StudentBrewer

Recipes 

I just bottled a Hefe brewed with White Labs hefeweizen yeast. I sure hope it mellows out a lot. It has an unbelievably strong banana sweetness too it. Is there anything I can do differently to change the flavor profile while using this yeast? The beer was fermented at 70 F.

Thanks,
Brandon

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Primary: Empty
Secondary: Empty
Condtioning: Summertime IPA
Drinking:
Mirror Pond Clone #2
Mac and Jack's African Amber Clone
Mountain Brew
IIPA
Hard Spiced Cider

Dude

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Well, if the temp you recorded was outside the fermenter, the actual ferment temp was probably closer to 75° then. Try to cool down your ferment temps and that strong banana/clove won't be as evident.

I think the longer you let this age it will subside. Let it sit in a secondary for about 2 weeks and it should get better!

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Secondary: Summit IPA
Up Next: Smoked Porter -- Pub Ale -- Watermelon Wheat
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StudentBrewer

Recipes 

Orrelse, would the temp inside the fermentor be 75 F even if the Fermometer on the side said 70 F? Just curious.

Thanks
Brandon

__________________
Primary: Empty
Secondary: Empty
Condtioning: Summertime IPA
Drinking:
Mirror Pond Clone #2
Mac and Jack's African Amber Clone
Mountain Brew
IIPA
Hard Spiced Cider

homebrewer_99

Recipes 

I agree. Your fermenting temp was not 70F, but much higher.

How is your hop balance? Hops are generally low in a HW, but not all HW's are supposed to be sweet.

Allow it to sit a while longer. The banana flavor will subside in a couple of weeks. But in the off chance that it doesn't you could always mix it with another HW batch when you pour, or even a hoppy pilsner.

My point is that I don't want you tossing it.

Same goes with any batch that you may get that's overly sweet or overly bitter. Save them for mixing. Believe it or not, these "failures" are best served in a pitcher. You have complete control the mixture there. It doesn't matter if they are in bottles. Open them before the party and find the right ratio (for example, one bottle of pilsner to 1/2 bottle of weizen) between the batches and you'll be fine. You can still serve it in weizen glasses. No one will know but you (and anyone else you let in on it).

The important thing to remember is that you have to maintain control of the pitcher refills.

__________________
HB Bill

homebrewer_99

Recipes 

IMHO, I don't trust the stick on temp strips on plastic primaries. I think the temp doesn't measure anything on the inside, just the outside of the container.

Use a glass therm.

I haven't done this yet, but I want to drill a small hole in a lid and place a longstem therm (with the dial gage) through it and into the brew. This will monitor the brew temp all the time and let you know what's going on inside.

__________________
HB Bill

El Pistolero

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Like the others said, the strong banana flavor will mellow out with time, but for the next batch you might try keeping the fermenter in a 68F water bath. The 68 degree water will cool the fermenting wort much better than 68 air will, and 68 vs 70 will give much less of a banana flavor.

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AHammer16

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I agree with the other members. Wait did i say members?

Anyway let it sit and age in the bottle. I just finished a HW 2 months ago and it tasted like crap. A little more time in the bottle and it is pretty damn good.

Try this, Put those bottles up some place cool and dark where you wont drink them and wait till spring. I just might be the best damn beer you've had.

Side note: I have had a SWMBO sighting.

ScottT

Recipes 

Are you guys really seeing this much differential between the outside glass stick on thermometer and what's inside?

Since I saw this thread a few days ago, I've been checking both my Kolsch (primary) and my Weizen (secondary) once a day with a glass thermometer to verify and I'm getting the same readings from the center of the liquid as I am on my stick on thermometer. Glass is a really good conducter of temp, more so than air. Those stick on thermometers should be reading the temp of the wort through the glass and shouldn't have that much of a differential. Not more than a degree or so unless the air temps and beer temps were drasticly opposed.

__________________
Scott

Primary: Empty

Secondary #2: Empty

Bottle Conditioning: Oatmeal Stout

Drinking from Keg: Ordinary Bitter, Kolsch

Drinking bottled: Brown Autumn Wee Heavy
Hefe Weizen
Peaches and Cream Weizen


"This is grain, which any fool can eat, but for which the Lord intended a more divine means of consumption... Beer!"
-Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, Friar Tuck.
Next up: Hefe Weizen

DeRoux's Broux

Recipes 

i agree w/ scott. i think they were refering to the stick guage on the plastic primary bucket?

i agree with all, let it condition for a while, and it'll mellow. good tip from HB 99 too!

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Cheers!
DeRoux's Broux

Mindflux

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There was an article in Zymurgy about the stick on 'fermometers' They found that in most cases they were accurate within a degree or two. I'm not sure how this test was conducted, but I find it hard to believe.