Vanilla taste in my lager

[skeeloson]

I have made two lager brews and they have both had considerable vanilla undertones to them. Any ideas what could be causing this and how to fix going forward? They were both light lagers. These were my first attempts, so I am guessing I screwed something up. They were fermented at the proper temp (according to the yeast).

Scott

 

[dutchoven]

Could it be a butter or butterscotch flavor? If so, might be diacetyl ...

What yeast did you use?

 

[ReaderRabbit]

I'm curious about what yeast you used, too. I think Blue Moon has a vanilla aftertaste that I like, when I asked my LHBS where that came, he suggested it was the yeast but didn't know which yeast would create that flavor.

 

[TopherM]

Can you list your ingredients and your lagering process? Did you actually lager, or did you ferment these like an ale? Maybe even the yeast was an ale yeast?

Depending on your ingredients and procedures, if you didn't lager a lager properly, you'd end up with a steam beer, which is closer to a blonde or cream ale, which could be called vanilla-ish.

That's my first thought.