Can This NEW Yeast Dethrone Lutra? VELO vs. Lutra The Pseudo Lager Test

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]That is a cracker. I think for right, totally. That is a really good beer. I could definitely [music] smash a few of them on a hot day. I reckon you can.

[00:00:06]Welcome to our brand new series where we're deep [music] diving into the latest yeast strains from Cellar Science. We've spent months on a mission brewing with pros, crafting new recipes, >> [music] >> experimenting with fresh wort kits, and pushing these strains to their absolute limit to see where they really shine.

[00:00:22]These new strains now come in 15 g sachets. That means healthier ferment, shorter lag time, and quicker turnaround for your brew [music] day. Join us as we explore the world of Cellar Science and take your fermentation to the next level.

[00:00:41]Guys, in Australia it gets hot and for years now Lutra has been the absolute king of the pseudo lager. Whether you're in WA or Queensland where it gets extremely hot, trying to ferment a lager without temp control is a nightmare. I'd say impossible. Even here in Melbourne and in Tassie and stuff like that, it's really difficult to keep down those temperatures to get a really clean lager and Lutra changed that. So, Lutra meant that you could have essentially a really clean fermented beer without having to worry about temp control or anything like that. And as well, it means you can turn out a lager, a clean tasting lager, very, very quickly without having to lager it for 6 weeks and wait for the ferment for 3 weeks and stuff like that.

[00:01:18]Thing is, it's pretty expensive and we've got on good authority that Velo from Cellar Science is just as good. So, what we're going to do is we're going to put it to the test. So, Velo costs less than half the price of Lutra. So, what we're going to do is brew ferment one of our fresh wort kits. So, our Fuku Rice Lager is one of the best sellers that we have on the website. So, we're going to ferment two identical batches, no temp control, and the only difference is going to be the the yeast that we pitch.

[00:01:46]And then we're going to do a blind taste test with the guys in the office to see if anyone can pick out the odd beer or the odd one out and then we'll even have a preference test to see if they can find the odd one out or which one tastes better. So, yeah, let's get these mixed up and get them fermenting and I reckon we'll be drinking the beer next week.

[00:02:04]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Guys, those beers fermented out pretty rapidly and we got it cold crashed into a keg in just a couple of days. And now the real work begins where we see if Velox actually can stand up to the king of pseudo lager, which is Lutra. And the way that we're going to do that is we're going to conduct a triangle test amongst the guys in the office here. So, what we're going to do is not even ask them which one they prefer. We're going to see if they can even have a perceivable difference between them. So, we're going to have three randomly colored cups and two of those cups will be filled with one of the beers and one of the cups will be filled with a different beer.

[00:03:30]And all we're going to do is ask them to pick the odd one out. So, I reckon we can get between around about 10 and 13 of the guys in the office to participate. And yeah, we'll just see if anyone can even pick them apart.

[00:03:41]We are about to reveal who the impostor is. If you want to play along, look away right now.

[00:04:03]>> Tastes like classic Aussie lagers.

[00:04:05]Oh, smells like Carlton.

[00:04:10]Pretty similar.

[00:04:11]Smells like childhood. [music] Mhm.

[00:04:18]That's pretty good.

[00:04:29]That's good. Tastes like a lager.

[00:04:33]Smells like beer.

[00:04:35]Well, duh.

[00:04:38]Damn, and there's a difference. I mean, tastes like lager. Tastes like your standard, you know, Australian style bitter.

[00:04:48]It's pretty difficult.

[00:04:54]>> [music] [music] >> I really don't know.

[00:05:08]I honestly think that tastes different already.

[00:05:17]>> [music] >> They are very hard to distinguish, I reckon.

[00:05:27]I think it's that one.

[00:05:30]I think that's the one.

[00:05:33]Yeah, I'm going to say which is different.

[00:05:36]This may be slightly different, but >> [music] >> How long is this going to I'm going to give that one. That's your one out.

[00:05:51]This one. You think that's your one out?

[00:05:53]>> Yep.

[00:05:57]I would be guessing a little bit, I reckon.

[00:05:59]That one. I'd probably say the black.

[00:06:03]So, it was pretty difficult. That was pretty tricky. I was super close. I mean, they were very obviously subtle flavor differences. It was so hard to pick. Yeah, I I frankly like I I almost felt like you needed to almost swirl the glass a little bit to make a little bit of aroma come out and maybe then you could kind of pick the difference. I feel like with lagers, sometimes, especially when they're fresh out of the fermenter like that, you can kind of get a tiny bit of that signature, kind of almost like that burnt match type of sulfur that comes out. Yeah.

[00:06:32]>> Yeah, and we but we had 11 people do that blind triangle test and only four people got it right. Yeah. And you needed seven for it to not be by chance.

[00:06:41]Mhm. I I almost said the red. Actually, I was so close. I was sitting on the fence between the red and the black. I thought you Yeah. So, on the left, now that we know the difference, so obviously this one's with Velo and this one's with Lutra that's around about three times the price of the Velo strain. I mean, they look marginally different. It could just be the way they've cleared. The Velo's probably slightly clearer, ever so slightly. I mean, it's crystal clear and there's a tiny bit of haze in the Lutra.

[00:07:06]But look, it could have just been the fermentation process have been ever so slightly different or something.

[00:07:10]>> And these fermented pretty warm. These fermented out in like 3 days. Oh, wow.

[00:07:14]Okay. So, I was just banging through it.

[00:07:16]Yeah. So, I just stuck them in a chamber at 20° to kind of replicate a just like someone sticking it in their room. And then we turned off heating and cooling and just let it rip.

[00:07:26]>> And what about did you cold crash or something? It's got very clear. Did you mean like this? Both cold crashed. Okay.

[00:07:30]So, fermentation was pretty much done just over 2 days. Yep. And then cold crashed for a couple of days. Wow, super clean. These are like mega mega clean.

[00:07:39]Like I you know, these are really good.

[00:07:42]Look, it is a boring beer. It's it's a lager, so it's not the type of thing I'm going to go out and want to brew like all the time, but um yeah, it's a good >> if you want to make like a big stock standard, almost like commercial style lager, it's [ __ ] piss now. Like a Carlton or something. I have pals coming around or something like that. I'd definitely whip one of these up if I've got pals coming around on the weekend.

[00:08:00]Turn it out in a couple of days.

[00:08:02]Yeah, that's amazing. So guys, we actually couldn't tell the difference here at KegLand. I reckon it's something that you could guys should definitely check out. Um So Lutra, as I say, is almost three times the cost of Velo. And if you don't have temp control and you don't want to mess around with super long ferment, super long conditioning times or anything like that, I think it's definitely the way to go. Whether you pair it with a fresh wort kit or chucking it on your all grain kits, I think it's a bit of a game changer.

[00:08:24]>> Mate, I think it's absolutely cracking to get such a great result. And look, Lutra has been seen as, you know, the king of the fast, you know, lagers and stuff like that. And I think like to have another competitor, which is way better value, yeah, why not? I think it's awesome. Especially here.

[00:08:38]>> Yeah, totally. It's pretty hot. Yeah.

[00:08:40]>> [laughter] >> All right, guys. Thanks, and don't forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel to check out more videos where we continue this series into the new cellar science yeast strains. Um and don't forget to join the Facebook community page as well. Um where all sorts of people are doing random experiments like this and checking out new gear and helping people out as well.

[00:08:58]Um and press the bell icon as well so that you get notified anytime [music] we release one of these new videos. All right? Nice one. Cheers. Cheers, guys.

[00:09:05]>> Thank you. Good night.

[00:09:10]That is a cracker. Thanks, mate.

[00:09:12]Totally. [music] That is a really good beer. I could definitely smash a few of them on a hot day. I can hear it. Mm.