Diacetyl in commercial beer

[Chorgey]

I've never really noticed diacetyl in any of my beers but I bought a 6 pack of commercial beer and the first four were great but the last one I opened had a distinct butterscotch flavor. I'm guessing that it's diacetyl. Is that possible on a commercial level?

 

[VikeMan]

I've never really noticed diacetyl in any of my beers but I bought a 6 pack of commercial beer and the first four were great but the last one I opened had a distinct butterscotch flavor. I'm guessing that it's diacetyl.

Sounds like it.

Is that possible on a commercial level?

I can't think of anything that can go wrong with homebrew that can't go wrong with commercial beers.

 

[rsquared]

Yeah, when you say commercial, are you talking a large nationwide producer, or one of your local breweries? I've definitely had diacetyl in beers from the latter.

 

[Chorgey]

Yeah, when you say commercial, are you talking a large nationwide producer, or one of your local breweries? I've definitely had diacetyl in beers from the latter.

It's from a local brewery. It was only the one bottle but it was definitely different

 

[couchsending]

Happens all the time.. was it a dry hopped beer by chance?

 

[dmtaylor]

20 years ago, diacetyl in commercial beers was super common. Fortunately more rare these days but definitely not unheard of.

 

[Chorgey]

Happens all the time.. was it a dry hopped beer by chance?

It was a Marzen

 

[enkamania]

We were doing a beer tasting and my girlfriend says, "eww, popcorn." It was a smaller, newish California brewery.

 

[Vale71]

I've had horribly diacetyl-laden lagers in small breweries in Germany of all places, in the holy of holies.

Granted I'm hypersensitive to diacetyl (my mother had me tested... ) and could even smell the diacetyl as the waitress was walking to the table (I'm not kidding, in some places it was that bad) but I really wonder how the other customers could not detect it and find it unappealing.

 

[Rob2010SS]

I've had horribly diacetyl-laden lagers in small breweries in Germany of all places, in the holy of holies.

Granted I'm hypersensitive to diacetyl (my mother had me tested... ) and could even smell the diacetyl as the waitress was walking to the table (I'm not kidding, in some places it was that bad) but I really wonder how the other customers could not detect it and find it unappealing.

Really, in Germany? I've never been but would love to go someday, strictly for the beer. I would think that of all places, that would be the last place you'd find diacetyl. Not because it doesn't occur over there but you'd think they'd be super careful to get rid of it.