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Brew Revue: Thwarted by the villainous diacetyl
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Brew Revue: Thwarted by the villainous diacetyl
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| George Hummel |
Last month, while visiting family in Central New Jersey, I stumbled upon a liquor store that contained a treasure trove of Belgian and American craft beers. Gouden Carolus Cuvée of the Emperor 2004, Allagash Curieux 2004 (the first batch brewed, in numbered bottles) and 2005, Achel Extra. I freaked out, whipped out a credit card, and racked it, stuffing the trunk of the car with unusual bottles.
We hauled our booty home and forgot about it. A few nights ago we started breaking into the stash and made a sad discovery. Several of the beers tasted like movie-theater butter, which means one thing: diacetyl. Diacetyl (pronounced Die-ASS-eh-tall) is a natural byproduct of fermentation, and occurs in beer, coffee, rum, bread, butter, cheese and milk. It produces a buttery or butterscotch flavor and a slick or slippery mouthfeel in liquids. Diacetyl is also used to flavor things like cake mixes, popcorn, candy and baked goods.
I spoke with George Hummel, beer writer and owner of Home Sweet Homebrew, to explain how this compound had ruined my vintage beer. "A little diacetyl isn't a bad thing, say, in an Irish stout," he said, "but it's no good when there's a lot of it in your pilsner." A bit of diacetyl can contribute a roundness and a touch of butteriness to certain beers, but it is hard to control how much diacetyl ends up in the bottle of beer the consumer buys.
The butter-bomb flavor that took over my beer could have been the result of several things. Hummel listed the contributing factors: "It could have been caused by a high fermenting temperature; certain yeast strains that can't metabolize diacetyl [called petite mutants]; high temp storage of the beer; a slight infection [by bacterial strains like pedicoccus or lactobacillus]; or as a result of oxidation from long-term high-temp storage."
Bingo. That liquor store was way warm, and those bottles had likely been there since they were delivered in 2005. I asked Hummel if there was anything that could be done to save a diacetyl-contaminated beer. "Nope," he replied. "There's no way to un-fuck it. You'll probably want to word that another way."
Taking a look at the credit card bill for all those fucked beers, I think that is actually the perfect way to say it.
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