Diacetyl in my first batch

[bhop2112]

I'm sitting here drinking one of the bottles from my first batch. It's a partial mash Piloncillo Porter kit from AHS. It's been in the bottle about 5 weeks or so and I had it in primary for just over two weeks before I bottled.

I've been aware of a strange flavor for a while, but I'm leaning towards diacetyl as the culprit at this point. After sampling a few bottles, I finally pegged it as a buttery flavor.

Since I made my first batch, I've learned a ton from doing more research. I know now that I under-pitched... the OG was 1.058 and I just pitched a single vial of WLP002. It attenuated fine, down to 1.017.

I didn't do any temp control on the fermentation, but ambient was around 68F so I don't think it was too out of whack.

I made a starter for my second batch, and I've got that one in a water bath with ice bottles. I'm going to let the second batch go 3 weeks in primary. I have since acquired a stir plate so my next starter should be money. My next investment is definitely going to be fermentation temp control (e.g. fridge or freezer with a temp controller) maybe along with an oxygenation kit. I'm hoping I have my bases covered to prevent this in the future... anything I'm missing?

Anyway, it's drinkable and not too bad for a first effort, but I'm definitely hoping for better results over my next few batches.

Cheers!

 

[dantose]

Odd. I wouldn't expect diacetyl with that. It could have stood lower temps, but 68 shouldn't be too bad. I've brewed higher with no issue.

Anyway, yeast can clean up diacetyl so I'd let them age 2 months or so before touching any more.

 

[jonmohno]

Maybe using a yeast you like,better.sounds likeiits an english yeast kinda like a dry windsor yeast?

 

[MalFet]

I'm a bit skeptical that it is diacetyl too, but the two glaring things here (beyond the pitching rate) are temperature and time. If you had diacetyl, a few extra days in primary would have cleared it up. More importantly, though, is temperature. If ambient was around 68F, your beer was significantly warmer than that due to heat released by fermentation. Sounds like you might have had some stressed yeast that got cut off from finishing it's job prematurely.

 

[jonmohno]

What temp did you pitch the yeast?

 

[bhop2112]

I'm a bit skeptical that it is diacetyl too, but the two glaring things here (beyond the pitching rate) are temperature and time. If you had diacetyl, a few extra days in primary would have cleared it up. More importantly, though, is temperature. If ambient was around 68F, your beer was significantly warmer than that due to heat released by fermentation. Sounds like you might have had some stressed yeast that got cut off from finishing it's job prematurely.

I could totally be wrong about the diacetyl, but yeah, I agree about the stressed yeast. I had a hard enough time letting my first batch go two weeks, but lesson learned

I tried to keep the water bath on my second batch in the mid to low 60's knowing that the actual fermentation temp was higher. It's really hard to keep it consistent though what with having to do pesky things like sleep and work. We'll see how that one comes out in a few weeks.

 

[bhop2112]

What temp did you pitch the yeast?

I'm not sure I kept good notes on that but I think it was probably in the low 70's... maybe 72 or so.