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Je suis d’accord. Si tu ne le sais pas d’avance, c’est poche.

Parfois il y a des boutiques qui vendent leurs levures expiréesaà 75% de rabais. Ça vaut vraimentlla peine si tu es prêt à faire un bon inoculum.

Thanks guys. Escarpment suggested I add yeast nutrient and find a way to add oxygen instead of just aerating by shaking. I suppose a higher gravity wort might make the nutrient unnecessary, I’ll try something strong if I repitch the cake.

Oh and they didn’t suggest the expiry date had anything to do with it and said the cake should be fine to repitch.

Underpitch fonctionne habituellement bien avec les kveik en général. J’ai jamais utilisé celle-là mais la dernière que j’ai utilisé (lallemand) a terminé en deux jours .

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Et tu peux faire sécher ton slurry et le garder au congélateur.

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I’ve got an aeration stone on a wand that I don’t use anymore if you are interested. You hook it up to a disposable o2 bottle (canadian tire) with a flow meter in between (you can find it on amazon) and you get easy and more predictable o2 level.

DM me for details

Manuel

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Kveik doesn’t always attenuate well judging from our fermentations at the brewery. 2 did and about 8 others didn’t so I’m not sure how reliable kveik strains (from Escarpment at least can be).

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