What we know about kveik so far. That is, what species, how does it behave, and is it domesticated or wild yeast?

1. W H A T I S K V E I K ?
L A R S M A R I U S G A R S H O L , N O R S K K O R N Ø L F E S T I V A L , 2 0 1 7 - 0 9 -
2 4

2. B I O L O G Y 1 0 1

3. Y E A S T S A R E F U N G I
• Humans and yeasts are eukaryotes
• Bacteria is something totally different
All life
Bacteria ArchaeaEukaryotes
Animals PlantsFungi

4. K I N D S O F Y E A S T S
Saccharomycetales
sugar fungi
Saccharomycetales
CandidaNakazawaea
? Saccharomycetaceae
Brettanomyces/
Dekkera
PichiaSaccharomyces
budding fungi
Nakazawaea
holstii
Brettanomyces
clausenii
Saccharomyces
cerevisiae
Saccharomyces
eubayanus
Saccharomyces
paradoxus
Saccharomyces
pastorianus

5. S A C C H A R O M Y C E S C E R E V I S I A E
• Porter
• IPA
• Kölsch
• Trippel
• Dubbel
• Hefeweizen
• Gose
• Bitter
• Altbier
• Saison
• Sahti
• Mild
• Stout
• Witbier

6. S A C C H A R O M Y C E S
P A S T O R I A N U S
• Bock
• Pilsner
• Helles
• Dunkel
• Baltisk porter
• Vienna
• Kellerbier
• American Lager
• Schwarzbier
• Rauchbier

7. T E M P E R A T U R E S
0° 20° 40°10° 30°
S A C C H A R O M Y C E S P A S T O R I A N U S
S A C C H A R O M Y C E S C E R E V I S I A E
L A C T O B A C I L L U S
Lager fermentation

8. H I S T O R Y

9. F A R M H O U S E Y E A S T

10. B R E W E R I E S

11. S H A R I N G O F Y E A S T
• There was always a surplus of yeast
- brewing produced more yeast than people needed
• Farmhouse brewers borrowed from each other
• Commercial brewers did the same
• In 18th century Copenhagen, brewers were required to
give yeast to bakeries for free

12. L O U I S
P A S T E U R
• Proved that yeast was
alive
• Invented methods to get
rid of bacteria
• Introduced brewers to
microbiology methods

13. E M I L C H R .
H A N S E N
• Invented method to purify
yeast
• Invented an apparatus to
grow yeast safely
• Introduced the purified,
non-reused yeast
• Took over completely
within the 19th century

14. E X T I N C T I O N
1935
1940
1980
1975
1950
1990
1970
1950

15. F A R M H O U S E Y E A S T N O W

16. F A M I L Y T R E E O F Y E A S T
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

17. R E U S E O F Y E A S T
• Gallone et al thinks reuse of yeast began late 16th
century
• Common ancestor of Beer 1 started diverging then
- Beer 2 likewise
• They claim this coincides with a shift to larger
breweries

18. T E C H N O L O G Y
• A piece of wood is enough
• Or a ring of straw
• And some knowledge

19. S I M P L E L O G I C
• Beer was usually brewed for feasts
- Christmas sacrifice, Christmas, childbirth, betrothal, freeing of
a slave, guilds, …
• With spontaneous fermentation result uncertain
- how could this be acceptable for an important feast?
- would the farmers gamble precious grain for a process that’s
so uncertain?

20. Anna Wecker, 1616

22. kveik
gjær
jal/est/jet/nøre/kakoemne
gjest(er)
barm
gong

23. I B E R I A O G G A L L I A
7 7 E . K R
Plinius den eldre, Naturalis Historia, bok 23, kapittel 12

24. Beer in Greco-Roman Antiquity, Max Nelson, PhD thesis, University of British Columbia, 2001.

25. E V O L U T I O N

26. H A N S E N : B E F O R E A N D A F T E R
Lab yeast1883
Kveik

28. S P O N T A N E O U S
F E R M E N T A T I O N

29. B A C T E R I A I N L A M B I C
The Microbial Diversity of Traditional
Spontaneously Fermented Lambic Beer,
Spitaels et al, PlosONE, April 18, 2014,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0095384.

30. Y E A S T I N L A M B I C

31. S A C C H A R O M Y C E S C E R E V I S I A E
• Grows fast
• Lowers pH in the wort
• Produces alcohol
• Consumes the oxygen
• Consumes the simple sugars

32. D O M E S T I C A T I O N

33. C H A N G E S I N B R E W E R ’ S Y E A S T
• Better at consuming maltotriose
• Can’t handle drying
• Higher alcohol tolerance
• Doesn’t make 4-vinyl-guaiacol (phenol)
• Flocculates better

34. E V O L U T I O N I N P R A C T I C E
• Maltotriose
• Alcohol tolerance
• Flocculation

35. P O F + A N D P O F -
• Wild yeasts are POF+, brewer’s yeast usually POF-
• Yeast does not need 4-vinyl-guaiacol
- makes it to get rid of harmful acids
• These acids exist in nature, but there’s little of them in beer
• Two genes responsible: PAD1 og FDC1
- Gallone et al found that these were disabled by “nonsense mutations”
• These mutations don’t give any benefits for surviving in wort
- humans have actively selected POF- yeasts

36. W H A T C A N L I V E I N B E E R ?
• Mold
• Bacteria
• Yeast
- rare yeast types
- Brettanomyces
- Saccharomyces
• Saccharomyces cerevisiae
• Wild yeast
• Domesticated yeast
• Saccharomyces pastorianus
• Saccharomyces paradoxus
• …

37. K V E I K

38. Ål
Stordal
Sykkylven
Bleie
Granvin
Lærdal
Stranda
Hornindal

39. A N A L Y S I S B Y
• National Collection of Yeast Cultures (NCYC)
- Norwich, UK
- commercial company
- started by British breweries
- purpose: to preserve yeast cultures
• Escarpment Labs
- Guelph, Canada
- commercial vendor of yeast

40. K V E I K S
# Name Species POF
1 sigmund Saccharomyces cerevisiae -
3 Stranda Saccharomyces cerevisiae -
4 Muri Hybrid +
5 Raftevold Saccharomyces cerevisiae -
6 Lærdal Saccharomyces cerevisiae -
7 Granvin Saccharomyces cerevisiae & Pichia -
8 Sykkylven Saccharomyces cerevisiae -
9 Ebbegarden Saccharomyces cerevisiae -
10 Framgarden Saccharomyces cerevisiae -
11 Lida Saccharomyces cerevisiae -
12 Nupen Saccharomyces cerevisiae -
13 Årset Saccharomyces cerevisiae -
14 Eitrheim Saccharomyces cerevisiae -

41. T H E M U R I M Y S T E R Y
• Last brew at Muri farm in Olden was in 1991
- kveik dried and left in a farm storehouse
• Retrieved in 2014 by Bjarne Muri
- went through many rounds of washing before he got it to grow
• Gave it to Bryggselv
- sold commercially by White Labs as WLP 6788

42. T R I P L E H Y B R I D
• Only kveik that’s another species
• Only kveik that’s POF+
• Makes sulphur aroma - have to mature the beer for months
• Was the yeast dead? Did Bjarne Muri grow something from the air?
• Saccharomyces eubayanus never found in Europe

43. 2003
2007
2005

44. # 3 5 W O L L S Æ T E R
• From Hellesylt
- revived after 30 years by William Holden
- and by DeWayne Schaaf
• Results from the two attempts seem different
- looks like the yeast was dead
- and they probably grew something else
• Not 100% certain yet

45. S T R A I N S
• The kveiks contain more
than one strain
• Usually the strains are
very similar
• But not always …

46. M I X E S
• Sunnmøre and Nordfjord have a tradition for mixing
kveiks
• This is visible in analysis
• Many more strains
• Often large variation

47. S T R A I N S
# Name Strains Source
1 Sigmund 3
NCYC
2 Rivenes 7 NCYC
3 Stranda 1 NCYC
4 Muri 2 NCYC
5 Raftevold 8 NCYC
8 Sykkylven 10 NCYC
1
6
Simonaitis 5 NCYC
? ? 2 NCYC
? ? 6 NCYC
3
9
Marina 2 Escarpment

48. F E R M E N T A T I O N
T E M P E R A T U R E S
fermentation temperature in Celsius
number of
kveiks

50. Anna Wecker, 1616

51. F E R M E N T A T I O N
T E M P E R A T U R E S
number of
sources
fermentation temperature in Celsius

52. W H Y S O H O T ?
• During cooling temperature falls slower the lower you
get
- with old-fashioned methods and 150 liters this was slow
• Brewers were impatient
• The longer they waited, the greater the risk of infection
• The warmer you could ferment, the better

53. D R Y I N G
• Brewer’s yeast usually cannot be dried
• It loses this ability because it’s not needed
• Brewers keep it wet between brews
• But kveik can be dried - why?

54. B R E W S P E R Y E A R

55. A L C O H O L S T R E N G T H
kg malts
pr litre of
beer
latitude

56. M A L T U S A G E
kg malt
per year
latitude

57. F L O C C U L A T I O N
• Sigmund harvests from the bottom
- kveik flocculates very, very quickly
• Terje Raftevold harvests from the top
- kveik gathers like porridge on top of the wort
• Eitrheim family harvests wherever
- the kveik flocculates, but stick a spoon in it and it whirls up

58. F E R M E N T A T I O N T I M E
fermentation time in hours
brewers

59. G R O W T H S P E E D
• Saccharomyces cerevisiae 80 minutes
• Lactobacillus 25 minutes to several hundred
• The yeast usually grows faster than the bacteria
- the beer usually doesn’t sour before after a week
- at that time the yeast has already finished
• Harvesting the yeast early reduces the chances of infection

60. F E R M E N T A T I O N S P E E D
Data from Øyvind Løkling, Tilt Brewometer, Nøgne Ø Porter, fermented with #6 Lærdal

61. A T H E O R Y
• Several yeasts researchers say the different strains
need each other
- some might produce vitamins that the others need
• But pure cultures will also grow
• From Richard Preiss’s results it looks like the single
strains grow more slowly
- because the need the vitamins?
• Pure speculation so far

62. H O W T O B R E W W I T H K V E I K
• Use same temperature as the owner
• Short fermentation time
• Harvest the yeast the same way as the owner
• How to get the most flavour
- underpitch (compared with normal yeast)
- lots of oxygen!

63. L I T H U A N I A

64. raw ale
keptinis

65. E X I S T I N G Y E A S T

66. J O V A R U A L U S

68. T H E Y E A S T S
# Name Species POF
16 Simonaitis Saccharomyces cerevisiae +
X ? Saccharomyces cerevisiae + ?
X ? Saccharomyces cerevisiae ?
X ? Saccharomyces cerevisiae ?
X ? Nakazawaea holstii ?
X ? Brettanomyces + ?

69. K E E P I N G T H E Y E A S T
• Aldona Udriene, Jovaru Alus
- kept the yeast in a jar, buried in the ground
• Julius Simonaitis
- keeps the yeast in a jar in the well
• Lithuanians would brew when the barrel was empty
• Yeast probably can’t be dried

70. L I T H U A N I A N Y E A S T
• Doesn’t seem to be related to the Norwegian ones
• Handles high temperatures
• Much greater species variation
• Less tradition for sharing the yeast in Lithuania
- is that why?

71. R U S S I A

72. C H U V A S H I A

73. K S H A U S H I

77. T H E Y E A S T S
• #39 Marina
- pitched at 39
- both Saccharomyces and non-Saccharomyces
• #40 Rima
- contains mould, bacteria, and yeast
- both Saccharomyces and non-Saccharomyces
- makes good beer

78. C O N C L U S I O N

79. “ K V E I K ”
• What should it mean?
- Farmhouse yeast?
- Norwegian farmhouse yeast?
- Farmhouse yeast from western Norway?
• Where does “gong” from Hallingdal fit?

80. K V E I K
• Definitely domesticated yeast, not wild
• In many ways a super-yeast
- high alcohol tolerance
- very fast fermentation
- extreme temperature tolerance
- can be dried
- new flavours
- easy to use

81. F A R M H O U S E Y E A S T
• It seems farmhouse yeasts all over Europe were
temperature tolerant
• They also don’t seem to be related
• Most modern yeasts descend from just 2 strains
• Is the modern yeast a deviant? And the kveik normal?

82. – J U S T I N A M A R A L ,
M A I N I A C A L B R E W I N G C O M P A N Y ,
U S
“I can't say enough good things about Kveik. They
are beasts.”

83. Questions?