sy2088

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I brewed my first batch of all-grain beer yesterday. It's the Big Ben Pale Ale kit. I pitched the yeast at about 80 F and within 3 hours I started to see bubbles from the airlock. It's now at about 74-75 F and there is a distinct fruity/banana smell coming from the airlock. Is this a problem? I read that there will be a fruity flavor to the beer. Will this mellow out in the secondary and in the bottles? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

boo boo

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Bit warm to be pitching your yeast. Usually i pitch at 62f for ales and ferment at 62 - 64f.

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dirtybear7

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High temps will generally increase fruity fermentation flavors. Some yeasts are more fruity than others. The flavor will likely mellow a little over time. It is only a problem if you don't like those flavors in your beer.

JLem

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Your temps are much, much too high. Fermentation is an exothermic process and the beer temp could be as much as 10 degrees higher than the room temperature. Higher temps result in more ester production, which give fruity flavors. Some esters are good depending on the beer, but excessive esters are rarely desirable.

Not much can be done now for this beer, but for future beers you should try to figure out a way to keep the fermentation temps down in the mid60s.

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sy2088

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Got it! Thanks

sy2088

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It's been about 40 hours since I pitched the yeast and there are absolutely no bubbles from the airlock. It was bubbling once every few seconds after a couple hours of pitching up until 25-30 hours. I opened it up and I see some residue on the sides of the fermenter but nothing at all on top. Is this a bad thing?

HerbieHowells

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What you have seen is completely normal and not a bad thing. The residue is from the krausen, which has settled. You could probably take a final gravity reading today, and another in a few days, and find that your gravity has settled, and that fermentation is done. That said, it would be better to let the beer sit in the fermenter for at least two weeks from your brew day, if not longer. That will give the yeast time to clean up after fermentation.

sy2088

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Thanks HerbieHowells. Should I wait two weeks even if I am going to do a secondary?

HerbieHowells

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I don't secondary, so someone else may want to answer that. I think you at least want to wait a week so that the yeast can settle fully, but you could wait for someone else or use the search function to get a better answer.

JLem

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There's some debate over this, but I am in the camp that will tell you not to bother with the secondary unless you have a good reason to use it. The beer will be fine sitting in the primary vessel for quite some time. For most beers 3-4 weeks in primary then bottle. I only use a secondary vessel if I am bulk aging for months or adding fruit or oak. Some will dry hop in secondary too, but more and more folks are dry hopping right in primary as well.

There was, at one point, the idea that letting your beer sit on the primary yeast cake for too long would result in off-flavors from the dying and decaying yeast. This lead people to advocate for moving the beer into a secondary vessel as soon as possible after fermentation was done. I suppose this may have been a real problem with old not-so-great yeast, but with the yeast we have today this is not a problem and your beer can sit in the primary for many weeks with no problems.

In addition to there not being any problem with leaving the beer on the yeast, it actually has a huge benefit. Even though fermentation may be done, the yeast continue to metabolize many of the by products they produced during fermentation, which can result in a cleaner, better-tasting beer. Moving the beer away from the bulk of the yeast can limit this "clean-up". Also, the yeast will settle out just fine whether in primary or secondary - it just takes time.

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