Diacetyl Flavors in Beer

It is important to understand that diacetyl is a normal byproduct in the fermentation process of beer. There are varying methods of reducing or eliminating it in the final product, but it is always produced. Ales produce more than lagers and some ale styles, such as the English Milds and American Common Beers, may even find slight amounts acceptable. It is almost never acceptable in lagers, Bohemian Pilsener is one exception. So why is it shunned by brewers?

Diacetyl formation can also be caused by some bacterial infections. If you have brewed your beer and used brewing practices which minimize or exclude diacetyl in the finished beer, but notice it anyway, it can be an indicator of possible sanitation problems or other brewing errors. With the term "bacterial infection" floating around, it's no wonder that brewers shun the compound in just about all beers.

Learn To Detect Diacetyl In Your Beer

If you are a little unsure of how to detect diacetyl, don't worry. It is fairly simple to learn to discern diacetyl's buttery flavor and just takes a little practice. Here is how to do it. Purchase a bottle of imitation butter flavor, usually found around the spices. Get two cans of flavorless American lager, Coors light works well, buy them in cans so you can rule out skunked beer from light exposure. Chill the beers to about 45°F (7°C). Open each can and pour them into separate glasses. Add about 6 drops of imitation butter flavor into one of the beers. Smell both beers. If you can't smell the difference, add 3 drops at a time until you can. Using a light American lager is the easiest way to begin to learn the flavors and aromas of diacetyl because darker and bolder beers can mask the flavors somewhat. It is easy confuse diacetyl with some of the caramel and toffee-like flavors and aromas of some beers. Practice the exercise with different types of beer and drink with experienced tasters or judges to quickly hone your skills.

How is Diacetyl Produced

Most diacetyl is produced early in the fermentation process and if left to completion, will be reabsorbed by the yeast and converted to flavorless compounds. Chemically, diacetyl is called a vicinal diketone (VDK), because it contains two ketone (oxo-) groups on adjacent (vicinal) carbon atoms. Diacetyl occurs as a common byproduct of fermentation because its oxo-hydroxy precursors will pass through the yeast membrane and into the beer. Diacetyl's precursor is called alpha-acetolactate (AAL) which is a hydroxyl acid produced midway through the synthesis of the amino acid valine. Once it gets into your beer, the amino acid reacts with oxygen and in a chemical reaction (no enzymes are involved) will yield the diketone diacetyl. Diacetyl then passes back into the yeast cell where is is finally reduced to the mono-alcohol called acetoin and di-alcohol butanediol. Both of these have a much lower flavor threshold and a much less intense flavor and aroma than diacetyl. The threshold for diacetyl is about 0.15 mg/L for most people.

Diacetyl formation can occur only when there is oxygen present for the amino acid valine to react with. Since beer is normally heavily oxygenated prior to pitching yeast, it seems that diacetyl is inevitable. It is formed early on, when the yeast is absorbing oxygen during reproduction. Once all the oxygen is gone, there will be no more diacetyl production unless more air is introduced, such as when the beer is transferred form primary to keg, or primary to secondary. More diacetyl is produced with higher fermentation temperatures (thus why ales have more diacetyl than lagers). As mentioned earlier, yeast have the ability to reduce the diacetyl levels to below the flavor and aroma thresholds during the anaerobic phases of fermentation, given the right conditions and enough time. Once in your beer, it takes some time for diacetyl to be broken down to flavorless diols. It occurs much slower during the lagering phase due to the low temperatures. Thus, it is important to reduce as much diacetyl before you lager your beer as possible, to reduce the amount of time it takes to fully condition your beers.

How do You Eliminate or Reduce Diacetyl in Your Beers?

One way to accomplish the reduction in diacetyl is to use a diacetyl rest. A diacetyl rest is employed at the end of primary fermentation by slowly ramping the temperature up 5-10°F (1-2°C) above final fermentation temperature, to invigorate the yeast and reduce the diacetyl to below threshold levels. It generally takes about 2-3 days at the warmer temperatures to reduce diacetyl levels. The reduction is fairly rapid, but the breakdown is usually pretty slow, especially at lagering temperatures. For this reason, it usually takes at least 4 weeks for a lager to stabilize. Since ales are usually conditioned warm, it takes only about two weeks of aging and conditioning to assure there are no buttery diacetyl flavors left.

Sometimes brewers' yeast loses its ability to utilize oxygen and are called respiratory mutants, or petite mutants (because the yeast colonies are very small when cultured in the laboratory). Petite mutant yeast cells produce diacetyl but are unable to metabolize diacetyl in the later phases of fermentation, thus leaving it in your beer. Temperature shock of greater than 10°F will cause formation of these petite mutants in your fermenting beer. The remedy is to be allow the yeast to acclimate to the same temperature as the wort before pitching. You can use thermometers to measure the temperatures, but this is another source of possible contamination.

Pediococcus bacteria will produce copious amounts of diacetyl. Using pedio in your beers, such as lambics to produce the characteristic sour or tart flavors, can be a delicate process since it is sometimes added after the majority of fermentables have been consumed, limiting or controlling the sourness in the beer.

Another problem with diacetyl is that it increases with aging (if left in the beer after fermentation). If you want to add a little butteriness to your beer, it may be difficult to control when a little becomes too much (as evidenced by the scoresheets in homebrew competitions). Timing is everything in beers which display some diacetyl.

Another method of reducing diacetyl is krausening. Krausening is the addition of actively fermenting wort from the Krausen stage of primary fermentation, usually at 5-10% by volume of the green beer. This is the traditional method of carbonation by German brewers. There are many advantages to carbonating by krausening, and one of those is a reduction in diacetyl. For a very good article written on Krausening by my friend and fellow Dead Yeast Society brew club member Gene Nelson. To go to the article on the Dead Yeast Society's website, CLICK HERE He also has produced a couple of really cool calculators. One is a Krausening Calculator and the other is a Spiesgabe Calculator. Give the article and calculators a look and come back to them often when you have questions.

If you would like to learn how to do a simple test for the diacetyl precursor alpha-acetolactate (AAL) in your beer, click here.

This article was adapted in part from Beer Flavors #1: Diacetyl by George de Piro, Brewmaster C.H. Evans Brewing Company at the Albany Pump Station, and THE ROLE OF DIACETYL IN BEER By Moritz Kallmeyer, Chief Brewer of Drayman’s Microbrewery, Silverton Pretoria, February 2003 (updated 22/10/2004).

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