diacytel?

[Guest]

I recently just tasted one of my pale ales and it seems to have an overwhelming caramel-like flavor, it even smells sweet. I was curious if this is possibly the diacytel flavor I hear so much about. This recipe was the first one I tried with mostly grain and not extract. The specialty grains were .5# Crys. 60L, .5# Wheat, .4#Vienna. I used Pale Malt and Light DME for my base. All grains mashed at 152 for 60 min. If this is diacytel, just curious what causes it and how I can prevent it?

[Lufah]

Code: Select all

Diacetyl
Diacetyl is most often described as a butter or butterscotch flavor. Smell an unpopped bag of butter flavor microwave popcorn for a good example. It is desired to a degree in many ales, but in some styles (mainly lagers) and circumstances it is unwanted and may even take on rancid overtones. Diacetyl can be the result of the normal fermentation process or the result of a bacterial infection. Diacetyl is produced early in the fermentation cycle by the yeast and is gradually reassimilated towards the end of the fermentation. A brew that experiences a long lag time due to weak yeast or insufficient aeration will produce a lot of diacetyl before the main fermentation begins. In this case there is often more diacetyl than the yeast can consume at the end of fermentation and it can dominate the flavor of the beer.

From How to Brew My guess would be to make a starter or get more O2 into the wort in the first place.

This dosn't sound like Diacetyl to me, but I'm no expert. What was the FG of this brew? Sounds like it didn't finish. How much LME and DME did you use and what brand? The soultion would still be the same. Did you make a starter?

For proper pitching rates take a look at Jamils site here...
http://www.mrmalty.com/pitching.php

Travis

[shuggie]

Hey thanks for the reply.
I actually did make a starter the night before with 3 pints water and 2 cups light DME. When I pitched the starter, it was bubbling away.
The wort's OG was 1.052 and the FG was 1.010. I left it in the primary 8 days and no secondary.
When I tasted it, it was only in the bottle for six days. Patience is a virtue, which I have very little of. Hopefully the caramel taste will mellow with a little time.
I think I was just nervous b/c this was the first one I tried with mostly grain.

[Lufah]

8 days is a pretty quick turn around even for an ale. That said all you can do now is wait and see what happens. Good luck to you.

Travis

[bub]

Did you do a full or partial boil and how long... If you did a partial you may have carmalized some of the wort. Although not much with a 10 FG.
As for 8 days kettle to bottle, I do it all the time, usually with hefes but sometimes kolsch. If you pitch enough you can ferment out in 3 days easy, be cautious not to overpitch though.
BUB (Boob)

[George]

Doesn't sound like diacetyl.

Could be the dreaded "extract twang." <ducks> It's certainly finished at that gravity. But like bub said, you might have carmelized some wort in a partial boil, or your extract could have been old.

OTOH, it could just be imbalanced with not enough hops. Where did the recipe come from? How much hops went in, and when?