estery, estery beer

So two of my batches have a definite banana taste. One is a wheat, so I'm cool with it. The other is an IPA...not so cool. Both fermented like a mfer and turned out really cloudy, lots of yeast. The IPA actually sprayed out a bit.

I'm still a noob but the only explanation I could find is that rapidly reproducing yeast can make this taste? Why did this happen?

FYI the other two batches I brewed at the same time turned out great...really clear, super alcoholic, and tasted great.

The wheat has cleared up a bit with time though, and mellowed a bit. I'm sad about the IPA. good thing my imperial brown turned out fantastic.

Unwanted esters are most often caused by high fermentation temperatures. This time of year I keep my fermenter in a large tub that's 2/3 full of water, and I add 2-3 frozen ice bottles to the tub to keep the fermenting beer as close to 65 as I can get it. A wet shirt draped over the fermenter and into the water helps as well. It's most important during the first week, after that I still try to keep it under control but I'm not so worried about it.

Did you use the same strain of yeast in all instances? What was your fermentation temperature (the actual beer, not the room)? Some strains are more prone to the banana esters, and some tolerate higher temps a little better than others.

Dry hop the IPA using 2 oz of whatever you like for 2 weeks then sample.

If it's not to your liking then let it go a while longer...

homebrewer_99 said:

Dry hop the IPA using 2 oz of whatever you like for 2 weeks then sample.

If it's not to your liking then let it go a while longer...

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would that I could, but its already bottled. I did pitch at like 75-80 cause I don't have a wort-cooler and my dad gets pissed when my friends and I brew all night. I have trouble believing temp was the culprit though, since my setup is in a cool basement of a highly air-conditioned house, but you guys could be right. however, like I said before, the other 2 brews turned out fine and they were the same temp, but God works in mysterious ways.

About 99% of those esters happen in a warmer than normal primary fermentation. I didn't realize you had bottled already.

rexbanner said:

... and my dad gets pissed when my friends and I brew all night.

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Guess you need to make his favorite beer next time.

I once ended up with a "Banana IPA"...though my main problem was using an estery yeast to start wth (Nottingham), having too much sucrose in the wort (1.5 lbs) and waaayyyyyy underpitching.

Beginner's mistakes I learned a lot from.

I had a brew where I wound up with a lot of esters, but in my case it was an alcoholic wine-like flavor. I didn't have a chiller at the time and I was in a hurry/lazy and pitched when the wort got just under 80 degrees. (not gonna brew on work nights any more).

I gotta tell you, once you pitch at those temps, and fermentation takes off like gangbusters, getting the temps under control is just about impossible. Soon after pitching I put the fermenter in a fridge and I still couldn't get the temps down to where they should have been. That is, until fermentation subsided, but by then its too late anyway. Despite being a great looking beer, the flavor never did clear up. If you bottled while the beer was still cloudy, you might've bottled too soon. Some extra conditioning time, maybe even a secondary, might've helped. All you can do now is wait and see, and chalk it up for next time.

carbon111 said:

I once ended up with a "Banana IPA"...though my main problem was using an estery yeast to start wth (Nottingham), having too much sucrose in the wort (1.5 lbs) and waaayyyyyy underpitching.

Beginner's mistakes I learned a lot from.

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I thought Nottingham was fairly neutral in flavor and tolerated "higher" temps i.e 68degrees or so. Also, how did you under pitch? A standard packet of Notti should be more than enough for a 5 gallon batch. Was your OG too high? I'm simply asking because I have an Impreial Pale (og of 1.070) that used Nottingham and it came out with a strong alcohol taste, but no estery flavors to it. I have three batches (Impreial PA, Oktoberfestale, and Light Ale) either just in bottles or ready to bottle, and all of them used Nottingham.

It might be worth your while to post your recipe and procedure for input and save yourself some heartache down the line...

imprez25 said:

I thought Nottingham was fairly neutral in flavor and tolerated "higher" temps i.e 68degrees or so. Also, how did you under pitch? A standard packet of Notti should be more than enough for a 5 gallon batch. Was your OG too high? I'm simply asking because I have an Impreial Pale (og of 1.070) that used Nottingham and it came out with a strong alcohol taste, but no estery flavors to it. I have three batches (Impreial PA, Oktoberfestale, and Light Ale) either just in bottles or ready to bottle, and all of them used Nottingham.

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If your OG is under 1.075 or so, one pack of Notty will be fine. Unless his gravity was well over 1.100 or he didn't pitch the whole package did he waaayyyyy underpitch.

double_e5 said:

If your OG is under 1.075 or so, one pack of Notty will be fine. Unless his gravity was well over 1.100 or he didn't pitch the whole package did he waaayyyyy underpitch.

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My OG was 1.09, with too many points being just sugar (brown sugar and lyles golden syrup).

For that OG of "normal" wort, Mr. Malty says 1.6 packs of properly rehydrated yeast. For my sugary wort, I should have probably used 2 packs of properly rehydrated yeast.

I only used 1 packet just sprinkled on the wort. Ambient temp ws around 69F for the duration of the fermentation. This actually attenuated very well because of all the damn sugar but, because of the esters, it's practically undrinkable.

This was one of my first brews quite some time ago. I still have most of these bananariffic beers stashed away if anyone wants to come by for a monkeyfest.

I learned from my mistakes...yeast stressed from underpitching and too damn much sugar make off flavors. These days, I pitch the proper amount and I don't use more than a half pound of sugar as an adjunct - better to use more malt anyway.

carbon111 said:

These days, I pitch the proper amount and I don't use more than a half pound of sugar as an adjunct - better to use more malt anyway.

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A little off topic, but many outstanding beers have been made with more than a half pound of sugar. At the right fermentation temperature and plenty of time to condition, you shouldn't be getting those banana or hot alcohol flavors.

double_e5 said:

A little off topic, but many outstanding beers have been made with more than a half pound of sugar. At the right fermentation temperature and plenty of time to condition, you shouldn't be getting those banana or hot alcohol flavors.

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Agreed...as long as there's plenty of yeast as well.

It has to be a combo of the yeast strain and fermentation temp. That's where banana esters come from.