Recipe: 5.5 lbs 2 row
1.5 lbs flaked rice
.5 oz hallertau @ 60
.5 oz hallertau @ 20
mashed 1.5 qts/lb at 150F for 90 minutes
boiled 90 minutes down to 1.039 sg. cooled to 50F. pitched 3L stirred starter of WLP840. fermented at 50F until 1.015 and raised temp for diacetyl rest to 65F. Got to 1.010 (same as forced ferment test) and let it stay there for an extra 4 days. slowly cooled to 34F (5F per day). I know, this was unnecessary, but I did it anyway. Been lagering for 2 weeks. Tastes like buttered popcorn.
You could try krausening - take a small pitch of actively fermenting beer and add it to the keg/fermentor/whatever. I’ve had it work for me in the past. The yeast scrub the diacetyl.
+1 Safale us-05 has done the trick for me in the past. and some extended lagering should clean it up after that.
when i first started making lagers i had this issue with a few batches-drove me nuts. pitching around 47F and keeping it under or around 50F max for a few days really helped me.
Time is your friend. Wait another 7 to 10 days and I can almost guarantee you with about 90% certainty that your diacetyl will be gone. If not then warm it back up again for a second diacetyl rest and keep it there a week. Diacetyl lasts for roughly 3 weeks in my experience. Since you’ve only lagered for 2 then it’s not done yet.
Same with me. I will admit I have a hyper sensitivity with diacetyl, but if the concentration is great enough, lagering alone wouldn’t do the trick for me. Fortunately learning better lager pitch and fermentation temps with gallon starters did away with the problem for me.
Well, prolong your D rest then. It might help that I’m lazy and often leave the temp up in the 60s for a full week or even 2 before bottling, and that I bottle condition rather than keg. YMMV
When I brew lagers I start out cold and only leave it cold for about 3-4 days and then start slowly ramping it up until I’m at 58 till mostly finished. Then I let it sit a few days at 62 before crashing. I don’t ever have diacetyl using that method.
This is only my third lager attempt, so I need to figure out my fermentation profile. I’ll try it cold (under 50F) for the next one with an extended d-rest. If that doesn’t work, I’ll try the slow ramp-up. Something will work I’m sure. Also, I had a friend come over and try the beer last night. He can’t taste the diacetyl, so maybe I’m just hyper-sensitive to it. I’m making a starter of US-05 today, so I’ll pitch that at hi-krausen after I warm the beer back up, and let the yeasties have at it.
My experience is the yeast have to be active to metabolize the diacetyl. Surprised that is has worked for you just to leave the beer warm after fermentation has finished. But stranger things have happened.
All I know is, with many of the lagers I have made, a few of which had diacetyl very early on, it was gone in 3 weeks in the bottles conditioning at cellar temps around 60-ish degrees. The priming sugar no doubt wakes up the yeast again. If kegging and lagering ice cold in the 30s, this might not work at all.
I wish it would have worked for me. I won’t argue that it won’t fade. But once a lager has had diacetyl I have never had it go away completely without the krausening method, and even that didn’t always work.
Since I haven’t bottle conditioned a lager in 10 years or so I don’t have anything helpful to add to that.
I am extremely sensitive to diacetyl. Perhaps I am picking up what some others can’t? If so, lucky you.
I don’t mind a slight hint of diacetyl in some beer styles, as long as it is quite slight, but this is a matter of personal preference. I know a lot of people HATE it with a passion, and that’s their choice. I’m about as sensitive to it as many good judges are (I’m Certified) so I don’t think I’m missing it either, but of course there’s always somebody else out there more sensitive and more picky than I am. So yeah, it’s possible I’m not perfect. However I do try to be.
Yeah I’m in the hater camp. I’ve picked up taste of diacetyl in commercial brews, mostly lighter pills. It may be an intentional attribute but it’s not my favorite.