-MG-
Well-Known Member
For my understanding Pentainedione is a bi-product of fermentation just like diacetyl, and are somewhat similar.
Any light beer or ale I make seems to suffer from this. It's not a bad buttery sweetness (may be desirable in certain styles). I noticed from my very first extract batch from 3 years ago, to now my all grain setup which is a Kal clone. It wasn't until recently that I really started to notice a similar taste in a lot of my beers. It is characterized by a caramel/honey aroma and initial taste, to a sweet buttery after taste, but its not an in your face buttery like diacetyl is. My friends love the beer and they don't taste bad, but if I attempt to make any light or medium body beer its dominated by this flavor and no matter the grain bill or hops, they taste the same.
I spent some time talking with a local beer club member who studies these things and we are kind of stumped.
Here are some things I do:
I cool the wort to pitching temperatures within 15-20 minutes.
I aerate the wort with pure oxygen and do the purge and shake method which according to a dissolved oxygen meter, gets the oxygen levels to 10ppm which should be plenty for the yeasties.
I just started pitching more aggressive rates, using .75 million cells/ml/degree of plato. Which is more than most of do, thinking my pitching rates were an issue.
I ferment in plastic carboys that always get a good oxy-clean soak for almost 24 hours after use, never used a brush inside them.
I tasted a blonde ale that had a few points of gravity to go and it tasted great, no signs of the issue, a few days later once I hit my FG, I took a sample and sure enough it was dominated by a honey/caramel flavor with that sweet aftertaste.
At this point I can pin point it to fermentation (as evidence by the above statement). Which makes since, since this is a bi-product of fermentation, but, why aren't the yeasties cleaning up after themselves? I usually ferment my ales in the mid 60s sometimes low 60s. I've never struggled with a stuck fermentation or not hitting my FG.
At this point I ordered some Biomat Dar from midwest supplies, which is suppose to suppress the creation of diacetyl and will try that, but its unbelievable to me after going through all of my processes that I am struggling with this.
I also am going to try krausening the blonde ale that I am talking about shortly here. While I'm not using it for carbing, I plan to make a starter with US-05, decant the liquid and pitch the active yeast to see if maybe they can clean up the issue.
I'm hoping that fixes it, but it just makes me wonder why I have to go through all of that to get a clean tasting beer.
Additional note, I mostly struggle with this issue with my ale's and usually use US-05.
Thoughts?
Any light beer or ale I make seems to suffer from this. It's not a bad buttery sweetness (may be desirable in certain styles). I noticed from my very first extract batch from 3 years ago, to now my all grain setup which is a Kal clone. It wasn't until recently that I really started to notice a similar taste in a lot of my beers. It is characterized by a caramel/honey aroma and initial taste, to a sweet buttery after taste, but its not an in your face buttery like diacetyl is. My friends love the beer and they don't taste bad, but if I attempt to make any light or medium body beer its dominated by this flavor and no matter the grain bill or hops, they taste the same.
I spent some time talking with a local beer club member who studies these things and we are kind of stumped.
Here are some things I do:
I cool the wort to pitching temperatures within 15-20 minutes.
I aerate the wort with pure oxygen and do the purge and shake method which according to a dissolved oxygen meter, gets the oxygen levels to 10ppm which should be plenty for the yeasties.
I just started pitching more aggressive rates, using .75 million cells/ml/degree of plato. Which is more than most of do, thinking my pitching rates were an issue.
I ferment in plastic carboys that always get a good oxy-clean soak for almost 24 hours after use, never used a brush inside them.
I tasted a blonde ale that had a few points of gravity to go and it tasted great, no signs of the issue, a few days later once I hit my FG, I took a sample and sure enough it was dominated by a honey/caramel flavor with that sweet aftertaste.
At this point I can pin point it to fermentation (as evidence by the above statement). Which makes since, since this is a bi-product of fermentation, but, why aren't the yeasties cleaning up after themselves? I usually ferment my ales in the mid 60s sometimes low 60s. I've never struggled with a stuck fermentation or not hitting my FG.
At this point I ordered some Biomat Dar from midwest supplies, which is suppose to suppress the creation of diacetyl and will try that, but its unbelievable to me after going through all of my processes that I am struggling with this.
I also am going to try krausening the blonde ale that I am talking about shortly here. While I'm not using it for carbing, I plan to make a starter with US-05, decant the liquid and pitch the active yeast to see if maybe they can clean up the issue.
I'm hoping that fixes it, but it just makes me wonder why I have to go through all of that to get a clean tasting beer.
Additional note, I mostly struggle with this issue with my ale's and usually use US-05.
Thoughts?