Winky’s Disgrace is a beer inspired by the Harry Potter books, butterbeer from the perspective of a house elf. It is a sweat, strong beer with lots of caramel and butterscotch notes. The butterscotch comes from diacetyl, by fermenting the beer warmer than the yeast’s recommended temperature, thus stressing the yeast causing it to create more diacetyl, and moving it to secondary after no more than one week, thus not allowing the active yeast to break down the diacetyl. Yes, diacetyl is usually an off flavour you want to avoid but this is an experimental beer based on a fictional drink described by the author like this:

“I made it up. I imagine it to taste a little bit like less sickly butterscotch.” – J.K. Rowling

Full disclosure though, this is not an everyday drinking beer. It is a novelty beer created to see if I could. It is too sweat and almost chewy with plenty of butterscotch and lots of alcohol warmth. Also, because of the high amount of diacetyl in the beer, it does not age well as the diacetyl increases with age but cold storage helps extend its life. 

I think this was a success with regards to the aim of creating a house elf’s take on butterbeer.