Kolsch has an ester banana taste

[chief_joe500]

Ive read about the banana flavors and all that due to high ferment temps. I'm doing a Kolsch w/ Wyeast Kolsch yeast. Took taste at primary to secondary transfer- taste great- took taste at a gravity reading-taste great-on bottling day took a taste-taste great. On my last bottle shike bottling it came up short so I poured in a glass and it sat there about 5 minutes. Then i took a drink and it tasted like bananas. Think all batch will now taste like that? Was it just beer exposed to oxygen that quickly made the flavor come on? I fermented in garage at low 60's yeast took off like crazy-but was gone for few days and cold snap hit and temp got to 50 so i brought back in and finish ferment at 63 for another week-secondary same temp for 2 weeks

 

[UltraMN]

As Kolsch is a German lagered ale, it makes sense that you used a German yeast. 60's not that high for an ale, so you probably did it right. I guess you could reduce temps a little more for next time. Not sure how much lagering this batch in the fridge could help, but it can't possibly hurt to leave it in there for a month or two and see if that helps.

I do something a little underhanded for Kolsch by using a British yeast. The British strains tend to do a little better at high temps because they are intended for cask, and produce a lemon flavor instead of a banana, although the intensity of the lemon flavor is less. They also drop a little faster. So not exactly authentic, but close enough for me.

The real Kolsches I've had were a little more hoppy than I had initially expected. Of course it's not like an IPA, and it's all German hops, but I think it's supposed to be a little hoppier than a Pilsner which should cover up the esters just a little bit too.

 

[chief_joe500]

I'm definitely trying again now that weather is more stable for garage storage. Hopefully over bottle conditioning banana goes away-but this happened once to an ESB batch to and it didnt go away 👎