LARS MARIUS GARSHOL, CBC, 2020 - 05- 18 KVEIK 2012

• First taste of Norwegian farmhouse ale

• A shock!

• Didn’t taste like any modern beer

• What was it?

• Where did it come from? 2013

HITTING THE WALL

• This was all I was able to find

• In Voss people clearly had some kind of yeast - which they said was old - no further details

• What was it? Not clear at all - many were skeptical to this yeast - could people in Voss really keep their own yeast going? - could this really be clean, pure yeast? V O S S 2 0 1 4 VOSS

INGREDIENTS

• Juniper

• Pilsner malts

• Saaz hops

• And Sigmund’s kveik P R E V I O U S BREW

• Only the dregs left

• Clear aroma of oranges

• Pils malts + pils hops = orange flavour?!?

• Could it be the kveik? LAUTERING

• Crushed malts and juniper infusion sieved through juniper branches

• Out comes “wort”, sugary water

• Takes many hours

KVEIK Y E A S T R I N G 1 0 : 0 9 1 4 : 3 5 TEMPERATURE

• Sigmund pitches the kveik at 39C

• it rises naturally to 42-43C

• In nearby Dyrvedalen the pitch temperature used to be 42C

• “people have heard this is too hot, so now they’ve reduced it to 37”

HORNINDAL HORNINDAL

VOSS KORNØL

• Terje Raftevold

• Learned to brew from his uncle at the age of 17

• His uncle learned to brew at the age of 14, in 1944

• Doesn’t boil the wort

• Doesn’t even boil the hops 14:30 T H E K V E I K

• Making a yeast starter

• Called “mariaue”

• Dried flakes from the freezer

• Taken out in the morning, then thaws

• Dropped straight into cooled wort 15:01 MARIAUE PITCH OPPSKÅKE A M Y S T E R Y

• Kveik was obviously something special - extreme fermentation temperature - new flavours - fermented faster than other yeasts

• But what was it?

• Had people really kept their own yeast going for many generations? THE ORIGINS

• Sigmund - got the yeast from his uncle, who had it from the farm Gjernes

• Terje - got it from his friend Olav Gausemel in the 90s - Olav got it from the family farm Gausemel in 1977 HISTORY GRAIN + WORK = BEER 1 5 0 0 B C E EGTVED, DENMARK BEER EVOLUTION

Micro

Breweries Industrial Industrial

Home

Farm ale Farm ale Farm ale Farm ale

-1500 1200 1700 2020 WHERE PEOPLE HAD THEIR OWN YEAST LOUIS PASTEUR

• Showed yeast was alive

• Invented methods to remove bacteria from yeast

• Introduced breweries to modern microbiology E M I L C H R . HANSEN

• Invented a method to grow yeast from single cells

• Invented an apparatus to propagate yeast cleanly

• At a stroke introduced the use of purified yeast

• Took over completely during the 1890s BEFORE AND AFTER HANSEN

1883 Lab yeast

Kveik REUSE IN BREWERIES

• Many ale breweries kept using un-purified yeast

• Labatt were still using mixed ale yeast in the 1980s

• Many Belgian ale breweries only purified their yeast in the 1980s

• And then there’s Harvey’s… Photo: Ron Pattinson FARM YEAST DIES OUT

1970

1960

1940 1950 1990 1975 1980

1935 FARM YEAST TODAY FARMHOUSE YEAST TODAY

RESULTS

• Pure yeast

• No bacteria

• The yeast protects itself

• Three related strains

• Kveik from Svein Rivenes, a few km away, is related SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE

• A species of yeast that contains - brewer’s yeast (hefeweizen, ale yeast, Belgian yeast, saison …) - wine yeast - wild yeast - baker’s yeast - sake yeast - Nigerian palm wine yeast - South American chica yeast - … SO WHAT IS KVEIK?

• Brewer’s yeast?

• Wild yeast?

• Or some third thing? Like sake yeast

• Where do all these yeasts come from, anyway?

A BRIEF HISTORY OF YEAST

1. The beginning: spontaneous fermentation - the brewer’s don’t add yeast, but simply get ambient yeast

2. Primitive beer: the magic fermentor - brewers discover it’s not a good idea to clean the fermentor - if you reuse the fermentor after a good beer you get good beer

3. Classic beer: the reuse of yeast - brewers discover it’s not the fermentor that matters - you can just keep the yeast slurry and reuse that TECHNOLOGY

• A piece of wood is enough

• Or a ring of straw

• Or a wooden branch

• Or a piece of cloth

• And a little knowledge Beer in Greco-Roman Antiquity, Max Nelson, PhD thesis, University of British Columbia, 2001. DOMESTICATION EVOLUTION

• Attenuation

• Alcohol tolerance

• Flocculation DECAY

• Fish living in sub-terranean caves are usually blind - the genes they need to make eyes get broken - but fish with useless eyes survive just as well as seeing fish

• Something similar happened to brewer’s yeast - the ability to survive drying decayed - the yeast was never dried, anyway FROM WILD YEAST TO BREWER’S

PROPERTY WILD BREWER’S

ALCOHOL TOLERANCE LOW 8 - 10%

ATTENUATION POOR 70- 8 0 %

FLOCCULATION POOR GOOD

FERMENTS QUICKLY NO YES

DRYING YES NO PHENOLS

• Wild yeasts make an aroma we call “phenolic” - not because the yeast itself cares about the phenols - trees have acids in their sap to protect against yeast - wild yeast has learned to destroy these acids by turning them into phenols

• Some brewer’s yeast makes this aroma, but most do not - the genes to make this aroma have decayed - beer has very little of these acids, so the yeast doesn’t need the genes - therefore they disappear with time

• This is one of the easiest ways to distinguish wild and domesticated yeast A FAMILY TREE FOR ALE YEAST

B E E R 1 BRITAIN

US MIXED

BEL/GER B E E R 2

WINE Saison

WILD yeast

Domestication and Divergence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Beer Yeasts, Gallone et al., 2016, Cell 166, 1397–1410 September 8, 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2016.08.020 WILD ADDING LAGER LAGER

B E E R 1 BRITAIN

US MIXED

BEL/GER B E E R 2

WINE Saison

WILD yeast

Fermentation innovation through complex hybridization of wild and domesticated yeasts; Langdon et al; Nature Ecology & Evolution 2019 THE FOUR PHASES OF YEAST

1. The origins: spontaneous fermentation

2. Primitive beer: the magic fermentor stone age 3. Classic beer: reuse of yeast DOMESTICATION 1883 4. Hansen’s method Sykkylven Stranda Stordal Hornindal

Lærdal Voss Ål Granvin Bleie ANALYSIS RESULTS

• All kveiks are Saccharomyces cerevisiae (ale yeast) - more closely related to each other than to any other yeast - so kveik is a family of yeasts

• Sometimes there are bacteria in the mix, often not - the bacteria usually do not make add noticeable flavours

• A couple of times there have been other yeasts - mostly Pichia - these did not make off flavours

• The brewers have very good control over the yeast KVEIK IS DOMESTICATED

PROPERTY A L E Y . KVEIK W I L D Y .

ALCOHOL TOL. 8 - 10% 13- 1 6 % LOW

PHENOLIC (POF) NO NO YES

ATTENUATION 70- 8 0 % 75- 8 5 % POOR

FLOCCULATION GOOD V E R Y G O O D POOR

QUICK FERMENT YES YES! NO

T R O P I C A L AROMA FRUIT VARIES FRUIT

DRYING NO YES YES

HEAT TOLERANCE 25- 3 0 C 40- 4 3 C 40C? FERMENTATION TEMPERATURES

number of brewers

fermentation temperature Celsius

Pitch temperatures in traditional farmhouse brewing, Garshol 2020 WHY SO HOT?

• Wort cools more slowly as the temperature approaches the ambient temperature - with no cooling equipment and 150 liters this took a long time

• Brewers were impatient

• Every hour of waiting increased the chances of the lactic acid bacteria attacking

• The warmer you could ferment, the better DRYING

• Ale yeast normally cannot be dried - the ability decays

• Breweries keep it liquid

• But kveik can be dried - why? DRYING BREWS PER YEAR FERMENTATION TIME

number of brewers

fermentation time in hours FAST FERMENTATION IS GOOD

• Normally the yeast multiplies faster than the bacteria - infected beer usually takes at least a week to turn sour - by that time the yeast is long finished

• The longer you ferment, the more time you give the bacteria

- when you reuse the yeast, the problem grows for every batch

- if you buy the yeast this doesn’t matter DOMESTICATION WORKS

• Kveik behaves like it does because it evolved to fit how it was used

• The behaviour of kveik could have been predicted quite accurately from historical sources

• The exception is the aroma

• Shows very clearly that brewers were in control of their yeast for centuries

WILD

THE ORIGIN OF KVEIK LAGER

B E E R 1 BRITAIN

US MIXED

BEL/GER B E E R 2

WINE KVEIK

WILD

Traditional Norwegian Kveik are a Genetically Distinct Group of Domesticated Saccharomyces cerevisiae Brewing Yeasts, R. Preiss et al, Frontiers in Microbiology, September 2018, doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.02137 HETEROZYGOSITY

• Kveik genome looks like it comes from two sources

• Indicates the ancestor is a hybrid of two different yeasts

• Researchers split the genome in two with an algorithm

• Then they inserted the two halves in the family tree separately WILD

ORIGIN OF KVEIK LAGER

B E E R 1 BRITAIN

US MIXED

BEL/GER B E E R 2

WINE KVEIK

WILD WILD?

Traditional Norwegian Kveik are a Genetically Distinct Group of Domesticated Saccharomyces cerevisiae Brewing Yeasts, R. Preiss et al, Frontiers in Microbiology, September 2018, doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.02137 Kveik TIMING

• There is no known way to reliably determine how old a branch of this tree is

• But it’s clear that it’s been centuries since kveik branched off from the rest of Beer 1

• Is it 4, 8, or 12 centuries? We don’t know

• Did kveik arise in Norway? Probably KVEIK, THE WORD

• Two meanings - kveik, female noun, meaning yeast - kveik, male noun, the act of kveiking, giving something new life

• Derives from the same root as English “quick” - that is, quick in the sense of a alive/healthy/vigourous

• An old word, attested in Old Norse literature (1200 CE) - was used in the sense of beer yeast then, too

BREWING WITH KVEIK FARMHOUSE, BUT NOT SAISON

• Saison yeast is Beer 2, kveik is Beer 1

• Think of kveik as a very fruity English ale yeast (which likes high temperatures) - no phenols - no funk - no fusels - not diastatic

• Aroma is typically tropical fruit KVEIK IS A FAMILY OF YEASTS

KVEIK AROMA

# 1 S I G M U N D ORANGES, SPICE

# 3 S T R A N D A EARTH, BANANA, MELON

#5 HORNINDAL MILKY CARAMEL, FRUIT

#9 EBBEGARDEN TROPICAL FRUIT

# 2 0 E S P E COGNAC, PLUMS

# 4 1 S K A R E FRUITY, QUITE NEUTRAL

http://www.garshol.priv.no/download/farmhouse/kveik.html CULTURES VS STRAINS

• The original cultures have huge numbers of strains

• The labs mostly sell single strains - some sell mixes of 2 strains

• This makes a big difference when reusing the yeast HOW TO BREW WITH KVEIK

• Still poorly understood

• The farmhouse brewers know how to use the mixed culture in their own, specific beer

• They don’t know much about what happens if the kveik is used in a different way

• Or if you use a single strain

• Yeast labs are only just beginning to figure this out TEMPERATURE

• Higher temperature means - faster fermentation - more aroma

• What temperatures to use depends on the strain - #1 Sigmund (Voss) is happy at 42C, but not all of the others are - see the farmhouse yeast registry for details on each yeast

• Can go below 20C and get a very neutral beer - with some you can even go below 10C P I T C H R A T E

• In general 1M cells per mL is recommended - independent of what the OG of the wort is

• Means the yeast needs a good bit of oxygen - 5-8 ppm in open fermentors - 10-12 ppm in closed fermentors

• For some kveiks higher pitch rate means less aroma - particularly #5 Hornindal, but also #1 Sigmund - for other kveiks, this is not the case

• However, the overall aroma profile is affected by pitch rate - the problem is: how it’s affected depends on the strain

https://www.escarpmentlabs.com/single-post/2019/11/01/The-impact-of-pitch-rate-on-kveik-ferments NUTRIENT REQUIREMENTS

• Kveik uses more FAN than ordinary yeast - kveik is used to strong, nutrient-rich wort

• Can cause issues if - wort gravity is below 1.050 - fermenting cider/mead

• Easily solved by adding ordinary yeast nutrient MATURATION

• Kveik fermentations are famously fast, often finishing within 36 hours

• Kveik produces remarkably little off-flavours during the main fermentation - very little diacetyl, acetaldehyde, and so on

• So the beer doesn’t need the same long maturation

• Not unusual to release a commercial beer within a week of pitching WAYS TO USE KVEIK

• Brew a traditional beer - because: cool new flavours, nobody else is doing it

• Brew an existing style (generally English/US) - because: beer is finished quicker, can have interesting flavours if you want - particularly good for releasing super-fresh IPA, obviously

• Brew something creative - because: you can CONCLUSION SO WHAT IS KVEIK?

• Domesticated brewer’s yeast descending from continental brewer’s yeasts (and a wild? ancestor)

• A separate family of brewer’s yeast - clearly very old - only exists in Norway (as far as we know)

• Has different brewing properties and flavours WHY KVEIK IS GOING TO BE BIG

• Kveik can be used in many styles - a good fit for porter, IPA, and many other styles - goes fantastically well with smoke - used right it can make new flavours

• Kveik is temperature tolerant - for brewers who have no cooling it’s perfect

• Kveik can be dried - the selection of dried yeast is very limited, because so few yeasts survive it

• Kveik ferments quickly - direct impact on the brewery’s bottom line FARMHOUSE YEAST

• Turns out saison yeasts are just one type of farmhouse yeast - they are Beer 2, by the way

• Kveik is another

• And there are even more farmhouse yeasts GONG CHUVASHIA T H E B O O K

• More brewer visits

• Malting

• Much more about yeast

• Raw ale

• Oven-based beers

• Stone beer

• Ingredients