psubrewer

Recipes 

I made a Irish Red a few weeks back and I've found upon tasting that it has a strong diacytel presence, to the point where the beer is undrinkable. I'm trying to understand what has gone wrong so it doesn't happen again.

The two notable differences with this batch from the many i've brewed before are:

1. I used WLP004 irish ale yeast. with an adaquate starter of course.

2. I used pure 02 aeration. 60 seconds of gas. flow rate unknown -checked by visible bubbling in the wort.

The ale was fermented at the lower end of the temperature range. I've read that WLP004 has a tendency to throw diacytel but this was crazy.

There was no visible sign of infection, however the beer did not floculate well. It was still very cloudy a few weeks after primary fermentation completed. I thought this was unusual...

Anyway, could this be somehow related to the 02 injection?

Has anyone experienced this off-flavor with WLP004?

Any other ideas?

NordeastBrewer77

Recipes 

well, that yeast is known to kick some diacetyl. you said you fermented it cool, but what were the temps? were those ambient or in the fermenter? remember, fermentation can be 5 (or more) degrees warmer than ambient.

__________________
The Polk Street Brewery
Brew Blog
Primary: Honey Weizen (a ,Midwest kit), Columbus IPA
Secondary: No. 3 Burton, RIS
Bottled: Simcoe IPA, Northern English Brown
Kegged: German Alt, Octane IPA

Give a man beer and his thirst is quenched. Teach a man to brew and it will never be again.

dedndcrusr

Recipes 

I had a beer that I used WLP004 on turn out bad too. It was supposed to be an easy-drinking, smithwick's style, ale for a friend's wedding. The recipe was simple: Some 2-row pale, a little bit of crystal, a tiny bit of roasted barley, and goldings for bittering. Everything seemed to progress like all my other beers. It was awful. I can't even begin to figure out what happened.

I'm going to inflict a bottle on the local home brew shop to see if they can offer any advice.

Good luck!

NordeastBrewer77

Recipes 

Yeah, I've found that yeast to work best when kept fairly cool. I've had good results fermenting it in the very low 60s. Above 65 or so and it gets buttery, IME.

__________________
The Polk Street Brewery
Brew Blog
Primary: Honey Weizen (a ,Midwest kit), Columbus IPA
Secondary: No. 3 Burton, RIS
Bottled: Simcoe IPA, Northern English Brown
Kegged: German Alt, Octane IPA

Give a man beer and his thirst is quenched. Teach a man to brew and it will never be again.