Wyeast 3068... Cloves, Bananas and... Peanut Butter?

I'm using straight AJ and Wyeast 3068 to make hard cider. I'm fermenting in a room with an ambient temp. of 17*C, which is actually a tiny bit below the comfortable temperature range for the yeast. I racked it today, after one month in the primary and I poured a little glass for myself. It wasn't perfectly clear, but I couldn't expect a Hefeweizen yeast to clear perfectly after only a month! Here's the kicker, I took a sniff of the Apfelwein and I was hit with a strong peanut butter fragrance that was easy to identify right away. I really didn't expect it, I was anticipating strong clove phenolics. The peanut butter was evident in the aftertaste as well. It wasn't overpowering during tasting, the cider reminds me of granny smith apples because of the tartness. I don't plan on drinking it for another 3 months anyways so I doubt the peanuts will linger that long.

Ya, I would say that the flavor should go away with time. Little strange considering you fermented so low.

It's a little off-putting. In a stout it may have been alright but not in my cider! Here's a craptastic cell phone camera picture of the carboy.



Another thing that surprised me was the lack of a sizable yeast cake. I suspect this is because the yeast just haven't dropped out of suspension yet. Either way I don't have much of a cake to pitch my Blood Orange Hefeweizen onto next week... I think I'll just make a starter out of the tiny bit of trub.

Ya, cidars don't have much of a yeast cake because there isn't much else besides the yeast to fall out

I'll let you know if I experience any of the peanut butterness with my batch with 3068. Keep us posted on whether or not it stays or dissipates.

My 3068 was dead on arrival. I didn't notice that it was a 2007 pack. I had to go with the Montrachet that I had on hand. So I won't be able to give you any feed back till I do another run of Apfelwein with a fresh batch of 3068.

Keep us posted on the peanut butter and whether or not it goes away.

OT but... That seems like a lot of air space in your carboy, I doubt it has anything to do with the PB smell, but it could oxidize.

Mr. Nice Guy said:

OT but... That seems like a lot of air space in your carboy, I doubt it has anything to do with the PB smell, but it could oxidize.

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I'm not too worried about it because it wasn't entirely done fermenting, even at 1 month along! The hydrometer reading supports that assumption. Also, It de-gassed like crazy while I was transferring it creating a nice C02 blanket on top of the cider soon after it was racked.

Airlock activity was steady at about 2 bubbles a minute for the first few hours after racking, and has since slowed to about once every 2-3 minutes. Hopefully it'll be ok.

I had thought about adding a couple liters of apple juice after racking, just to top it up. But I was in a rush and didn't have time to run to the store for more AJ.

I´ve done a hefeweizen with this yeast and I got the same peanut butter flavor. Will cold condiocnng solve this problem? Tks.

Parker36 said:

Ya, cidars don't have much of a yeast cake because there isn't much else besides the yeast to fall out

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That depends on if you start with straight juice, or if you use sweet cider. Around here (Apple center of Canada) its easy and cheap to get raw pressed cider. Sometimes it has sorbate in it as a preservative, but usually not, especially if you get it at the farm stores. Its really brown and opaque. This is what I make cider from, exclusively, and it gives awesome results. After the yeast starts to drop out (I use Cooper's Ale Yeast) it forms an enormous cake on the bottom, because all the apple sediment falls out, too. The end result is perfectly clear, and looks like a slightly darkened juice, but the sediment it makes along the way looks like nothing more than two inches of mud in the carboy.

dirtyal said:

I´ve done a hefeweizen with this yeast and I got the same peanut butter flavor. Will cold condiocnng solve this problem? Tks.

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I don't think that cold conditioning will solve this problem. As far as I know the only solution is aging the cider. I haven't tasted my cider in about a month though, so the cider flavour/scent could be entirely gone by now. When I bottle it next week I'll let you know.

SegmentedMonkey said:

That depends on if you start with straight juice, or if you use sweet cider. Around here (Apple center of Canada) its easy and cheap to get raw pressed cider. Sometimes it has sorbate in it as a preservative, but usually not, especially if you get it at the farm stores. Its really brown and opaque. This is what I make cider from, exclusively, and it gives awesome results. After the yeast starts to drop out (I use Cooper's Ale Yeast) it forms an enormous cake on the bottom, because all the apple sediment falls out, too. The end result is perfectly clear, and looks like a slightly darkened juice, but the sediment it makes along the way looks like nothing more than two inches of mud in the carboy.

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Once again, I'm excited to have another Nova Scotian on the boards to discuss brewing with! This fall is going to be an awesome time for me; I plan on making batches of hard cider using juice from as many sources as possible. The first, which come to mind are Pete's, Stirling and Hennigar's although no other sources come to mind... Thoughts?

Dude, peanut butter and bananas are a pair made in heaven, ask elvis. oh wait... well, just trust me on this.

Last time I tasted it the peanut butter flavour/aroma was way too overpowering, the only flavour that was able to shine through was apple.

Update: I've recently tasted the Wyeast 3068 cider and the peanut butter is gone, entirely!