Getting rid of Diacetyl

[Burners]

Hi Guys,

I have read and heard a lot about Diacetyl and temp control and rests etc........The problem is that I f#cked up, and have a Marzen extract in the secondary that taste like butter, and it sucks.
The temp got a bit out of control, and I tried to do a D-rest, but it wasnt effective.

Is it too late to save?

Its Jamils Marzen recipe, and tasted great up until the whole "temp-out-of-control" thing. I really do want to save it if possible.

It is currently in secondary, lagering at just above freezing.
Will lagering help it all, or should I just tell my mates that its supposed to taste like this.....
I can lager at 0*C for months if needed, but im not sure if I should waste the valuable fridge space (have a Raspberry Lager that could benefit from a little lagering, but that another story)

Thanks in advance for your help.
BN Army for Life!!

[Mylo]

Time and warmer temps usually encourage the yeast to re-take all the diacytl that they made. However, if there is too much, they won't be able to clean it all up. If it keeps getting worse - it could be an infection. Maybe throw some Brett in there? They might eat it up. Just think.... the first Brett lager.... ummm.


Mylo

[Sent From My iPhone]

What do you mean by "temps got out of control" ? Did it fluctuate, did it get too high or too low? If it got too warm you may have flavors that no amount of lagering will get rid of.

[hotrod38]

It sounds like a bucket of plain popcorn, and a movie, will go great with your beer.

Your pretty much screwed at this point.

[baltobrewer]

You might try to take it out of the fridge and let it sit at room temps for a week or so. Any hope of the yeast scavenging the diacetyl will be favored by warm temps, not near-freezing ones...

[Burners]

Yep, I thought that it was screwed.
I was hoping that someone had a miracle cure for me.

FYI, I started fermentation at 16*C (61 F) way too hot for 2278 Czech Pils.
Then, to add to the pain, it dropped to 12*C, then back up to 16*C.
Oh yeah, and I also underpitched - only about 1 litre starter.

So all up, a very unimpressive effort on my behalf.
Oh well.

I was tossing up whether to leave the fridge on and ferment around 5*C, but thought it would be too cold so I turned the fridge off....its winter here, and I thought it would only hit 12*C max.....I was wrong.

Live and learn, eh?
Cheers guys

[Madtown Brew]

no no no no no (Doc's voice)

You're not screwed. If raising the temp and rousing the yeast in the carboy didn't clean it up, then your yeast are merely incapable of absorbing any more.

What you need to do is make up a 1 L starter from a fresh pack of yeast, it can be lager or ale, but I'd stick with something appropriately neutral. Pitch this new starter into the beer at high kraeusen and hold around 60*F for maybe 1 or 2 days. The fresh yeast should clean up any nasty butter flavor nicely.

I had to use this same method for one of my four (that's right, four ) Oktoberfest batches I brewed for a party in Sept. I'm pretty sure this is another one of those excellent Pope (tm) tricks, so props to the Man cuz it saved my bacon.

[BDawg]

I'm with MadTown. Warm up the beer to room temp, pitch the new starter and let it rip for 2 or 3 days.

Good luck and let us know how it goes .