Slight Diacetyl taste in bottle...read on

Ok, I just bottled an ESB.

When I was bottling I drank my hydrometer sample and didn't notice any off flavors or anything...tasted fine. I primed 4.5 gallons(1st AG, boiled too hard) of beer with about 2.75 oz of corn sugar to try to match the style.

So, 3 days later(Yea I know it isn't ready), I just felt like drinking one to see how it was coming along. It was sort of an experiment so I can know what it tastes like at different stages.

Anyway, I noticed a bit of buttery taste....VERY slight, and it may not even be butter, but it's the only thing I could think of. My wife had a taste and she couldn't put a finger on it, so I asked her.."Does it taste like butter" And she said yea maybe that's it. But she still wasn't sure. She thinks it's because I said butter.

Alright so anyway...I'm not asking if my beer is ruined and all that stuff. I am relaxed, Im not worrying, but I dont have a homebrew cuz Im at work. I am more asking a 'technical' question.

I know that Diacetyl is produced at the beginning of fermentation, then cleaned up by the yeasties. BTW, I had this beer in the primary for 3 weeks then bottled(Yeast is Danstar Nottingham).

So I am wondering if Diacetyl ALSO gets produced at the beginning of bottle conditioning, then cleaned up again. Remember, this was in the bottle 3 days when I tasted it.

Cheers!

Ttt.........

Seems logical. Yeast in your bottle are multipling, just like they would in your carboy...

For fullers ESB you actually want some diacetyl to be present, the yeast they use is famed for producing the stuff and its part of the flavour profile.

This isn't necessarily a Fullers Clone. I just wanted to make an ESB. I think it will turn out fine, but I was just curious as to why I tasted it after 3 days in the bottle when I didn't taste it at all at bottling time.

You can rouse the yeast in the bottle from time to time to make sure it is still in contact with the diacetyl. If you are lucky they should clean-up the diactetyl once they come to the end of the fermentable sugars. Taste is again after a week to see it it is still there.

Kai

Yea, I will probably let it sit till next weekend before trying it again. Maybe I will give them all a swirl as well.

I guess I just sorta had a revelation when I realized the correlation of Diacetyl to early stages of fermentation in the primary and bottles also.

bigben said:

This isn't necessarily a Fullers Clone. I just wanted to make an ESB. I think it will turn out fine, but I was just curious as to why I tasted it after 3 days in the bottle when I didn't taste it at all at bottling time.

Click to expand...

Ahh i see, over here ESB is just a beer made by fullers.

I only just realised lately that ales that i have a fondness for are those with diacetyl in the flavour profile, hence why i've been brewing batches with the WL002 fuller strain which produces quite a bit of diacetyl, umm toffee

Yea, Fuller's is what insired me to make a bitter. I was just going with the ESB guidelines according to the BJCP. But I didn't do a Fuller's Clone...maybe after my porter which is up next

definitly give it time.
diacetyl usually comes from slightly warm fermentation temps. how warm was the fermenter?
3 weeks in primary would've given the yeast enough time to clean up normal diacetyl levels unless you used a yeast that leaves some diacetyl...since some styles allow for this "off flavor" and wouldn't be true to style without it.

but 3 days in the bottle...meh. give it 2-3 weeks, then make a judgement call.

either way its not ruined, possibly 'off', but not ruined.

I agree 100%. I think it will be fine after a couple weeks.

The purpose of this post was really just to question whether or not diacetyl may be produced when the beer is primed as fermentation kicks off again.

I say that because I didn't taste it at all when bottling but after 3 days in the bottle I tasted it. Im not worried about the beer being ruined or anything, I was just looking for general 'technical' opinions on whether or not it can be produced and then cleaned up just like primary fermentation. That's why I posted this in the 'General Techniques' section. O well...time will tell

UPDATE:

Well, it's been another week since I last tasted the beer. (10 days since bottling, yea I am am really impatient) I'm happy to report that I do NOT taste the buttery flavor I did prior. So either it was a fluke, or the fermentation in the bottle does produce some diacetyl and the yeasties do their job and clean it up just like in the primary.

Oxygen converts (oxidizes) AAL (alpha acetolactate), an acid produced by yeast at high krausen, into diacetyl. You might want to look into your racking procedure since this happend just after bottling. New oxygen introduced during racking may have oxidized some residual AAL that did not oxidize during primary fermentation.