Kveik Yeast Cake

[Yuley]

Hi Folks

Has anyone pitched directly onto a Kveik yeast cake?

Thinking that I should make the most of the Melbourne heat and do a back to back brew. 

Can I pitch directly onto the yeast cake? What are the drawbacks to this - too much yeast? Or should I havest some,  and just use that.

First brew is a Pale Ale, second one was going to be an XPA fwk.

Thanks

Michael

[ben 10]

18 minutes ago, Yuley said:

Or should I havest some,  and just use that.

I would harvest the trub (crap at the bottom of the FV) and use sone of that.
When I do it I generally get three bottles of crap and use one for my next brew.
Be clean and all will be good

[Shamus O'Sean]

5 hours ago, Yuley said:

Hi Folks

Has anyone pitched directly onto a Kveik yeast cake?

Thinking that I should make the most of the Melbourne heat and do a back to back brew. 

Can I pitch directly onto the yeast cake? What are the drawbacks to this - too much yeast? Or should I havest some,  and just use that.

First brew is a Pale Ale, second one was going to be an XPA fwk.

Thanks

Michael

I tend to agree with @beach_life.  I think you would only need 1/3 of a Kveik yeast cake for you next brew.  Maybe even less.  

Any harm in pitching on the whole Kveik yeast cake?  Maybe not.  It seems like a flexible yeast.  Is it a big deal if you maybe reach FG in 24 hours.  Not sure with Kveik.  Maybe worth the experiment.  If it were me though, I would use 1/4 - 1/3 of the yeast cake at usual Kveik temperatures.

[Cheap Charlie]

I pitched on to the kveik voss yeast cake this brew (still going). I scraped most of the hop matter off, pitched the brew and put a heat belt around it. It was brewing at 37ºC. It finished out to 1.010 in just over 24 hours! It was a can of coopers APA with BE2. I was trying to achieve some sort of fruity farmhouse ale, and yes it does have fruity esters at this temperature. I have dry hopped it with galaxy and will leave for another 48 hours, so it will be bottled on day 4. Tastes clean and slightly fruity, all I can recommend is scoop some of the cake out as the kveik doesn't seem to need much to do it's job.

[BlackSands]

What I've been doing for the last three years is simply keeping the kveik slurry in a jar which gets topped up from time to time from subsequent brews.   You don't need much, and in fact I'd read elsewhere of some who just throw in as little as a tablespoons worth.  I've tended to use more than that though I don't actually measure it.  I don't think kveik really cares if you under pitch or over pitch, it seems to get the job done consistently either way.   

[BreweyMcHops]

Dont do it mate.

I take a longneck of slurry  and beer when I'm bottling at the end  , from the bottom of the fermenter. It settles out to about a third solids in the fridge. I use about 50ml of that to pitch a 23L brew ( I give the bottle a bit of a whirl , not shake, to rouse the yeast solids at the bottom) 

I get about 15 brews out of the bottle , and then harvest a new one.  Works out well about 1 brew a fortnight , 6 months of kveik yeast . Dont want to push it for longer than 6 to 8 months in fridge personally. 

 

You get a lot less exposure to contaminants and other yeasts/bugs ( 15x less) than if you harvest from each brew. And using an entire fermenter full of kveik slurry ( about a liter!!)  to pitch 23L of beer?  No way