Beer Forum

Last year, I made Charlie Papazian's Winky Dinky Marzen, and it was great! I bottled some, and entered it in a contest in January. A couple of days after I shipped, I shared a bottle with a friend, and discovered that I had made butterscotch beer. I put it down to contamination, and moved on.

In March, I made a Maibock, recipe here: http://homebrewer2005.blogspot.com/2008/03/hookarms-maibock.html

I drank some last night and thought it was fine. Tonight, after a bottle of Ommegang Hennepin, I can taste butterscotch. Is that butterscotch flavor always the result of a malty beer? This flavor does not appear in my lighter beers, just my malty ones.

Should I give up brewing and start buying my beer at a liquor store?

Sounds like Diacetyl to me. It may be caused by bacterial infections that reproduce in yeast sediment. If this infected yeast is repitched, it can affect those batches. Are you using repitched yeast?

hansolo wrote:Sounds like Diacetyl to me. It may be caused by bacterial infections that reproduce in yeast sediment. If this infected yeast is repitched, it can affect those batches. Are you using repitched yeast?

Nope. I use a new vial of white labs yeast in each batch. I have been using Cry Havoc, and I am beginning to suspect that is my problem.

Sometimes it is also caused when cooling wort. What method do you use? If it is chilled too slow, that would happen too. Other than that, I don't know, I always thought it was a yeast problem. I hope someone else can help.

This was the last concentrated wort boil I did. It was cooled in a sink full of ice.

Hmm.

Well I'm baffled. Anyone else out there?

hansolo wrote:Sometimes it is also caused when cooling wort. What method do you use? If it is chilled too slow, that would happen too. Other than that, I don't know, I always thought it was a yeast problem.

How would the cooling wort affect it? I've always read diacetyl was a product of yeast respiration, and that the yeast would clean this out during fermentation if left in suspension long enough. How long did you ferment for?

I fermented for 20 days in a plastic bucket. No secondary. Temps in the fermentation area were about 66 F. It went into a keg with priming sugar. Kept at around 70F for a week before going into the cooler for almost a month.