Have you ever heard of a strain that can ferment hot and fast without adding phenolic characters to let your hops and malt shine?!
We have the strains for you! Kveik strains are traditional Norwegian farmhouse strains that brewers used from batch to batch using a kveik ring.
A traditional kveik ring is a yeast ring made of multiple wooden blocks strung together. These rings were tossed into hot brews and the yeast from the top of fermentations were able to dry on the wood. These dried yeast rings went from brew to brew, almost like the passing down and sharing of friendship bread.
These strains were sourced from our friend Lars Marius Garshol and each strain was isolated from a unique Norwegian brewer!
| Strain: |
WLP518 Opshaug Kveik Ale Yeast |
WLP519 Stranda Kveik Ale Yeast |
WLP520 Sigmund Kveik Ale Yeast |
WLP521 Hornidal Kveik Ale Yeast |
| Strain Story: | WLP518 Opshaug Kveik Ale Yeast was isolated and shared by Harald Opshaug, a farmhouse brewer in Stranda, Norway | WLP519 Stranda Kveik Ale Yeast was shared by Stein Langlo from Stranda, Norway. | WLP520 Sigmund Kveik Ale Yeast was shared by Sigmund Gjernes from Voss, Norway. Also known as Voss Kveik | WLP521 Hornindal Kveik Ale yeast was shared with the world by Terje Raftevold from Hornindal, Norway. |
| Tasting Notes: | Orange, Pineapple, Peach, Dried Fruit | Stone fruit, Ripe Melon, Apricot | Honey, Stone Fruit, Fusel Alcohol | Apricot, Tangerine, |
*Sensory data pulled from brews from White Labs Brewing Co in a Hazy IPA fermented at 32°C
Traditionally, brewing with Kveik strains is done in very different conditions from the conventional brewing practices, especially the considerably lower pitch rate (< 0.25 million cells/mL/°P) and much warmer fermentation temperatures (> 32°C).
In order to assess how these very special yeast strains behave in both traditional and modern brewing conditions, White Labs R&D department tested all White Labs Kveik strains in different combinations of fermentation temperature (20 and 32°C) and pitch rate (0.25 and 0.75 million cells/mL/°P). All the fermentations were monitored for pH and gravity, and the final beers were analyzed for ethanol production, aroma compounds, and sensory profile.