Cellarmaker diacetyl problems

First off, I’m a big fan of Cellarmaker. I love what they’re doing with hops. If I were to start a brewery today, I’d probably model my operation very similar to what they’ve done. With that said, there’s one thing thats been nagging at me with most of their pale, hoppy beers…

A distinct buttered toffee note in the aroma and flavor. Yes, they get great hop aroma and flavor as well, but the buttery notes pervade in most of their pale ales and IPA’s. So far, thats the only thing that keeps me from putting these guys in the upper tier of hop forward brewers. I’ve talked to a few other experienced beer bros who’ve said the same thing. Anyone else noticed this?

I know most people outside SF probably haven’t had enough of their beers to make a judgement, but considering all the publicity they’ve had recently I thought this was a discussion that had to started.

Any thoughts?

Yeah I taste it too. Some are pretty bad and others I don’t notice it much.

I am relatively insensitive to diacetyl and humans vary in sensitivity by at least a couple orders of magnitude, yes? This means, I am naively super enjoying pretty much everything from cellarmaker under 6.9 abv.

I’m somewhat insensitive to it too as far as off flavors go. In low levels it can actually enhance the mouthfeel in some beers, but in low gravity pale hoppy beers it shows up like a sore thumb. I think it may be a product of trying to rush some of these hoppy beers to the taps too quickly before the yeast has a chance to reabsorb the diacetyl after fermentation is complete....but what do I know.

I’ve had 23 of their beers and maybe taster butter in one of them. I know I’m not a local but Ivr had a lot of beer from them poured locally.

I have not noticed it myself, but I am not an expert by any means. I get a buttery note sometimes associated with Citra hops; I have seen that in some of their beers, but did not tie it to diacetyl

You’re all being put on timeout for jeopardizing the trade value of Cellarmaker

Originally posted by bytemesis
I get a buttery note sometimes associated with Citra hops; I have seen that in some of their beers, but did not tie it to diacetyl

I got a bit of it the last time I was there, but it wasn’t something I thought to be a pervasive issue. And I’m usually pretty sensitive to it. I’m planning on going tomorrow, so I guess I’ll see what I think then. Of course now I’ll taste it in every beer.

Definitely tasted an uncomfortably high level In a couple of their beers. Not gross, but wouldn’t be acceptable for me as a brewer in hoppy styles especially. I’d be curious to know what yeast strain they use. Could be a high flocculating strain.

Okay, it was definitely there in The Glow and Tuck & Roll today. I only really got it on the nose, but it prevented me from really loving those beers that I liked otherwise.