Butter scotch flavour?

[racer]

Put down coopers pale ale, be2 & .5kg ldme ,12gm of por boiled for 60min then fermented with nottingham yeast on the 15th jan.
Primary for 8 days @ 19deg then racked to secondary with gelatine to aid clearing.
The secondary cube is in the bottom of my ferment fridge which gets down to 14deg.
Kegged after 7 days secondary.
First taste yesterday after 4 weeks of carbonation I found a different taste in my beer for the first time.
Tasted sort of butterscotchy to me.
Is it?
1) dialisis(spelling)
2)the yeast(first time ive used this one)
3)pale ale(first time ive tried this also)
4)por(first time ive boiled a hop)
Dosnt taste to bad as I dont mind butterscotch but I may add some amarillo dry hopped to spice it up a little.

[Kevnlis]

Give it a few more weeks in the bottle and it should come good. I have had that happen to me and it cleared itself after a few months age. I do not think it is diacetyl, or specific to Nottingham, but is common for pale ales made with POR in my experience.

[James L]

Did you taste it out of the fermenter before bottling?
If it tasted alright then, but tastes a little strange now, it could jsut be a simple lactobacillus infection. THis is a quote from the brewing microbiology book:

Lactobacillus are most dangerous during conditioning of beer and after packaging. Spoilage is characterrised by a 'silky' turbidity but sometimes before this is apparent, the 'buttery' flavour of diacteyl may be noticed.

If it tasted a little strange when you bottled, it was maybe something to do with the fermentation temps or something, and like kev said, it should clear itself after a few months.

Just keep an eye on it... lactobacillus dont grow in beer, but their presence in beer is enough to spoil it...

[racer]

Thanks for the reply guys.
the taste isnt overpowering at all, so to a normal drinker I may just say its a butter scotch beer
Better order some more amarillo just in case

[Trough Lolly]

Put down coopers pale ale, be2 & .5kg ldme ,12gm of por boiled for 60min then fermented with nottingham yeast on the 15th jan.
Primary for 8 days @ 19deg then racked to secondary with gelatine to aid clearing.
The secondary cube is in the bottom of my ferment fridge which gets down to 14deg.
Kegged after 7 days secondary.
First taste yesterday after 4 weeks of carbonation I found a different taste in my beer for the first time.
Tasted sort of butterscotchy to me.
Is it?
1) dialisis(spelling)
2)the yeast(first time ive used this one)
3)pale ale(first time ive tried this also)
4)por(first time ive boiled a hop)
Dosnt taste to bad as I dont mind butterscotch but I may add some amarillo dry hopped to spice it up a little.

G'day racer - based on your post, I'd vote for diacetyl from the yeast. The primary was probably not completed when you racked to secondary and since you added finings, the yeast didn't get a decent shot at clearing up the cool fermentation byproducts that typically present as a butterscotch flavour. The cool secondary also would have sent whatever was left of the Nott Ale yeast dormant. It's just a technical flavour flaw, but won't render the beer undrinkable. Diacetyl is often found in lagers where cool fermentation can generate diacetyl during attenuation but can easily be scrubbed out.

For more background on diacetyl you may want to read a post I made on AHB some time ago: here...

Cheers,
TL

[bellboys backyard brew]

Hey chaps,
Just bottled this one,

Munton's Premium Blonde tin
Liquid Amber Malt Extract 1.5 kg tin
Cluster Hops 14g teabag.
Safale S04.

OG 1036
FG 1011

3 weeks in fermenter at 20deg.

I tasted the hydrometer sample, BUTTERSCOTCH!!!!!
I noticed that the sample had bubbles coming out of it, the beer foamed when primed into the bottle (bottle priming)
Sort of gave me the feeling that fermentation hadn't finished yet. How is this possible after 3 weeks in the fermenter at 20deg?
Is the butterscotch flavour indicative of the yeast not having cleaned up after itself yet?
Will it get better?
Will I have bottle bombs?

[Kevnlis]

1.036 to 1.011 does not indicate infection, and it is unlikely you got diacety from S04 at 20C. Perhaps it just needs some time to age. Taste it after a few weeks in the bottle and see if it comes good, if not give it a few months. These things usually fix themselves after some bottle time. I doubt there is any yeast in suspension as S04 clears very well, and after 3 weeks would well and truly have settled out!

[bellboys backyard brew]

Cheers Kev, thanks for that.
Yes it was very clear when bottling.
Will report progress on tasting.

[earle]

Are you sure its butterscotch? I had a similar experience a few months ago with the following brew.
Morgans Royal Oak Amber Ale
1.5kg Amber extract
Some carafa 1 special
Willamette for extra bitterness and aroma.

It seemed to take a long time to ferment and I wondered if I had an infection, especially because the hydro sample tasted very sweet. Unfortunately I fermented it at a rather high temp. A few months down the track and it has come good.

The amber extract is pretty rich/sweet even when fermented, that combined with hop aroma could be giving you something that you're identifying as a butterscotch flavour.

Earle

[racer]

The butter scotch flavour didnt last long, but then again neither did the beer

[James L]

I bottled my Golden SAAZ pils, and have noticed a buttery flavour. I think some alone time in the bottle should make it better.. The beer that i made and chucked straight onto that yeast cake tastes fine... they were brewed with the same temps (10) and everything.... weird...

No other lagers that i have made have had the buttery flavour apart from this morgans golden saaz pils... The only taste that i had was out of the fermenter whilst bottling.. so maybe if i have a taste tonight (2 weeks in the bottle), it might be alright...

[bellboys backyard brew]

Butterscotch... Yeah it was pretty butterscotchy. The only thing more butterscotchy is a butterscotch lolly.

List of things on earth that taste most like butterscotch:

1. A butterscotch lolly.
2. The beer I made the other day.
3. Imitation butterscotch flavouring.
4. Butterscotch schnapps
5. Butterscotch pudding.
6. A glass of scotch with a knob of butter thrown in.

I'll report back when I taste it in a week or so.

[James L]

I tried the beer... false alarm... i beer was great... Maybe it just needed some alone time in the bottle to think about what it had done wrong....

[earle]

Butterscotch... Yeah it was pretty butterscotchy. The only thing more butterscotchy is a butterscotch lolly.

List of things on earth that taste most like butterscotch:

Righto. Point taken. Apart from butter one of the main ingredients in butterscotch is caramelized sugar. I was just suggesting that my brew with a calculated 42.8IBU and 1.5kg of Amber was sickly sweet at bottling (so much so I thought I had a fermentation problem) and it took a while for that to resolve (I think that the amount of Carafa also helped to balance the sweetness). Muntons website suggests that the Blond has a IBU of 25-35IBU so ....

Time in the bottle seems to really help.

[bellboys backyard brew]

Reporting back:
After a few weeks in the bottle, the butterscotch taste completely disappeared.

[Kevnlis]

Reporting back:
After a few weeks in the bottle, the butterscotch taste completely disappeared.

Glad to hear it! It truely is amazing what a bit of age will do for a beer

[Trough Lolly]

Glad to hear it! It truely is amazing what a bit of age will do for a beer

...or more accurately, the yeast!

Cheers,
TL

[Kevnlis]

Glad to hear it! It truely is amazing what a bit of age will do for a beer

...or more accurately, the yeast!

Cheers,
TL

Good point, also not all beer will age well... but that is just getting too technical...

[warra48]

Good point, also not all beer will age well... but that is just getting too technical...

Hasn't stopped you before, and it's resulted in some very interesting and usefull posts.