ESB full of Diacetyl

After a week in primary, I took a gravity reading/sample of my ESB and it tasted like butterscotch.

Fermentation temp has been a steady 66F.

Since I am using Safale S-04 yeast, the beer is already looking quite clear which makes me worry that the yeast will drop out too soon and Diacetyl will not get cleaned up by the time I am ready to release the beer from its fermenter.

Do you think that rousing the yeast by stirring, or ramping up the temperature (or a combination of both) will help get rid of this problem, or do you feel it will clean up anyway? .... or should I just get used to the flavor? lol

I have NO idea what went wrong, as I aerated well and the fermentation started within a couple of hours...fermentation looked nice all the way through.

You can rouse by sliding and rocking the fermenter around instead of risking infection and oxidation by stirring. Warming it up a few degrees may also help.

Whippy said:

Since I am using Safale S-04 yeast, the beer is already looking quite clear which makes me worry that the yeast will drop out too soon and Diacetyl will not get cleaned up by the time I am ready to release the beer from its

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Release the beer when IT is ready, not when you are.

If you are worried about diacetyl, raise the temp for a few days when you are close to reaching terminal gravity and see how it tastes. If it hasn't cleaned up, try adding a liter or so of actively fermenting beer and that may do the trick.

Thanks for the tips, I'll take your suggestions

Yeah, it was beer temp, BigFloyd. I have it out to warm a bit now and am giving it the time it desires thanks

Whippy said:

Yeah, it was beer temp, BigFloyd. I have it out to warm a bit now and am giving it the time it desires thanks

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No worries. I took a hydro sample today of an ESB that's been going 4 days on a starter made with harvested (generation 2) Wyeast 1968 London ESB. It fermented very vigorously on day 2 and is now at expected FG.

I tasted the hydro sample and quickly determined that, while done eating the fermentable sugars, they hadn't done much clean up of their mess yet. I bumped it up a couple of degrees and decided to give it at least another week on the cake before taste-testing again to see if it's ready for a cold crash and kegging.

Here you go:


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/preventing-diacetyl-hold-butter-please-70438/