kaconga

Recipes 

I recently brewed an IPA with pacman and it was too hot for most of active fermentation. Now it is full of buttery diacetyl. Will this age out or am I stuck drinking buttered hoppiness? Surprisingly my wife doesn't mind it so it will not be horrible news if it sticks around. 3 weeks in the bottle as of today.

eastoak

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i could be wrong but i don't think a hot ferment causes diacetyl, you might have an infection.

kaconga

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Interesting. What infection might produce diacetyl and not ferment the beer to dryness? I always assumed infection would ferment even what the yeast can't.

LLBeanJ

Recipes 

From Palmer:

"Diacetyl
Diacetyl is most often described as a butter or butterscotch flavor. Smell an unpopped bag of butter flavor microwave popcorn for a good example. It is desired to a degree in many ales, but in some styles (mainly lagers) and circumstances it is unwanted and may even take on rancid overtones. Diacetyl can be the result of the normal fermentation process or the result of a bacterial infection. Diacetyl is produced early in the fermentation cycle by the yeast and is gradually reassimilated towards the end of the fermentation. A brew that experiences a long lag time due to weak yeast or insufficient aeration will produce a lot of diacetyl before the main fermentation begins. In this case there is often more diacetyl than the yeast can consume at the end of fermentation and it can dominate the flavor of the beer."

Sometimes diacetyl will age out. Only time will tell.

kaconga

Recipes 

Thanks. Sadly, aging will mean losing the hop aroma as well correct? I suppose it could be worse. Should I age at room temp, cellar temp or fridge?

LLBeanJ

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Correct, in this case aging can be a double-edged sword. The warmer the environment, the more active the yeasts will be, so room temp would probably be most effective.

hercher

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Can you tell us more about the brew process? How much yeast did you pitch, OG vs. FG., how long in primary, did you secondary, and so forth.

My guess is that, at this late stage, it isn't going to get better, and might get worse.

__________________
Two Kids Brewery

Primary: nothing. :(
Seconary: Don't use one, generally
Kegged: Belgian Brown Ale (loosely based on Corsendonk's Brown Ale); Saison
Planned:

"For a quart of ale is a dish for a king." - Shakespeare

kaconga

Recipes 

Lol. I pitched a 1 quart starter of pacman yeast from Wyeast. Of was 1.072 and final was 1.018. Fermentation was close to 80 the whole time. (I have now finished my fermentation chamber.) 2 weeks in primary and 1 week in secondary. Dryhopped with one ounce of cascade in secondary. Sadly I know I didn't do this one well and was hoping for more than I got. At least the wife likes it. Maybe I can pawn it off on some bmc drinkers.