pediococcus and diacetyl

[ElkSherpa]

I recently bottled (4 weeks ago) a one gallon blend of saison and a mixed fermentation pear cider which picked up some souring/wild things.

The saison (90%Pils/10%wheat) received dregs from Orval, It's Alive, Fantome BBB Dark White, and the cider was hit with campden tablets a few weeks prior to blending. I also pitched about a half vial of whitelabs Brett C at bottling.

I opened a bottle today and it was a full on butter bomb. There was a really strong buttered popcorn jelly bean flavor. On their own, neither the Saison or the sour pear cider showed any traits of diacetyl. I'm not going to say for sure it was pedio which caused the intense diacetyl since I have no means to scientifically determine that. However, if it is, would the Brettanomyces clean it up over time while in the bottle?

 

[weremichael]

I'm subscribing to your thread because I don't know. Brett does clean up the diacetyl associated with pedio. I'm curious how this process will happen in a bottle under pressure. What was your TG? Keep us posted on your beer's progress.

 

[ElkSherpa]

TG was 1.000 at bottling.

 

[weremichael]

No worries for bottle bombs at least. I can't wait to hear how it turns out. I think it takes several months for the brett to clean up pedio in a barrel, so that might be a good starting point for you.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

The brett should be able to clean up some or most of the diacetyl. I can definitely tell you under bottled conditions brett will clean up significant amounts of diacetyl. I bottled a wild ale prematurely and some diacetyl-producing bacteria (not pedio, there's no sourness) took hold shortly after bottling, followed by brett. I tasted some of the pre-brett bottles which were total butter. After brett did it's thing it removed 95% of the diacetyl. However, the bottles are overcarbed from brett chewing through the residual sugars. I'm not sure if brett can break down diacetyl without fermentation though.

 

[DragonOrta]

Vinnie of Russian River has stated that he always pitches Brett when using Pedio, as Pedio throws a lot of diacetyl, which the brett will eat up.