Terrible diacetyl

I recently brewed an amber (Yooper's Hoppy Amber) and the diacetyl is totally overwhelming. I bottled it a month ago and it tasted fine at bottling. I have no idea what could have happened that would ruin it so badly... my understanding is that diacetyl won't go away over time, it'll actually get worse... otherwise I'd just say to myself "it's still green" and worry about it again in two weeks.

It was fermented in a 68 degree apartment in a swamp cooler with a computer fan blowing on it and the yeast is Wyeast 1450, Denny's Favorite. I made a 1.5L starter on a stir plate and decanted. It warmed up to 70ish but only after being 1 week in the fermenter... it was primaried for 1 month, no secondary. FG was 1.014... and again it tasted good at bottling. Could I have picked up a pedio infection at bottling or something? I kinda doubt it as I know my sanitation was good.

I never used this yeast before, maybe I didn't treat it right? This seems weird, because in winter I usually pitch around 60-65, and it was on the yeast cake for a full month.

Have you ever used the Denny's yeast before? Could it just be the flavor of that yeast? I often worry when folks say a yeast is "malt forward", has "fruity esters", or even is "balanced" they just don't realize it's full of diacetyl.

Is it English yeast?

I'm not sure what it is... sounds english-y to me but then I see a list of American styles:

Dennys Favorite 50 Yeast - Wyeast 1450

Product Description
This former Private Colletion Strain is now available YEAR ROUND!!

Many of you have asked when this is coming back, and to that I say....Here Ya Go!!

Beer Styles: (Deep Breath.....) American Amber Ale, American Barleywine, American Brown Ale, American IPA, American Pale Ale, American Stout, Braggot, Brown Porter, Christmas/Winter Specialty Spiced Beer, Cream Ale, Dry Stout, Fruit Beer, Imperial IPA, Irish Red Ale, Other Smoked Beer, Russian Imperial Stout, Spice, Herb or Vegetable Beer, Strong Scotch Ale, Wood-Aged Beer (Whew...).

Profile: This terrific all-round yeast can be used for almost any style beer and is a mainstay of Mr. Denny Conn (of homebrewing fame). It is unique in that it produces a big mouthfeel and helps accentuate the malt, caramel, or fruit character of a beer without being sweet or under-attenuating.

Try this next time
http://www.winning-homebrew.com/diacetyl-test.html
before you bottle.

Could be a pedio issue. It can throw a bunch of diacetyl.

dzlater said:

Try this next time
http://www.winning-homebrew.com/diacetyl-test.html
before you bottle.

Click to expand...

never seen that before. thanks for posting. That's an interesting test.

yea it's easy too.
I just split my hydrometer sample into glasses.
It also lets you look at the beer and see if yeast is still falling out of suspension.

wonderbread23 said:

Could be a pedio issue. It can throw a bunch of diacetyl.

Click to expand...

That's what I'm wondering, also. All of the times I've used Denny's Favorite, I've never had any diacetyl issues.

Yooper said:

That's what I'm wondering, also. All of the times I've used Denny's Favorite, I've never had any diacetyl issues.

Click to expand...

I already threw away all my tubing and am going to bleach all my equipment... I'll see if subsequent batches with that same tubing have the diacetyl issue as well.

I thought pedio also creates sourness tho?

So... the batch I made after that batch is also a diacetyl bomb... and now that I'm reeaally looking for it, I think a slight diacetyl character is growing in my previous batch (an IPA). So... don't blame the yeast!

Fortunately that subsequent batch was only an inexpensive test batch. I received a 1/2 inch autosiphon for christmas and that actually saved two batches... I used that instead of the suspected infection causing siphon to rack from the boil kettle to the fermenter.

I got rid of all my tubing and everything that touches the beer post boil is going under two rounds of overnight bleaching.

I dumped my diacetyl batches and rinsed the bottles really well then starsan'd... if I starsan one more time before bottling (like usual) that should take care of the infecting bugs. I really don't want to soak the bottles in bleach.

I'll have to do that recipe again soon, it looked so beautiful going down the drain Fortunately I saved some of the yeast right out of the smack pack.