Butterscotch Taste

Drinking my first home brew and have a slight to moderate butterscotch taste. Nothing too overwhelming, but it is there. I read the How to Brew book by Palmer and it says it is from diacetyl which could be from infection, pitch rate and poor aeration methods. I don't think it is an infection cause it doesn't really taste that bad, and I don't think it is from pitch rate as it was violently bubbling within 12 hours and my final gravity was on point at 1.014. However, I think it could be lack of aeration, but my main suspicion is from getting too much trub into the keg as I racked it to the keg.

Is getting too much trub the possible butterscotch taste?

Normally this is the diacytel and you need to leave on the yeast and get the temp to about 70 degrees for a couple of days. This is noticable normally with lager yeasts,. It is not likely the trub as some brew with the trub. I personally do not worry about trub. What kind of beer and what yeast as you did not supply much info.

Agreed - more info would help. What yeast, what temp, how long did you ferment, how much did you pitch, how did you aerate. Trub shouldn't be the issue.

I brewed a frankensteined American Hefeweizen kit. I say that cause the kit I got from my LHBS was not complete and he gave me the best fits and then I still had to go somewhere else for an extra can of Wheat Extract. I pitched a White Labs 320 yeast in a vial. I fermented for a total of 2 1/2 weeks with an OG of 1.050 and FG of 1.014.

I will run down what I think went wrong. During the steeping of the specialty grains, I accidentally got the water to 180 degrees for a few minutes. I probably didn't do a good enough job of aeration as I racked the cooled wort to a better bottle with an auto siphon. I shook the better bottle a little, but probably could have done more. During the initial fermentation, I didn't know where to set my temperature controller since this was the first time I was using it. I think the temps may have been a little too hot since I put a gallon of water in there and checked it and it was 75 degrees. I lowered the controller and got the water to stay at 67 degrees for the remaining fermentation. When I racked to a keg, I was trying to get every drop and probably got too much trub and sludge in the keg.

What's funny, is that the butterscotch doesn't even taste bad, just wasn't what I was looking for. My wife loves it as she loves fruity beers.

I'd think of fermentation temp first as the culprit if you were at 75* for the first part of fermentation. I haven't used 320 but it's supposed to be similar if not equivalent to wyeast 1010, which I use frequently and get very clean flavors fermenting at 65-66.

When I started brewing I had diacetyl problems with WL001 fermenting around 70*(even though per white labs "optimum" temp is 68-73*). Haven't had any problems since changing to 64-65* for all the chico strains.

What is your set up - you have a temp controller in a water bath?

No, i just let it dangle. I have a gallon of water in there and check that temp. My second beer is fermenting now and i have 66 degree temps everytime i temp the water.

Should i take the keg out and let it sit at room temp for a week?

I want to say that I've read if you take too long cooling the wort down you can get a butterscotch taste. How long did it take for you cool the wort down? My first batch I was stupid and didn't plan ahead so it took over an hour to cool to pitching temp. The result was kind of what you're describing. Of course off fermentation temps can also cause off flavors. In my first brews case I was at 63-65 degrees so I don't think that was my issue.

I had butterscotch taste with 1010 which got hot ~70-72F (sitting in a 60-62F room), it went away fast when I raised temp to 72 after the fermentation was done. I wouldn't worry too much

chickypad said:

I'd think of fermentation temp first as the culprit if you were at 75* for the first part of fermentation. I haven't used 320 but it's supposed to be similar if not equivalent to wyeast 1010, which I use frequently and get very clean flavors fermenting at 65-66.

When I started brewing I had diacetyl problems with WL001 fermenting around 70*(even though per white labs "optimum" temp is 68-73*). Haven't had any problems since changing to 64-65* for all the chico strains.

What is your set up - you have a temp controller in a water bath?

Click to expand...

I duct tape it to the fermenter. I get way less on and off cycling that way, and easily keep my temps within 1 degree of the target temp after it initially equalizes. 75 is too warm. If it was 75 in a water bath or air temp in your chamber, it could easily have been the low 80s in your fermenter.

The diacetyl rest mentioned above has given me good results with all yeast types I've tried it with. Largely, as mentioned, it's a quirk of lager yeasts, but I've just noticed it gives that last little kick to the ferm process and allows the yeast to clean up after itself.

bobeer said:

I want to say that I've read if you take too long cooling the wort down you can get a butterscotch taste. How long did it take for you cool the wort down? My first batch I was stupid and didn't plan ahead so it took over an hour to cool to pitching temp. The result was kind of what you're describing. Of course off fermentation temps can also cause off flavors. In my first brews case I was at 63-65 degrees so I don't think that was my issue.

Click to expand...

I forgot to mention that It did take a while me to get my wort cooled down. It took almost an hour. Also, I have a chest freezer with a temp controller that I now have dialed in where I want, but didn't have it dialed in for my first brew.

So I should just take the keg out and let it sit at room temp for a couple of days or do I need to re pitch some yeast and then put it back in my fermentation chamber for a few days?

The diacetyl rest you typically want to do at the tail end of fermentation. Not sure it's worth it at this point although I guess you could try (how long ago did you brew?).

As far as the cooling issue I think we might be confusing DMS with diacetyl. Slow cooling in theory could increase your risk for DMS. Not sure if that would even be an issue with extract. At any rate, I've never experienced that even with an 8 hour chill time (unintentional, due to an ER trip in the middle of brew day).

I agree with taping the thermometer to the fermenter - it's likely getting hotter than your water jug during fermentation as was mentioned. I'd tape it on then insulate it with some styrofoam or bubble wrap.

I would guess that if it is from an infection it will just get worse over time; so after a while it should be clear if an infection is the cause.

Ok, thanks for the suggestions. Think I will just drink it the way it is and see if my second brew has the same taste. I made a lot of improvements over temperature control from the steeping, chilling and fermentation stages that I think will improve my second brew. Basically I learned a lot from the first one.