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