Irish Red Anyone?

Yesterday I kegged the Irish Red I made back in August. I was going to keg half and bottle the other half, but I simply kegged all of it. Call me lazy. Call me a draft beer lazy kind of guy. Bottles are way too much work after a day of work at my paying job. So I kegged it all into two of my Cornies. It should be ready to sample by the weekend. Actually, I’ll probably drink some of it on Thursday since the Aggies are playing football on ESPN and I’ll need something to settle my nerves.


The photo shows my relatively easy kegging process. I condition the beer in a 5 gallon Cornie, then I use CO2 (blue hoses) to push it from the large keg to the smaller kegs I keep in the fridge. The keg in the foreground is already full; I was pushing some CO2 into the top to displace any oxygen. One of the tricks of the trade here is that you have to introduce the beer into the receiving keg through what is normally used as its outlet. That way, the beer enters the keg almost at the bottom as it flows out of the intake tube. Otherwise, your beer would fall the height of the keg through the gas inlet and entrain much oxygen on its journey down. Always remember, oxygen = bad for beer.

Who Put the Buttered Popcorn in my Homebrew?

I just racked the remainder of my rye-wheat Hey Jude Celebration Ale into a few commemorative bottles (yes, I kegged the remainder) and I noticed something strange…the beer had a hint of butter flavor to it. Oh my gosh…I’ve got diacetyl in my beer! where did that come from? I never had it before. Is it supposed to be present in this beer style (which I’ve never made before)? Or did I do something wrong? Will other people notice it? Could it harm my unborn grandchild? Should I dump it all and start over? Hmmm… I’ve got some research to do. I do know this from my on-line investigating. Here goes:

Three pathways lead to the creation of diacetyl. The first is through normal yeast metabolism. Brewer’s yeast form a precursor called alpha acetolactate (AAL), which is tasteless. This compound is converted to diacetyl as the beer ages. The reaction that changes AAL to diacetyl is accelerated by high temperature. At cool temperatures it will still occur, but more slowly.Modern brewing practice dictates that beer be aged on live yeast until the vast majority of AAL is converted into diacetyl. Brewer’s yeast, while unable to metabolize AAL, will readily absorb and break down diacetyl into relatively flavorless compounds. By giving the beer enough contact time with the active yeast, the brewer can eliminate the diacetyl. It generally takes only about two weeks of aging ale to assure that it will have no buttery flavors. OKAY. I GAVE IT TWO WEEKS, SO I SHOULD BE GOOD HERE.

Diacetyl is also formed by mutant yeast. Brewer’s yeast that has lost its ability to properly utilize oxygen are called respiratory mutants, or petite mutants (because they form abnormally small colonies on laboratory plates). These yeast are also unable to properly metabolize diacetyl, thus leaving it in the beer. DON’T KNOW ABOUT THIS, BUT I DID BUY MY USUAL PACKAGED YEAST.

A bacteria called pediococcus can also form high levels of diacetyl in beer. While this bug cannot hurt humans, it can make beer sour as well as buttery. Tartness is desirable in Lambic beers, but it is most unwelcome in most other beer styles. The vast majority of brewers do their best to avoid pediococcus! I DON’T THINK THEY HAVE THIS IN LOUISIANA.

By the way - my Irish Red yeast made a bubble gum smell while fermenting. This could be interesting.

My Homebrew is Holding Me Hostage

I was going to brew some Bell’s Two Hearted Ale today, but I couldn’t. I have no where to put it. I have too much beer in my inventory. This is a unique problem for me.
You see, I like to keg my beer. Perhaps because I am lazy, perhaps because I spent hundreds of dollars on being able to keg my beer, perhaps one led to the other. Anyway, I don’t much care for bottling beer like I used to do. I like to keg it. But my kegs are full. Well, two of them are half full of current drinking inventory, and one is empty and ready for beer. But I’ve also got 5 gallons of Irish Red ready to put into the empty keg and one of the half full ones when it becomes empty. So where to put the Two Hearted Ale in two weeks when it is ready to keg? I guess I need to start drinking more beer more quickly. Or have a party…

Until then…cheers!