Son of a... diacetyl!!!

[DMace]

When brewing our stronger beers, my brew buddy and I make a small batch of a weaker beer with our not quite spent grains. Our last batch was a 12 gallon imperial stout, where we made a 1.5 gallon batch of a weaker stout on the stove top.

The imperial stout ages for six weeks, while the weaker stout is ready to bottle after two (yes, I proudly bottle). So last week I bottled the weak stout and today it was ready to taste. Holy crap there was a big buttered popcorn aroma! Way too much diacetyl. I'm very confident in my sanitation. So I'm ruling that out. What I think happened, is we had two very warm days to start off the fermentation cycle. Then it got really cold.

Used WLP001 Cali Yeast that started at 68F for those two days. Then it cooled all the way down to 55F (by the time I checked a week later).

Both the stronger beer and weaker beer were on the same cycle.

The stronger beer is still in the carboys. And my question for the forum is, is there anything I can do to get the yeast to reassimilate the diacetyl from the imperial stout at this point? I moved the carboys to the upstairs where they'll get back up to 68-70F. After 3 weeks, will warming it up get the yeast rolling again?

Any other suggestions? Thanks.

 

[Evan_L]

Reassimilated...lol, i'm sorry that I have nothing productive to add here but when I read that, this popped into my head and I can't help myself...

 

[1van]

My recent experience with butter bombs has indicated that yes, bringing the beer back up to a higher temp will work. Mind you my experience was with wlp810 and i didnt get any diacetyl till the beer was in the keg. I was considering krausening, but enough time at the right temp did the trick. Not sure that it wouldn't work with an ale yeast. Look up diacetyl test to tell if you got rid of it. Everything I have been told is the krausening is pretty sure fire (basically adding a new yeast starter to your existing beer) so look that up too

Good luck