You might have noticed from recent posts that the last couple batches of homebrew have not turned out too great. One house pale ale tasted infected while another special bitter could complement the popcorn at a movie theater (diacetyl). I've got my theories as to why they turned out so terrible, but more importantly, I've also come up with a solution to this summer heat and the off flavors it contributes to homebrewing, and that's to try a yeast I've been hearing about for some time now. Kveik yeast is said to love warm temperatures, hot even. There are tales of the intrepid homebrewer who will pitch a Kveik yeast (it's a type of yeast with multiple strains) in the mid-90s and onward to 104 degrees F and place their fermenter on their patio or porch to endure the sun's merciless meltdown.
I had had enough. Rather than limiting myself this season to saisons that ferment with yeasts that can tolerate wort temperatures in the mid-to-late 70s F and are accentuated by esters and other byproducts that in other styles are off-putting, I decided to try a Kveik and found a dry yeast version of the Voss strain. For the style, I went with a traditional American pale ale, a clone and a classic named Mirror Pond Pale Ale of Deschutes Brewery from Oregon, which is also said to be one of Bill Murray's favorite beers. The Voss Kveik yeast is said to tolerate a temperature range of 77 degrees F to 104 F, with an optimal temperature range of 95 to 104 F. The question remained, outside of leaving it outside, how to keep it really warm? I jumped on Reddit and discovered some conversation of pitching the yeast in the 90s and letting it ride in a cool basement for the remainder. The theory is that the yeast gets going fast enough, and this is a very high flocculating yeast (a fancy term for it works quick and drops to the bottom) so the exothermic heat keeps the beer well above the ambient room temperature and remains optimal for the first few days, or the days that count the most.
Well, as the saying slips, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. I chilled my beer down to around 98 degrees F, which was fine, save for the fact that I added cool top off water (around a gallon). I ended up pitching around 80 F, which is not a problem, except for the fact that I could potentially be at room temperature or 72 F (my basement temp for the last month or so) in 12 hours or less. 6 hours after pitching and I seemed to have dropped a point an hour, which meant I was around 74 F (with math skills to boot), below the temperature range, but still higher than you'd want for a traditional ale yeast like US-05 or Nottingham. Not perfect, but not far off. Another important indicator of something going on is the krausen, and while I wasn't going to pry my breathable stopper from the lid to peek inside, my bucket is translucent, allowing me to clearly see the crusty hops particles and wort proteins sticking to the inside wall, a telltale sign of active fermentation. To help, I moved some bottles out of the way and rested the fermenter on a wood board to get it off the cool concrete floor.
At 11 PM or around 8 hours from the pitching hour, I checked again, rubbing the numbers on my stick on thermometer. It was reading 76, 78, no 80, 82...what? These damn things. Was I wrong earlier, or was it time to go to bed? The outside of the primary definitely felt a little warmer.
At 2:30-3 in the morning I awoke thinking about the bucket of beer. Were the yeast happy? After lying in bed wondering while also trying to fall back asleep, I concluded that if I was ever going to sleep again, I'd have to go down and check on my latest creation. The stick on thermometer was showing two colors: green at 76, and blue at 74, which from what I understand puts the temperature in between at 75 F. Not too bad, and again, warmer than most optimal ale temperatures. To add a little heat, I took a foam mattress pad that has been sitting in my basement in a plastic white garbage bag for a few years (why ask?) and wrapped it around the fermenter as snug as I could, placing a bottling bucket next to it to hold it in place. I'll check later on today, as it's already early morning, to see if the foam made any difference.
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