Disappointed

BITTEN BY THE HOP CREEP! And it’s my own fault. Made a session IPA. Usually dose wit ALCD because I like to DH for 3 days. I feel this gives me the best flavor and aroma while limiting grassiness. However, forgot the ALDC! :person_facepalming:. So, I get the creep.
Luckily, since I cold crash after 3 days it’s barely noticeable, but, you know that goes in being your worst critic. And again, all my fault.

What have YOU done to be disappointed. Basically, looking for the things YOU screwed up to make ad beer.

I

Guess I’m a little out of touch these days Loopie. Had to Google what ALDC is.

Here is what I found. ALDC (alpha-acetolactate decarboxylase) is a brewing enzyme that prevents diacetyl (a buttery/rancid off-flavor)

Yep! It prevents formation of diacetyl by converting alpha-actolactate into acetoin.
While I don’t think it’s necessary for lagers, if you pitch enough yeast and perform a D-rest, it pays dividends in the dry hop world.

And again, my fault for forgetting to use it. Usually if I have a subpar beer it’s my fault. It’s not an ingredient fault, yeast fault, etc.
Trying to drum up some discussion :joy:

when I make mistakes its mostly because Im distracted and not paying attention. I’ve had to dump an bottling effort or moving beer between kegs by not purging. I’m so dumb I’ve done it a few times

of course Ive missed hop additions but usually those kind of mistakes don’t end down the drain

Once I made an imperial stout that my buddy wanted. So he came over and ‘helped’. So while brewing we had a few drinks. Got everything done, in the fermenter and everything as great. Found all my water additions a few days after fermentation started. Talk about flabby stout. Learned my lesson there!

Now- I brew alone. I start very early. And I never drink until the brew session is over.

I try to set everything up that I can ahead of time. Set up a table (very fancy, saw horses and a sheet of plywood) then label anything I can with amounts, and times. Alarms in phone also help. For example hops in hop bags in plastic cups labeled with a marker. Samples of previous batches don’t start until cleanup.

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ALDC is a band-aid for a “problem” that need not exist. If we weren’t all in such an effing rush to cold crash and drink the beer, the diacetyl would be eaten by the yeast within a few weeks, might take up to 4 weeks at reasonable temperatures around 55-70 F, after which you can enjoy diacetyl-free IPA.

I only agree with you partly. Yes, waste and band aid on a lager. On anything dry hopped it allows you to do shorter dry hop times preventing the grassy flavors from the vegetal matter.

Brewing with friends whilst imbibing has been more of a problem than other stuff for me.

Next one was when I started, early 2000’s, I didn’t use star san for cold side sanitizing and had some dumpers then.

Sneezles

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