How long is too long for d-rest?

[hokieengr]

Brewed my first lagers a couple of weeks ago using Brewing Classic Styles. I pitched cold and started to raise the temp on day 6 from 50 to 60 as both beers were between 2/3 and 3/4 fermented. Not wanting to shock the yeast, I did this temp change over 2 days (5 deg/day). I'm wondering now if that was too long, but that's another thread...

As for the beers, the oktoberfest has no discernible diacetyl and I'm not too worried about it. The helles, however, smells like buttered popcorn. My non-brewing wife nailed it when I handed it to her. That was after 2 days at 60 deg.

Therefore, I've bumped up the temp a little to 63 deg and plan on leaving it for a little while. After what period of time should I start to be concerned that this problem will not fix itself? Unfortunately, I didn't know about krausening at the time I brewed those so I don't have any extra wort or yeast.

Thanks!

 

[scinerd3000]

I do my d-rest closer to 70 usually for 72 hours....works well. I would say warm it up a bit if your still having masses of diacetyl and see where you are

 

[osagedr]

In threads like this, specific information helps the rest of us understand what's going on: OG? SG when you started your d-rest? Target FG? Yeast?


Now to your specific situation, I would suggest that you check the gravity. After raising the temps into the 60s I would expect it to finish very quickly. Assuming your Helles is in fact now fully attenuated, and assuming you still have a strong diacetyl flavour, krausening will be the best way to fix it. You can make a pilsener starter with DME or LME and add it to your beer at high krausen. I have had good success with this in the past. I was talking to an experienced lager brewer a few weeks ago who just added some dextrose to his d-bomb beer and he swears it cleared it up.