gibbocore
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I know there are a number of diacetyl threads every week, but i thought it may be helpful to hear about an actual account from start to finish that puts all the theory into practice.
Ok, first of all and i believe is where my problem started, i made a yeast starter, and a pretty strong one, i realised i had no Am ale II left but i had two longnecks that i'd filled and carbed that were from the dregs of a batch a while ago, so they both had about an inch of sediment in them. I drank these and saved the yeast and pitched into a litre starter, the starter took off and all was swell, i realised the next morning that things had gotten a bit cold over night and i'd chilled the boiled wort for the starter to about 2 degrees (i put it into the freezer and forgot about it, sopranos season three is getting real good) and it had only warmed up to about 15 degrees overnight, so i turned on the heater and sat the starter in front of that, for probably a bit to long as the plastic for the starter jug started to warp, still though only warmed it up to about 22, but this i believe is where the yeast health started to become compromised, then when brew day came around, i crash chilled my starter in the freezer and forgot about it again, it had turned into a yeast slushie and i had to leave it out to thaw a bit and i was getting worried, but as you can guess, i pitched anyway as there were no off flavours in the beer atop of the yeast in the starter (beer of which i poured off before pitching) so the neglected yeast had been pitched and i awoke the next day to not much activity, which is abnormal for me cause i usualy have a very healthy looking fermenter after a few hours cause i always pitch a decent size active yeast starter. It took until that afternoon for a thin layer of krausen to appear and by the next morning i had a decent krausen, i also had what smelt like the candy bar at the movies fuming from my fermenter, it was the strongest diacetyl smell i've had yet, and the taste of the sample was strong and slick in the mouth, not nice a all, and this continued for the next 4-5 days, until yesterday when i took a sample, i tasted it, still some diacetyl up front but it cleared quickly to present quite a nice beer behind it, now today its all but gone and just presenting a hint of caramel behind the green beer.
Now i know this will require some longer maturation, but being down to 1016 now, i'm gonna sit the sucker on the dryer tomorrow to rouse some yeast back up to tidy up a bit more, but i just found it very interesting to see the theory in action and prove the importance of a strong healthy yeast, it reminded me of going fishing for jew, you need to spend so much time catching the freshest squid and slimey's and tailor that can almost be as hard as catching the prize at the end.
I hope this helps someone else.
Ok, first of all and i believe is where my problem started, i made a yeast starter, and a pretty strong one, i realised i had no Am ale II left but i had two longnecks that i'd filled and carbed that were from the dregs of a batch a while ago, so they both had about an inch of sediment in them. I drank these and saved the yeast and pitched into a litre starter, the starter took off and all was swell, i realised the next morning that things had gotten a bit cold over night and i'd chilled the boiled wort for the starter to about 2 degrees (i put it into the freezer and forgot about it, sopranos season three is getting real good) and it had only warmed up to about 15 degrees overnight, so i turned on the heater and sat the starter in front of that, for probably a bit to long as the plastic for the starter jug started to warp, still though only warmed it up to about 22, but this i believe is where the yeast health started to become compromised, then when brew day came around, i crash chilled my starter in the freezer and forgot about it again, it had turned into a yeast slushie and i had to leave it out to thaw a bit and i was getting worried, but as you can guess, i pitched anyway as there were no off flavours in the beer atop of the yeast in the starter (beer of which i poured off before pitching) so the neglected yeast had been pitched and i awoke the next day to not much activity, which is abnormal for me cause i usualy have a very healthy looking fermenter after a few hours cause i always pitch a decent size active yeast starter. It took until that afternoon for a thin layer of krausen to appear and by the next morning i had a decent krausen, i also had what smelt like the candy bar at the movies fuming from my fermenter, it was the strongest diacetyl smell i've had yet, and the taste of the sample was strong and slick in the mouth, not nice a all, and this continued for the next 4-5 days, until yesterday when i took a sample, i tasted it, still some diacetyl up front but it cleared quickly to present quite a nice beer behind it, now today its all but gone and just presenting a hint of caramel behind the green beer.
Now i know this will require some longer maturation, but being down to 1016 now, i'm gonna sit the sucker on the dryer tomorrow to rouse some yeast back up to tidy up a bit more, but i just found it very interesting to see the theory in action and prove the importance of a strong healthy yeast, it reminded me of going fishing for jew, you need to spend so much time catching the freshest squid and slimey's and tailor that can almost be as hard as catching the prize at the end.
I hope this helps someone else.
