Beer Forum

I brewed up 12 gallons of an "blonde wheat" recipie I found online that looked ok.


I should warn you there are about 8 million variables that could have caused what I'm about to describe so I understand if you guys can't pin down my issue.

As mentioned I did 12 gallons with my randomly collected new setup doing a brew in a bag method. I fermented all of it for 8 days at 66F with White labs Pacific Ale yeast (don't know the number).


I kegged half the batch and carbed it. It is drinkable and is improving everyday. The 2nd half the batch I was racked on 6 pounds of fresh picked bing cherries that I had stewed for about 20-25 mins to kill off the bugs. I got a pretty healthy burst of renewed fermentation which I assume is from the sugar in the cherries.

The Non cherry is fantastic and I'd pay money for it. The cherry batch however has NO head and tastes a bit off. I'm very new to brewing and don't know exactly what I'm tasting but as its been described many times as "buttered popcorn" I think its diacytal. (sp?)

Any thoughts are appreciated. I've got 5 gallons of excellent beer and 5 gallons of drinkable but not so hot cherry.

If it is diacetyl, it could be the result of packaging before the yeast had a chance to finish it's work on the DA and other compounds remaining in the beer, or possibly a Pediococcus or other bacterial infection. Also, if you added cherries with the pits, some brewers report getting a flavor contribution from the pits themselves, often described as almondy, not sure if this could be what you are tasting.

If it is diacetyl due to racking too early, then you would most likely be tasting it in both batches (fruited and non-fruited). When you stewed the fruit, you could have also changed the chemistry of the fruit a bit (setting the pectins) which would more or less lead to a hazy beer (which in a wheat beer would not be such a big deal). I don't see how this would contribute to a buttery taste though. Sometimes the fruit needs a bit of time to meld with the base beer to become better and this may be the case. At what temp did you "stew" the fruit in? If it wasn't warm enough, you may have transferred some infection (bacteria) to the beer like spider said.

brewinhard wrote:If it is diacetyl due to racking too early, then you would most likely be tasting it in both batches (fruited and non-fruited).

Regarding the packaging too early, my thought was that it could be diacetyl produced during the second fermentation of the fruit sugars, which could leave it in only the fruited batch if the initial batch had cleaned itself up prior to being kegged.

spiderwrangler wrote:

brewinhard wrote:If it is diacetyl due to racking too early, then you would most likely be tasting it in both batches (fruited and non-fruited).

Regarding the packaging too early, my thought was that it could be diacetyl produced during the second fermentation of the fruit sugars, which could leave it in only the fruited batch if the initial batch had cleaned itself up prior to being kegged.

I'm thinking this may be the case. I'm not 100% its diacetyl. As I mentioned I've never had the chance to taste something with that and have it pointed out to me.


I did leave the pits in so that may be a contributing factor. I was following a recipe I found which is on my computer that kicked the bucket the other day. They were stewed at 152* (I think) for 20 minutes.


I'll give it another taste when I get home today. It's just been hanging out in the fridge this last week. I tried tasting it 2 days ago but I had a bit of a cold and couldn't have told you if it was battery acid or the best beer in the world due to being so stuffed up.

spiderwrangler wrote:

brewinhard wrote:If it is diacetyl due to racking too early, then you would most likely be tasting it in both batches (fruited and non-fruited).

Regarding the packaging too early, my thought was that it could be diacetyl produced during the second fermentation of the fruit sugars, which could leave it in only the fruited batch if the initial batch had cleaned itself up prior to being kegged.

Ahhh....solid thinking! That could leave diacetyl in the fruited batch if packaged too early.

Bring a bottle of it to whichever club meeting you go to first (or to both). Ryan from the Yakima crew or Bokonon from the Tri Cities club will be able to diagnose it for you. (Bokonon is a BJCP judge.)

HTH-