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If the flavor you’re experiencing is TCP then it is likely caused by something other than diacetyl. The primary cause of TCP is actually your source brewing water. If you are using tap water that has been treated with chlorine/chloramine during processing (most tap water is), then you are more likely to encounter TCP in your finished beer. Your best bet is to either use a water source that does not contain chlorine/chloramine (I used to use distilled water from the store and add brewing salts to match the desired profile for the beer I was brewing), or to treat your brewing water with campden tablets (sodium metabisulfite) to break down the chlorine/chloramine in your water. There is a lot of information online about how to do this, dosing rates, etc. I would start there if you are using tap water to brew with. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions and I will be happy to answer to the best of my abilities!

@@tybrewing9807 Many thanks for this. Because of limited space and resources I am limited to brewing from extract kits and since returning to brewing about nine months ago, have always been aware of the possible problems with chlorine. The water for each 5 gallon batch has been treated with half a campden tablet crushed between two spoons. Is it possible this has not worked?

Hey, no worries at all. I believe the factory setting was .039”, but I adjusted mine closer to .042”. This resulted in a slight loss of brewhouse efficiency in favor of more consistent lauters. My brewing system is notorious for having tricky lauters though, I would definitely recommend experimenting/keeping detailed brew logs and see what works best for your particular setup.

Diacetyl is said to have a taste and aroma of rancid butter when present in beer. While everybody’s perception of it is a little different, that is one of the more agreed upon descriptions. It also tends to give beer an oily mouthfeel. Some people say it gives a ‘slickness’ to the beer, but I’ve found that it just makes it seem kind of dull and savory in an off-putting way. Hope this helps!

@@tybrewing9807 this explains some of my old memories while living in an communist country we would find once in a while a beer bottle with that rancid oily taste that was disgusting. We thought at the time that they were using bottles that used to store cooking oil before. The half liter bottles, green or brown, were also used to store cooking oil and we thought they were not washed properly before filled with beer. The recycle program was collecting them together so the scenario was believable.

A lot of great information here. Thanks so much for taking the time to explain it all! I’ve pinned your comment so others can see it as well! Cheers!

@@tybrewing9807I may have worked in the filtration business just long enough to become boring, lol. Hope it sheds a little light on the hows and whys. Take care.

I believe the ideal crush for me ended up being between .040-.042”. Slightly wider than the default .039” of The Barley Crusher malt mill that I use. This is specific for my system though. I had issues with slow lauters due to too fine of a grain crush, so I sacrificed a bit of efficiency in favor of smoother/more consistent brews. Basically the intent of this video was to encourage people to ‘fuck around and find out’ in a positive way.

Generally not a concern if you primary ferment with the carb stone in the tank. You could purge the tank if you are using the Unitank as a brite tank but that’s an entire process in itself. I only have 1 Unitank currently so I haven’t delved into it. If you have a specific use case that you’re curious about just let me know and I can try to help.

I don’t have any experience milling Spelt but I believe you would be able to.

The tiny bubbles are caused by the carbonation stone. The stone itself has tiny perforations in it. It is intended to be used in a uniprocess fermentation vessel for brewing beer. You can run multiple types of gas through the stone, but its intended use is for CO2. You could in theory use a carbonation stone to oxygenate wort once it has been sent to a fermenter, prior to fermentation, but most people add O2 in-line while sending wort to their fermentation vessel. Hope this helps and isn’t too confusing. Let me know if you have any questions.

​@@tybrewing9807I did the same, as you did in the picture but still I am not able to produce at tiny bubbles , I could only see the big bubbles very big bubbles, I have tried different things like pressure and flow rate but still not able to see that tiny bubbles as you are producing. Please if you could help me it could be a great favor.

@RanaHamza-iv2wj Oh, I see. I believe the difference you are noticing is because the liquid in the video contains Star San. It’s very bubbly. If not that, then maybe because I am running into the stone at a rather low pressure. It’s difficult to troubleshoot why the bubbles would be a different size but that’s my best guess.

Hey Wilson! So there could be a few different causes to your low extract problem. The first thing I would look into is your overalll mash/Lauter setup. If your efficiency is normal for standard gravity beers (1.050-ish), but you have low OE on higher gravity beers with larger grain bills then you’re probably losing efficiency due to your mash/Lauter vessel. This is normal and expected and there are a few ways to remedy this. You can either: Substitute some of your base malt for malt extract of a similar variety (ie 2-Row for DME). A good strategy is to aim for approx 1.060-1.070 from grain and make up the remainder with malt extracts. This would be my first choice. You could also consider doing a reiterated or double mash. Basically mash half of your grains (maybe leave the dark malts/adjuncts for the second mash so you don’t get any astringent or off-flavors). Just make sure you skip the mash-off step for the first mash as that will kill off your enzymes. Hope this helps and isn’t too much of a ramble. Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll try to answer when I can!

@@tybrewing9807 I will try your two suggestions and check the results. Thank you so much for your help.

Absolutely! Let me know how it goes!

@@tybrewing9807 I substituted part of my grain bill for 2-Row DME and I reached 1.081 OG. Thank you for your suggestion. I guess my mash vessel is not so good for larger grain bills. I am using a BrewZilla 35L.

Glad to hear it! It’s a common problem. Even the big breweries use extracts/adjuncts to hit their targets ok occasion. As long as the beer is good!

You would want to wait until the beer is finished fermenting and has had a chance to condition a bit. Yeast need oxygen to ferment beer so if you start with CO2 in the tank they will not be very happy. Basically as soon as the beer is done fermenting (check my video on diacetyl tests, it is a good reference on figuring out when your beer is finished) you want to cold crash it (make sure there is positive pressure on the tank so you don’t pull a vacuum). Once the beer has been at terminal temps for at least 24hrs you can start carbonating using the method shown. A safer and easier, albeit slower method is to just inject CO2 through the carb stone until you hit your required pressure (use a carbonation chart) and leave it for a week or so. Check it every day because it will lose pressure (this is normal - it means the beer is absorbing the atmospheric CO2 in the tank). Keep topping it up through the carb stone until you’re ready to package. As long as you set your pressure correctly it is impossible to overcarb your beer this way, but it could take quite a while to actually become carbonated.

It depends on a few factors but usually crashes are complete within approx 24-36hrs with a properly sized chilling system and insulation on the tank/glycol lines. Not to mention ambient temps. How quickly a beer takes carb depends on how effectively you can chill it as well. A beer that is at 33-34f will take carb much faster than a beer at even 35-36f. Just check your carb chart and get your head pressure set right. I would recommend doing things different than shown in the video nowadays if you don’t have a means of measuring carb (homebrewers don’t really have this convenience). I would just run 2-3 sets through the carb stone as shown in the video then just leave it at the pressure your carb chart recommends. If you’re packaging off the 1bbl for sale or in a way where you can’t adjust carb after it’s packaged then I would look into a Taprite brand carb checker to make sure you hit your targets. Otherwise you’d be chasing your tail a bit hoping to hit carb spec. Sorry a bit long winded but there is a lot of info to cover. Let me know if you have any more questions!

Absolutely. Thats one of the ‘features’ of brew systems like the Brewzilla and Grainfather. Rice hulls are pretty much a given for my brews these days. I don’t doubt that it’s possible to get things dialed in enough to not need them but I think it would come at the cost of efficiency. It’s not like rice hulls are terribly expensive anyway. Cheaper than malt at least! At the end of the day it’s all about figuring out what works with your system and how far you want to go down the rabbit hole. It’s all a part of the fun. Cheers!

That is a good approach. A lot of people say to go for a certain gap size and you’re set, but the truth is that malt is different between batches and brands. The best method is always the one that makes good beer for you.

Should be 5/16” ID, 9/16” OD. I just got a 25’ set of lines on Amazon and cut what I needed.

@@tybrewing9807 thanks a mill, just ordered 2 brite tanks 😍

Nice! I was just looking at those earlier today actually. Let me know what you think of the BBT’s! Also let me know how carbonating goes on the BBT. The technique I showed in the video here is kind of niche and specific to quickly carbonating on the Uni. You should be able to just set it and forget it with the BBT rather than run bursts and purging like I showed in the video. I intend to make more videos to correct myself and expand upon this but haven’t had the time. Feel free to reach out if you have any trouble!

@@tybrewing9807 appreciate it, thanks for the tips. Will definitely be watching for future videos. I'll let you know how carbing goes 👍

You’re talking cold crash temps, right? I do have trouble getting a typical 5-6gal batch below 35-36f when cold crashing. I think it is intrinsic to the design of the cooling coil. It doesn’t have as much contact with the beer as say a jacketed tank would. I think that loss of efficiency makes it impossible to cool the beer down below a certain point. As long as your glycol chiller is hitting it’s set point and isn’t running constantly then you’re fine. You’ll see that the pump that supplies glycol to the chiller coil continuously runs if the tank isn’t at its target temp. That’s how you can tell it’s a result of the design of the cooling system.

Personally I think it’s just as easy to just transfer to a keg and carbonate, but if money is no object and you really want to dive deep into the hobby then a Brite Tank will allow you to have even better beer going into your kegs. I rack from the Unitank into my corny kegs through the liquid out port, which works well enough but if I get any sort of hop material in there it clogs and it makes kegging a real pain. A BBT should resolve most of those headaches. Depending on how quickly you drink your beer you could even just serve off of the BBT.

Prevent Diacetyl in your finished beer* I guess I could edit the video title.

I personally aim for consistency. If I can maximum extract while maintaining a ~1% brewhouse efficiency between batches then I call that a success. Sure you can dilute with water at/after knockout but I like to keep my hop utilization and batch size as exact as possible. Stirring and changing processes drastically increases likelihood of missing your targets. Everybody has a different philosophy though.

Hello! The type of lines I use for my co2 are the type here: a.co/d/3qkYHik Just generic gas tubing. You can also use braided lines, etc. as well but they’re generally more expensive (they are nice to see if you’ve had backflips though). I bought 25’ of this type and cut it down for my uses (kegerator lines, co2 for Unitank, etc. Hope that helps!

@@tybrewing9807 Thanks! I see this is 5/16 tubing instead of 3/8, I've been looking for 3/8 but I've seen people recommend using a smaller size for the co2 lines to avoid leaks, does the 5/16 tubing fit well on the unitank's 3/8 barb valve?

Now that you mention it. I do have two separate barbs. I have a 3/8” for a blowoff hose as well as a 1/4” for my gas line. I think I just got one from my local home brew store because I was in a hurry at the time. It’s been a couple of years now so my memory isn’t as fresh.

Sorry it took me a while to get back on this! I just checked it and it looks like it's around .045" - .046".

Best practice is to let your beer start around the recommended temp range (i.e. 67-68 for WLP001), then after once fermentation starts to slow (approx 72hrs), allow the beer to free rise a few degrees. That’ll allow the yeast to finish strong and accelerate the process of cleaning up any VDK/potential diacetyl. This is different for lagers and there is a bit of debate on process but the general premise is the same across most yeast strains/beers. Once your beer passes the VDK test you can go forward with dry hopping, cold crashing, etc. and then package without the concern of diacetyl developing.

Hi! To be honest I’m just a guy that makes beer in his basement. I do work at a brewery but everything I do on this channel is my own work, knowledge, etc (for better or for worse). Perhaps you could reach out to one of the big manufacturers to see if they can ship to your locale!

Honestly, it’s a hard flavor to describe. Rotten butter is probably the best description of it in both flavor and aroma. It has a sort of sweaty/musty thing to it. Some people have a very high flavor threshold for diacetyl, meaning you need a very large amount of it in your beer to be able to even taste/smell it. Whereas other people notice the smallest bit of it. Your best bet is to look into a beer off flavors kit if you want to get into it. It’s very helpful in training your palate but they can be pricey for the good ones (hundreds of dollars).

Coming back after a while but wanted to say thanks for this. Our home brew club is going to get an off flavour kit. And i’m trying this forced VDK test for the first time today. Cheers!

Thank you for this comment. I had intended to expand upon (and correct) the information in this video when I uploaded my video on how to carbonate beer using a carb stone but I missed the mark. I’ve pinned your comment so people can use it as reference. Definitely important info, especially when scaling up to commercial scale

Thanks a lot! I wish I had known about this technique a couple of years ago. Would have saved me a lot of trouble and bad beer!

Thank you for this! I knew there was an equation involved in the process but I forgot to include it in the video. Definitely an important detail! We typically just run carb sets and then check with a TapRite/Zahm gauge but this is crucial if you want to just set it and forget it or don’t have access to that sort of equipment.

You can start testing your beer for diacetyl using the method shown in the video as early as a couple of days into fermentation (some strains are faster/slower than others). If you test your beer for diacetyl and it fails, give it another day at diacetyl rest temps (this is yeast strain dependent but usually high 60’s) and then test it again. If I fermented a beer around 66-68f then I typically will not raise the temp or anything, I just give it more time at those temps. A proper diacetyl rest involving raising temps, etc. is best left for more traditional lagers or hybrid beers. Once the beer passes the VDK/diacetyl test you can proceed with dry hopping, cold crashing, etc.

@@tybrewing9807 Wow! Thank you very much for this explanation. Very helpful! Will try it out

@@azerbouf No problem! Let me know how it works for you!

Thank you very much!

That’s awesome! I’m happy I was able to help!

Thanks!

Thank you! I had hoped my explanation made sense. It’s always hard to tell how things will be received. Diacetyl, in my opinion, is the most common off-flavor in homebrewed beer. If there is an obvious off-flavor that you are noticing but can’t put your finger on it, a safe bet would be diacetyl. Definitely try this trick next time and see if it works for you. Either way, I would love to hear your results!

Looks like I have homework to do. Hahaha I really appreciate you taking the time to share such detailed info. I will absolutely be sure to reference this before I even consider mashing in again.

Thanks for stopping by and for subscribing! Cheers!