[denny]

It could be due to a couple of things.  First, 2 weeks is a darn short primary for a lager so maybe it wasn't enough time for the yeast to reduce the diacetyl.  Also, your bottling procedure is a bit suspect.  Diacetyl can be caused by an infection, so there's the possibility that your stored wort was infected.  Or maybe the diacetyl is due to the fermentation of the wort that you used for bottling.

[dhacker]

Whatever you do, don't let this batch get you down. Try a simple, quick turn around ale to lessen the blow and give you sumthin' to drink.

[Kaiser]

First, 2 weeks is a darn short primary for a lager so maybe it wasn't enough time for the yeast to reduce the diacetyl.

I racked my Dunkel to secondary today after only 10 days worth of primary fermentation. The beer has 1 Plato left to go and I'll give it a maturation rest at 68F for a few days.

But yes, in most cases less than two weeks is a bit short. I think your problem is premature bottling. But not all is lost. I assume that there is still lots of viable yeast in these bottles. Just move them to a warm spot for a week or longer and the diacetyl should go away. This will also help with the carbonation of the beer. Once the diacetyl is gone you can store the bottles cold.

Kai

[denny]

I racked my Dunkel to secondary today after only 10 days worth of primary fermentation. The beer has 1 Plato left to go and I'll give it a maturation rest at 68F for a few days.

But yes, in most cases less than two weeks is a bit short. I think your problem is premature bottling. But not all is lost. I assume that there is still lots of viable yeast in these bottles. Just move them to a warm spot for a week or longer and the diacetyl should go away. This will also help with the carbonation of the beer. Once the diacetyl is gone you can store the bottles cold.

Kai

I agree that it's possible to be done more quickly.  I was recently surprised by a dunkel that fermented out completely in 10 days and by 2 weeks tasted almost as if it had been lagered and was ready to drink.  But in my brewhouse, at least, that's a rare occurrence.

[craigevo]

Does anyone know how much yeast is sufficient for krausening if your trying to reduce diacetyl ? (I'm not concerned with carbonating the beer at this stage)

I cant seem to find a patching rate estimate for this. I have heard "make a starter" but I have also heard "we are not trying to get yeast growth". Both true I suppose, but still, how much yeast is needed to do this clean up operation ? 100 billion cells (one fresh pack) per 5 gallons ? and is this assuming no growth in the starter ?

[davidgzach]

What Kai said:

And make sure you leave them in a place that can be cleaned easily just in case you have some bottle bombs.  At 45F and 2 weeks, there is a good chance there is some fermentation left to be done.

Dave