BRY-97 banana notes

[Vlad_Drunkula]

Hey y'all

First time fermenting a cream ale with BRY-97 yeast. Pitched at 15,5°C/60°F for 4 days, spunded and ramped up 0,5°C/1°F every 12 hours after that. The first few days of fementation smelled like nothing (yes, I'm an airlock sniffer) and tasted like a young fermenting mead but when trying a sample today, there was a faint banana smell and taste to it. It's not quite finished yet (1.012, expected 1.008) but I'm curious if some of you guys and gals have had a similar experience with that specific yeast. The diagram on the Lallemand website for BRY-97 doesn't claim creating a banana ester....

 

[JohnSand]

I don't recall using that yeast. Give it some time, keep us posted.

 

[Vlad_Drunkula]

I'm the same. Almost 400 brews in but never used it due to folks reporting long lag and stuff.
For me it seems like it doesn't handle pressure very well even when compensating with increased fermentation temps. Pitched the yeast 8 days ago and it's still not at terminal gravity.

 

[Vlad_Drunkula]

The Cream Ale is almost done. Sadly, no banana esters made it in the final product. It would have been fun to have a little more fancy flavor in the beer. Problably the yeast got stressed out when the pressure was increased..... I love me some isoamyl acetate in my Hefeweizen.

 

[eliastheodosis]

Thanks for following up! It looks great I know I'm late to the party but I've used BRY-97 a decent amount, including cream ales. It's always been very clean for me and I commonly ferment right around 60F. I've never put it under pressure, though, so maybe that's more support for your theory.

Cheers