Oliv, tu ne confondrais pas avec l'acéthaldehyde ? Ta description en tout cas y correspond !
Benoit, d'accord avec toi, le diacethyl est l'ennemi des "bières blondes" dégueux que la plupart des brasseurs français, industriels ou pas, se croient obligés de brasser, bières blondes sèches sans gout où tout gout rajouté est perçu comme un défaut...
Par contre dans les bières anglaises, bitter, pale ale, ça donne un petit gout très agréable, les bières écossaises en ont encore plus.
Le diacethyl est produit lors de la fermentation principale puis est réabsorbé par les levures. Si on empêche cette ré-absorption alors il restera trop de diacethyl, donc si je comprends bien, le diacethyl est produit en trop grande quantité si on n'ensemence pas assez de levures, si on passe trop vite à la fermentation secondaire et surtout si on fait une garde trop froide.
Voici un descriptif en anglais du site HDB:
DIACETYL
CHARACTERISTICS: A butterscotch aroma and flavor, often a slickness on the palate. Not desired in excessive quantities, especially in lagers.
CAUSES: A by-product of yeast during fermentation, it is normally re-absorbed during the secondary fermentation. Mutation of yeast can produce respiratory deficient cells that have lost their ability to reduce the diacetyl to more innocuous compounds. Another cause is the gram- positive bacterium, Pediococcus Damnosus and other lactic acid bacteria in cooled beer, oung beer, and aging beer. Note that the aroma/taste produced by all of these causes is indistinguishable.
CHEMISTRY: One of a family of vicinal diketones. Presence recognized down to 0.05 ppm, but identified at 0.15 ppm. Some tasters are unable to perceive diacetyl even in large concentrations.
HIGH RATES FROM PROCESS: Underpitching of yeast; long periods of wort cooling (overnight); contamination from equipment; poor yeast strain; too- soon removal (fining) of yeast (before it can reabsorb the diacetyl); high adjunct ratio in wort; low fermentation temperature; premature lagering; any process that stimulates yeast then immediately removes it from suspension; use of contaminated sediment for re-pitching (bacteria often coexist with yeast in the sediment).
REDUCTION: Sanitation, quick wort chilling combined with adequate yeast starter amount (8 ounces of slurry per 5 gallons), adequate time for primary ferment before lagering or fining/filtering, all-malt recipe, higher temperature primary fermentation, pure yeast culture, washing yeast sediment prior to repitching.
Pascal
On ne dit pas Le petit poucet mais Le gosse était constipé
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