Show Notes
Why does a beer taste squeaky clean at final gravity, only to turn into a slick, buttery mess three weeks after it hits the can? Diacetyl and its sneaky, odourless precursor (alpha-acetolactate) remain every brewer’s absolute worst quality control nightmare—especially during peak production season when cellar turns are tight. While dropping ALDC enzyme into the fermenter has become standard practice, relying on it as a silver bullet without fixing underlying yeast nutrition can leave your beer vulnerable to hop creep and post-packaging spikes. In this episode, Mark and Richard break down the complete cellular biochemistry of diacetyl prevention, ALDC limitations, and cellar-tested QC checks. We explore: The Precursor Trap: How alpha-acetolactate hides in clean-tasting beer and oxidizes into buttery diacetyl after packaging.
Yeast Nutrition as Defence: Why Free Amino Nitrogen (FAN), zinc, and magnesium suppress precursor formation at the source.
The Limits of ALDC: How hop creep, bacterial spoilers, and low pH can overwhelm your enzyme insurance policy.
The Forced Diacetyl Test: A step-by-step walkthrough for executing a foolproof heat-forced sensory test—and why boiling your sample creates dangerous false negatives!
Featured in this Episode: Learn more about ALDC from Escarpment Labs here. For more information about Diacetyl, you can check out our blog posts "The Forced Diacetyl Test" & "5 Off Flavours Caused by Beer Yeast (And How to Prevent Them)", and our Knowledge Base "Troubleshooting Diacetyl in Beer".
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