Diacetyl

If it is truly diacetyl, then it usually will disappear over time. If it is just crappy extract or something like that, it will probably not fade. Unless you fermented cold, I doubt you have diacetyl. What yeasts did you use? English yeasts can give off a lot of diacetyl as well.

 

How long between brewing and bottling? Did the yeast have time to clean up behind themselves?

 

2nd week at slightly warmer temp would be better... I normally like to pitch at the cooler part of the yeast band and ramp up slowly over a few days and then hold for 2 weeks

 

certain yeast produces a lot of diacetyl. Most times if you let the yeast do their job they will clean up the diacetyl before going dormant, but not always.
Not sure why you used to strains of yeast. That's not really a thing. One yeast will dominate and it is almost always a waste of money and effort to pitch two strains.

In addition to the other comments, warmer fermentation temps, especially warmer that recommended for the yeast strain will increase diacetyl.
Cheers.

 

"Usually" sounds optimistic to me, for beer that has already been bottled, i.e. removed from the bulk of the yeast. You'd need sufficient active yeast, and yeast that actually need enough of the excess diacetyl to get you below the flavor threshold. But I admit my viewpoint is theoretical, i.e. I don't have any experience cleaning up diacetyl post packaging <knocks wood>.

 

I do.

Diacetyl is primarily strain-dependent. Any yeast will generate some low quantity of diacetyl. English strains and some lager strains make more, the English strains having the most while the lager strains are more temporary. Many times I've bottled a lager and said "aw dang it, I have diacetyl again" only to find it's 100% gone in about 3-4 weeks. I only bottle condition all my beers, and tend to keep them at cellar temps 55-65 F until ready to drink. YMMV.

 

I use two strains on my imperial stout. I like irish ale and chico together. I get a ghram cracker thi g with the irish ale yeast and the attenuation of chico.

 

I'm with you...and @billandsuz it most certainly "is a thing", it's called co-pitching and is very common in wild/funky/sour beers although admittedly not as much in clean beers. I'll use 2 different strains from time to time, especially 644 and BRY 97 in my Cascadian Dark Ales.

 

yeah, the half of one percent of beers that are brewed with Brett. those beers will have another yeast added. but that is not the case here. and sour beers require an entirely different species of yeast or bacteria. and are we really encouraging a new brewer into his second or third batch... anyway what's your point? what you and a handful of other folks do does not make it a common practice.

name three breweries that pitch more than one strain at the same time. in fact name one.
Cheers.

 

Diacetyl, one of my favorite subjects... It can be cuased by many things, yeast strains, ferm temps, Ped, brewing techniques, etc.. and no brewer is immune to it, it can sneak up on anyone. But I'll assume you are aware of all that.

I think it's more correct to say that it "sometimes" goes away with age on it's own. It also sometimes gets worse with age.

I've successfully defeated diacetyl using two methods; re-fermenting and brett.

If the diacetyl beer is in a keg I will transfer it to a yeast cake in a fermenter from a batch that I just removed and let the ample yeast clean it up over the course of a week at fairly high temps of 68F-72F. This method has worked for me the few times I tried it.

If the diacetyl beer is in a bottle, I'll carefully opened each and inoculated with liquid brett using an eye dropper. This is a lot of work and it takes quite a bit of time, but I've had success with this too. I've only done this with beers I want to save and age like Old Ales and RIS's.

One other comment, are you sure it's not the coffee giving you the off flavor? I've had many coffee beers that have an oxidized/sour coffee taste that makes them undrinkable to me. It's not a butter flavor, so if that's what you're tasting, it's probably diacetyl.

How long has it been in the bottle/keg so far?

 

I can name 3 locally that co-pitch to make their saisons, belgians and other clean beers...Thomas Creek, Quest and Carolina Bauernhaus. I haven't spoken personally to brewers of any national breweries, but I'm sure these 3 aren't alone. It's neither here nor there and I'm not telling the OP to do this all the time, I'm simply stating that it's certainly "a thing" that isn't that uncommon and it's not just me "and a handful of other folks". Is your point to simply be contrary?
Cheers

 

Last time I checked we are in the homebrewing forum. What works financially for a pro brewer does not reflect what is happening at home. Also, co pitching is popular enough zymurgy and byo habe both done articles regarding the practice. I also believe @OldSock has experimented with copitching 1318 and conan together. I may be recalling that wrong though.

 

Bill, name three breweries that bottle their beers by hand with a siphon and bottling wand. In fact name one.
That's a pretty common practice though.

FWIW, I have no experience co-pitching and thought it was just as pointless and money wasting as you did. Learned something new today!

 

Have you ever brewed a beer specifically to get diacetyl flavor? If so, what did you do and does bottle conditioning destroy that? (asking for a friend - I would never do this)