bluedragoon85

Recipes 

I just got done bottling some Ale Mead a friend of mine made with a AHS Ale Mead kit. The thing is I need to rack my Stout to secondary and it was time to bottle the Mead, so that is just what I did and I must say, it sure smelled a lot like bananas! Is this normal? It was such a strong banana smell! Anyhow, I got done bottling and here I am drinking what was left from the bottling bucket. Sure does taste very citrusy; i'm guessing that's do to the addition of hops to this particular style of mead. How long should we wait before we pop open a bottle to see how it's doing? 3 months?

BigKahuna

Recipes 

They say that the banana is an ester produced by some yeast strains when fermented at a warm temp. So Question :
#1. What yeast
#2. What temp?
I have gotten a VERY strong Banana off of everything including Bread Yeast when making mead in my warm kitchen. It's good thought, and now I do it intentionally.

I can't say how long to age a Bragot, as I've never had one. But age will likely be your friend.

__________________

bluedragoon85

Recipes 

The yeast that was used was a White Labs British Ale Yeast and the temp was kept between 60 and 70 at all times (surrounding temp). I thought it was strange since the surrounding area never went over 70 Degrees F. I'm pretty sure it wont hurt, but I was just curious to know if this was normal.

malkore

Recipes 

I read up on that yeast strain and its not known for being a high ester producer.

Room temperature, and fermenter temperature are never the same. Primary is usually 5-10 degrees warmer since fermentation produces heat.

I think you ran a little warmer than you realize and may have had other stresses on the yeast.

__________________
Malkore
Primary: English Mild
On tap: Pale Ale, Lancelot's Wheat, English Brown Ale, Steam Beer, HoovNuts IPA
Bottled: MOAM, Braggot, Raspberry Melomel, Merlot, Apfelwein, Pyment, Sweet mead, Cabernet
Gal in 2009: 27, Gal in 2010: 34, Gal in 2011: 13, Gal in 2012: 10