Preventing Diacetyl -or- "Hold The Butter Please"

Subscribe...great thread.

I could be completely wrong but my last two batches taste or smell like they have/had diacetyl. My ipa smelt strong of butterscotch at first but then after a month in the bottle it tasted better. My Belgian wit now tastes a little buttery but it has only been in the bottle for 3 weeks.

 

Just tried an IIPA (9% ABV) I brewed. I fermented it in the primary for only 4 days because fermentation was complete by then (according to my hydrometer). I was following the advice of "rack to secondary when fermentation is almost finished" and I racked it and left it in the secondary for 4 1/2 weeks before bottling.

It's been in the bottle for just a week now (not quite completely carbonated) and it tastes good but definitely has a buttery IHOP aroma that is more intense when the beer gets warm. I'm hoping it goes away with time but I've seen to hear very mixed experiences regarding diacetyl here.

 

Welp. Got some butter beer here.

Thanks to this thread, hopefully it won't happen again.

Tom

 

Apart from not fermenting long enough and perhaps warm enough what else causes diacetyl? Infection? I have an american wheat I had in the primary for 5 weeks and after bottling I have noticeable levels of diacetyl. It varies from bottle to bottle in terms of intensity. I don't recall tasting any diacetyl before I bottled and I could have sworn I cleaned the hell out of the bottles. I did use washed yeast from a previous batch and I fermented at about 68. I don't know where else to look and evaluate. I am trying to improve my process. This is my first batch out of 16 that has bad diacetyl.

 

perhaps the batch was underpitched and you didnt have enough yeast?
http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

or perhaps it was just a bad batch of yeast?

that is a bit strange for you to have this problem if you've already brewed 15 other batches. usually i hear that it happens on the first few batches because they didnt make a starter or didnt properly sanitize, or they tried a lager with way too little yeast.

 

So... I got dinged at a competition (my first) for off flavors and the possibility of poor sanitation, bacterial ring forming? on the inside of my bottle, etc. I had a few more bottles of this beer that I had bottled from the keg at the same time and noticed no "bacterial ring" forming. Didn't notice the off flavors. I will have to admit that I am not sure if I have tasted anything that has that buttery flavor... This was an Imperial Pilsner that was 10.5% ABV. I entered it in a Bohemian Plisner category. I had some friends who were beer judges tell me that it was one of the best homebrews they'd ever had! I was taking his word for it when I entered the competition when I received 15/50 points! So.... I guess my question is could the high ABV of the beer be a contributing factor to the diacetyl/off flavors? I acutally did a diacetyl rest and this beer was in the priamry for quite some time.

 

I love this thread - as diacetyl in Central TX is a reality similar to taxes and death. However, it touches on an issue that constantly plagues me -

How does an IPA condition in a bottle for an entire month without ending up utterly devoid of hop flavor?

 

100% brett fermentation

 

So what are my options? I make a Irish Red from extract. After one week in the primary, I transferred it to the carboy. After a week in the carboy transferred it to my keg. I didn't take multiple SG readings in the secondary. Just once when I transferred, and once before I put it in the keg. Once in the keg, it sat for 2-3 days before I tasted it. Its been in the keg now for about 1 1/2 weeks. Still has that burnt butterscotch taste.

Is it a loss? Or is there a way to salvage this batch?