Why does my lager taste like butterscotch

My test batch lager tasted of butterscotch once kegged... brew day below..

Well I did a test batch on my newly configured rig to get my eye in, I decided to use some random stuff I had laying around, which made me decide on a Vienna Lager. This sounded like a nice light beer to try and since its a lager I didn't put to much hops in my 'test' batch.

The recipe if anyone is interested was..
 Ingredients:
------------
Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU     
4.70 kg       Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)                     Grain        88.68 %      
0.40 kg       Munich I (Weyermann) (7.1 SRM)            Grain        7.55 %       
0.20 kg       Carapils (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM)            Grain        3.77 %       
50.00 gm      Hallertauer [6.30 %]  (60 min)            Hops         34.1 IBU     
10.00 gm      Hallertauer [6.30 %]  (5 min)             Hops         1.4 IBU      
1 Pkgs        SafLager West European Lager (DCL Yeast #SYeast-Lager

My brewtroller automation (well half automation) was working great, my water level bubbler system worked as designed, writing down madly on what is working and whats not getting a pretty long list of brewery upgrades also (which aren't done yet)

The brew went well and it was tucked away for fermenting. Now this is where I should have research a little more into lagers. I pitch my yeast at 14c and brought it down to 11c which I left until the fermentation had finished (1.006)  From this I kegged out and started with the c02.. What I should have done was do a Diacetyl Rests which i found on a great online book How to brew : By John Palmer

next time at the end of my fermentation I'll raise my temp to around 15c for 24-48hrs to get the yeast more active to eat the diacetyl. If you have a keg with Diacetyl i believe you can clean it up with a few techneques (I have not tried yet) you can google "diacetyl clean up" it should bring back some helpful hints , My keg got turfed down the drain.

For me, I think I'll try a Diacetyl rest in my next lager..

Comments

  1. Thanks for the warning! I don't mind a slight buttery malt taste in a pils, but I imagine that's different to a full on butterscotch. If you have any bottles that can't be cleaned up, save them as examples of the off flavour?

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    Replies
    1. From what I've read it seems the flavour gets worse over time so if I kept a bottle i'd hate to taste it.... I did tip my keg and as I said you can fix it but I couldn't be bothered.. next time I might.

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