I made my first lager and at about 80% fermentation I took a sample, it was delicious. Very clean and malty. At that point I raised the temperature to 60 degrees in my chamber for about a week. (someone told me that this works great for a diacetyl rest, because my house is very warm and I didn’t want to bring it to room temp) I sampled one week later it and still had a decent flavor but the popcorn aroma and taste was now dominating.
Can I recover this? Whats my next step?
That’ll be diacetyl. You can raise it to 68, but it may take a couple of days for the yeasties to clean that up.
How long has it been at 60?
Let it sit on the yeast for another week or two, that should clean up the diacetyl. I’d even be tempted to take the beer out and let it warm up even more at this point.
So my house is 78, and this is in my man cave with poor airflow. So its more like 80-85, is this too warm or should I keep it in the chamber?
Keep it cool in the 60s. The diacetyl will be 100% gone in the next week or two.
Popcorn has only a little corn flavor, buttered popcorn has the diacetyl flavor you are getting.
So, OP, is it corn or is it butter? Different things.
80 is probably a bit warm, I’d keep it at 60F. I was thinking you might be at 72-75F which would be alright.
good point, we assumed it was buttery=diacetyl.
I don’t think DMS would show up later in the ferm like diacetyl does, so I’m guessing the assumption is a good one.
I assumed popcorn = diacetyl (and DMS usually doesn’t just pop up with warming ferm temps), but I’ll stay tuned for the answer! 8)
Yeah, but it might not necessarily be DMS, either.
I’d bet a 12-pack that it’s diacetyl.
Yes, most likely, but the description needs to be more descriptive to know for sure.
So, OP, was it buttered popcorn or just popcorn?
You channelling Carnac the great? 
You think Breweite intended to create this brewhaha?
Pass me some popcorn, and make mine buttered.
I would definitely say it is Butterty-popcorn! I actually left a sample on the counter, came back from work and the aroma/taste was almost gone. I’m not sure the science behind that, but it gives me hope that this thing actually taste pretty good… Thanks for the input I will keep it in the chamber for a bit longer…
You mean The Magnificent?
I think if you were to warm the sample up a bit you would start smelling it again.
Yeah, that’s it! Thanks!