Dammit, It happened again! Bananna bubblegum beer.

This is the fourth time it's happened. This one was an IPA, a simple hoppy allgrain recipe fermented with US-05 (rehydrated) as I have done many times before but again something went wrong. It has a belgian flavor and is still strangely cloudy after 3 weeks in the bottle.
I know that my sanitation was the same as usual, fermentation was under 70f as usual, bottling procedure was the same as usual. I can't figure out what went wrong but it is clear to me from reading these forums that it is a problem that plagues other homebrewers as well. I'm now faced with choking down the remaining 42 bottles or dumping them all down the drain (gasp) I wish I could figure out what went wrong so that it never happens again to me or anyone else.

I've had a few batches in a row do the same thing. Not with the bubble flavor, but the obnoxious banana flavor. I narrowed it down to fermentation temps or old fermenters. I am assuming mine was my bucket fermenters because I moved to glass carboys and the issue went away and I am using a fermentation chamber.

I'm by no means very experienced as a homebrewer, but aren't those off flavors usually attributed to some sort of infection (if temperature is not a problem)?

It might just be old equipment. Everything I've read concerning mystery flavors, colors that don't seem to have any obvious cause have been due to infections from old stuff

sounds like fermentation temps. What temp was the wort when you pitched the yeast?

has to be temps. Though, s-05 is really really clean.

Instead of dumping them, ship them to me. I might learn to like banana flavored beer.

Instead of dumping the bottles, ship them to me. I might learn to like banana flavored beer.

Beerbeque said:

fermentation was under 70f as usual

Click to expand...

Was that internal temp or ambient? Ambient temps of 65-70F can mean the beer is fermenting anywhere from 70-80F. BANANA CITY

If you are using American yeast and you end up with a Belgian flavor, then I'm putting my money on temperature. I had a buddy that made a delicious Belgian Blond last year. The only trouble was that he was TRYING to make an English Pale and used WLP007 Dry English. Temps got too high and he wound up with classic Belgian flavors.

It is fermentation temps. remember that the temp inside the fermenting beer can be as much as 10 degrees higher than the ambient temp. The more vigorous the fermentation is the higher the temp will be too.

edit:ghp beet me to it.

It seems to me that if you're fermentation temperatures are not the culprit, then another source could be underpitching your yeast. Belgian brewers who typically want lots of ester production, intentionally underpitch their yeast. This causes the yeast to have to do alot of reproduction. That, combined with a higher than normal fermentation temperature, produces those banana-like esters. Even though you are using dry yeast, which usually has a higher number of yeast cells per packet than liquid yeast, you might try doing a starter. The less reproduction that the yeast has to do, the less estery your beer should be; especially if your temps are not the problem.

Dont dump it, just put the beer in a closet and forget about it for a month or two, and RDWHAHB.

Also i ferment all my ale with an ambient temp between 68-75, 68 at night 75 in the day, and have used US-05 numerous times, and I have never had off flavors. Check your equipment, might be time for new buckets.