Lance Shaner, cofounder and owner of Omega Yeast, was at the Ohio Craft Brewers Conference in 2019 when one of his customers handed him a beer. It was nice, crisp refreshing lager—or so he thought.
As it turned out, that “lager”—brewed by Chris Helderman, production manager at Land-Grant Brewing in Columbus—was fermented by Omega Hornindal Kveik. Since their introduction to the modern, mainstream brewing world, kveiks have become popular for their quick fermentations at high temperatures, but also for the fruity esters they produce. A clean, lager-like beer made from kveik was an eye-opener for Shaner.