So Brewed an Amber the other day and it turned out very buttery. At first I thought it was just the excess caramel malt, maybe the copper malt I got from NHC.
I needed a beer to submit to a club competition as an "Autumnal Seasonal Beer" so when I got home last night I hot steeped some spices in a small pan and added a bit of sugar (The beer was not sweet enough without), strained the liquid through a coffee filter and added 9 ML to each bottle as I filled from the keg.
Although the beer was buttery/butterscotchy I submitted to see what the club members would think. They pretty much all said they tasted butter. And slickness. Just as I did.
So now I want to understand better how it happened. I am pretty sure I know, but I thought it might be helpful to describe what happened so others can understand and prevent it.
First, my recipe called for a good amount of caramel malt. I think I ended up using 1.5-2 lbs caramel malt. 1 lb of Briess Copper and like 1/2 lb of crystal 40 IIRC. Unless I'm mistaken, this helps provide the Diacetyl precursors.
Secondly, I fermented S-04 at about 62. Now normally I don't really have a problem fermenting S-04 that low. I believe it's not out of the recommended range for that yeast, but there's more:
I let it ferment out, and then while the beer was still young I racked into a keg and placed in my kegerator. This is what I believe was the real trouble. I likely racked and chilled at just the wrong time for Diacetyl. I'm betting it was at the maxmium level.
What I should have done is to rack to the keg and let it warm up for a couple of days, or simply raised the temp in the fermentor for a few days before racking. The yeast had no opportunity to clean up after themselves as the immediately got sent to hibernation.
There may be other causes I am not aware of, but if anyone can think of anything I missed, please reply. I am guilty in this case of being too hurried. I really had nothing to lose by letting the beer warm up to room temp for a couple of days before kegging.
I needed a beer to submit to a club competition as an "Autumnal Seasonal Beer" so when I got home last night I hot steeped some spices in a small pan and added a bit of sugar (The beer was not sweet enough without), strained the liquid through a coffee filter and added 9 ML to each bottle as I filled from the keg.
Although the beer was buttery/butterscotchy I submitted to see what the club members would think. They pretty much all said they tasted butter. And slickness. Just as I did.
So now I want to understand better how it happened. I am pretty sure I know, but I thought it might be helpful to describe what happened so others can understand and prevent it.
First, my recipe called for a good amount of caramel malt. I think I ended up using 1.5-2 lbs caramel malt. 1 lb of Briess Copper and like 1/2 lb of crystal 40 IIRC. Unless I'm mistaken, this helps provide the Diacetyl precursors.
Secondly, I fermented S-04 at about 62. Now normally I don't really have a problem fermenting S-04 that low. I believe it's not out of the recommended range for that yeast, but there's more:
I let it ferment out, and then while the beer was still young I racked into a keg and placed in my kegerator. This is what I believe was the real trouble. I likely racked and chilled at just the wrong time for Diacetyl. I'm betting it was at the maxmium level.
What I should have done is to rack to the keg and let it warm up for a couple of days, or simply raised the temp in the fermentor for a few days before racking. The yeast had no opportunity to clean up after themselves as the immediately got sent to hibernation.
There may be other causes I am not aware of, but if anyone can think of anything I missed, please reply. I am guilty in this case of being too hurried. I really had nothing to lose by letting the beer warm up to room temp for a couple of days before kegging.