Nottingham hates me

Every time I use Nottingham it farts all in my beer. At first I fermented too high a temp at about 72 but recently Ive been at a steady 63-65 and my beers taste like beer infused banana water. Everyone says this is an ester free clean finishing yeast. I beg to differ. I hate the stuff. It gives me beer, but its banana beer.

Sorry, but you have faulty taste buds.


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Notty is my #1 yeast as every brew I use it on comes out crisp and clean. Is it old maybe? Are you pitching dry?

cheschire said:

Every time I use Nottingham it farts all in my beer. At first I fermented too high a temp at about 72 but recently Ive been at a steady 63-65 and my beers taste like beer infused banana water. Everyone says this is an ester free clean finishing yeast. I beg to differ. I hate the stuff. It gives me beer, but its banana beer.

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What Temperature is your wort when you pitch cause if its anything over 65 the vigorous part of fermentation will make the temp rise up to 70 or more and Nottingham will give you a estery beer i get my wort down to 60 Degrees for almost all my Ales and it comes out great very clean and "lager" like

Just to add on to what the original post stated, I too have notice a lot of the banana aroma coming out of the air lock of a barley wine I am fermenting with notty at 65F.
It is on day three with a steady bubble and it smells like a banana split. I have only used it one other time with ok results, but this doesn't smell promising.

I fermented Notty at 73F and it smelled like bananas and tastes tart. I use US-05 now instead because I've never had that problem with Chico yeast. It's worth the extra $1 to me.

i really don't care for nottingham yeast, every beer i've done with it has a weird harshness to it. i've never fermented it warm, but on the low end it doesn't work for me, i'd much rather use 1056 and harvest the yeast.

I made many batches with Notty with no odd tastes. I stopped using Notty when the problems others were having began last year. Recently, I started a thread in which I stated that I was making a porter with an older (but refrigerated) packet of Notty, and it reeked of sulpher and sewer. The flavor is okay, but I was concerned, and I still can't figure it out. It may have just been old.

android said:

i really don't care for nottingham yeast, every beer i've done with it has a weird harshness to it. i've never fermented it warm, but on the low end it doesn't work for me, i'd much rather use 1056 and harvest the yeast.

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I have that harshness as well with a BeerMuncher Centennial Blonde that I fermented with Notty. Did it go away eventually? The beer has been sitting in the bottles at room temp for 3 weeks and it has progressed from undrinkable to unpleasantly harsh but OK.

I've used notty plenty of times and always pitch around 62 and it's perfectly crisp, clean, and very neutral tasting. I love it for a quick go-to yeast. If you're getting esters, then stop fermenting in the 70s!

Notty is also on my frequent-use list, I ferment all my notty brews at 58-60° (carboy temp, not the chamber), they work a little slow at those temps but I have had very crisp lager-like blondes, and clean malty pales at those temps, I also pitch at ferm temp if that is any help.

Notty is the only yeast I use. I have had no problems with off tastes at all. I make sure to keep my temps at 65f - 66f. Are you using enough of the yeast. Maybe you are stressing the yeast. I don't aerate my Notty because the instructions say you don't need to using it for the first time. I also don't re-hydrate it. That is just my choice because I am too lazy. I pitch 60 grams for 12 gallons in my conical.

I don't know what happened, OP, but I have not noticed any off-flavors. I am now drinking an APA and a porter fermented with Nottingham. They both fermented at a consistent 68F. Both times the yeast was properly rehydrated in sterile luke-warm water (previously boiled). It is hard to beat the convenience of dry yeast, but liquid yeast may taste a little better.

Fermentation smell means nothing. Lager yeast, for example, gives up a horrid rotten egg aroma because it produces sulphur compounds during fermentation. All of that dissipates before you drink it.

BalticBrewer said:

I have that harshness as well with a BeerMuncher Centennial Blonde that I fermented with Notty. Did it go away eventually? The beer has been sitting in the bottles at room temp for 3 weeks and it has progressed from undrinkable to unpleasantly harsh but OK.

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the taste never left, i ended up dumping half a keg of it. i'm not saying it's strictly notty's fault, but i just haven't had much luck with it.

You sure the harshness is from the Nottingham and not some other ingredient or part of the process (astringency, etc)?

Yeah, I think I was being a bit impatient. It turned out to be a really nice beer, the harshness went away after about 6 weeks in bottle in total.

It wasn't really an astringency though, more like a bandaidy, unpleasant off flavour. I'm still dialing in my all grain system, so can't really say what caused it without repeated testing.

Cheers,
BB

+1 with it always gives me problems. Cidery flavors, harsh taste etc. I ferment cold ~63/4.

I hate to be a hater (as my brew buddies have success with Notty), but the two beers I have tried with Nottingham (both hydrated and well loved) turned out to be crap. Now I just go with a liquid strain if I want to do an English Ale, lucky for me one of the local brewpubs has English Ale yeast they give out by the growler full. I stick with US05 now and have never had a bad batch. All these mixed reviews makes me wonder about quality control,storage, shelf life and pitching methods for the Danstar yeasts.

BalticBrewer said:

I have that harshness as well with a BeerMuncher Centennial Blonde that I fermented with Notty. Did it go away eventually? The beer has been sitting in the bottles at room temp for 3 weeks and it has progressed from undrinkable to unpleasantly harsh but OK.

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I have an IPA that's been bottled for almost 2 months, they still taste harsh.