D rest

[slomo]

Finished my D rest and was tasting my hydro sample, when I noticed a slight butter taste at the very tail end. It wasnt much and my the end of the sample I could no longer taste the butter taste just good lager.If there is still a little bit of buttery taste will that condition out during lagering?

TIA

 

[Yooper]

In my experience, no.

If there is any buttery taste, or even a "slick" or oily mouthfeel, it's best to not rack and continue the diacetyl rest. In my experience, diacteyl gets worse during lagering, not better.

 

[Legin]

I thought it got better, just at an incredibly slower rate than if you were to lower the temp.

 

[slomo]

I did a rest for about 8 days at 60 degrees, and there wasnt a slick or oily mouthfeel when I started lagering. I guess I should have given it a few more days. Is there a maximum time for a d rest? Oh and thanks for the speedy response Yooper.

 

[Yooper]

I did a rest for about 8 days at 60 degrees, and there wasnt a slick or oily mouthfeel when I started lagering. I guess I should have given it a few more days. Is there a maximum time for a d rest? Oh and thanks for the speedy response Yooper.

Usually a diacetyl rest will only take 24-48 hours, BUT it depends on so many things. One is the activity level of the yeast. I try to "catch" the d-rest at 75% of the way to FG, when the primary is still active but winding down some. It really encourages the yeast to clean up the diacetyl. Since you still have some diacetyl, you may want to go up to 65 or even 68 degrees to finish the d-rest. I would guess that you're at FG by now, so I'd probably give the fermenter a gentle swirl to get the yeast back to work.

If you've already racked and started lagering, (I'm not sure what you're doing at this time) then you may need to make a starter and start over again. That doesn't usually work, though. Once you rack off of the yeast cake, or lower the temp, it'll be a battle to get rid of the diacetyl.

 

[Vuarra]

All I can add to what Yooper said was that you may just have to embrace the butter taste for this batch.