Worried Beginner

Hello guys,

I currently have a Coconut Porter in my secondary, to be bottled on Monday. It had about 1lb of toasted coconut added to it when racking to secondary. I happened to remove the stopped to smell it today and it smelled strongly of banana, more like banana bread. The fermentation/secondary temp never got above 65.

Is this the coconut that is happening to give this smell? Do I have anything to worry about?

Thank You

I've no answer. But relax. You made beer. It'll be good. (But you're still gonna worry.)

If your temps are low like you say, then its probably related to your strain of yeast. Give it some time to condition and the smells should subside and it probably won't be apparent in the final product.

What yeast did you use?

Gary

There are several yeast strains that smell like banana during fermentation, and have no banana flavor when done. It's just an ester produced during fermentation. I've had wyeast 1056/ WL California ale do it before, and the beers turned out great. As long as you avoid going above 70 deg you'll be fine.

odds are its the yeast. i have made beers before that do not typically give off a yeast aroma, however when i fermented with it it did, and after bottling and conditioning it went away. i emailed wyest with this info and they said that smells during fermentation are one thing, its a totaly different issue if things smell after bottling

GASoline71 said:

What yeast did you use?

Gary

Click to expand...

I used London Ale III - Wyeast Labs #1318

Thank you everybody for answering. I am planning on leaving these bottled for probably about 4 weeks before tasting. Assuming the coconut does not mellow out too much within that time frame.

Relax....you will be golden....just the yeast fermentation smells.....

the belgian dubbel made in october stunk like permanent markers and bananas..well that leveled off and after a few weeks in the bottle smells and tastes great just like a dubbel should