Diacetyl

[Conehead]

I kegged my Helles on day 20 using the fast ferment method. Tasted normal, bready, cracker like. An hour later when I was cleaning my Conical, I thought I smelled diacetyl. Had another taste from the keg, and yes, there it was. Dam. Since it was kegged, I tossed them both on a bench down in my basement. I attached a blow off hose to the in quick disconnect and the other end to a pot of water. A day later they were slowly bubbling away. By the way, the gravity was at 1.010. No idea how long this will go on. Should I toss in some Nova Lager yeast, or just let it finish whatever it is doing? By the way I used Escarpment Labs Premium Pils yeast.

 

[dmtaylor]

Your yeast was stalled and woke up again. No need to pitch more yeast! Just let it do its thing. The yeast can eat the diacetyl, all it needs is time to do so. If fermentation ends again and you still taste diacetyl, give it a couple more weeks and it will be gone after the yeast reabsorbs it all.

 

[Conehead]

I made this on June 24 and don't need it until Aug. 10 when the out of towners come for the weekend.

Thanks,
Conehead

 

[Conehead]

I still see activity from the blow off hose. My mistake was I didn't let it completely finish when I was doing the ramp up using the fast ferment. I won't make that mistake again.

 

[Kickass]

A temperature ramp up is your best way to remove diacetyl. I don’t think the issue lies there. What was your full fermentation schedule, temps, times, pressures (if pressure fermenting)?

 

[Conehead]

A temperature ramp up is your best way to remove diacetyl. I don’t think the issue lies there. What was your full fermentation schedule, temps, times, pressures (if pressure fermenting)?

This is David Heath's method. I pretty well did what he did but it wasn't finished after the 66F for one day. I should of walked away and let it do it's thing. No pressure fermentation.