banana smell on yeast cake after bottling

[CyberErik]

Hey guys,

I was bottling my stout this evening and I had the bottles soaking in sanitizer. Since I did not have a large vessel to dump the solution into, I began dumping the sanitizer into the now-empty fermentation bucket with the yeast cake inside.

As I did, obviously the smells inside became volatilized by the disturbing of the yeast by the liquid being poured in. As I did I got a whiff of an unmistakeable smell of bananas. My question is as the yeast begin to die at the end of fermentation, might they release esters? Stressed yeast make weird stuff, and growing them to the end of fermentation after the sugar is depleted might make them make esters? I did pitch kind of hot (78 degrees).

I smelled the beer and it too has a bit of banana smell but nothing overpowering. The beer tasted like a stout and doesn't have too much banana in it.

If I did indeed mess up and form esters, is it true that bottling or racking into a secondary and conditioning at slightly higher temps (mid 70s) can fire up the yeast into metabolizing the esters?

 

[BansheeRider]

Hey guys,

I was bottling my stout this evening and I had the bottles soaking in sanitizer. Since I did not have a large vessel to dump the solution into, I began dumping the sanitizer into the now-empty fermentation bucket with the yeast cake inside.

As I did, obviously the smells inside became volatilized by the disturbing of the yeast by the liquid being poured in. As I did I got a whiff of an unmistakeable smell of bananas. My question is as the yeast begin to die at the end of fermentation, might they release esters? Stressed yeast make weird stuff, and growing them to the end of fermentation after the sugar is depleted might make them make esters? I did pitch kind of hot (78 degrees).

I smelled the beer and it too has a bit of banana smell but nothing overpowering. The beer tasted like a stout and doesn't have too much banana in it.

If I did indeed mess up and form esters, is it true that bottling or racking into a secondary and conditioning at slightly higher temps (mid 70s) can fire up the yeast into metabolizing the esters?

Yes....fermenting at higher temps will result in banana beer. Aging the beer may help but it's not guaranteed.

 

[SEABrewer]

Hey guys,

I was bottling my stout this evening and I had the bottles soaking in sanitizer. Since I did not have a large vessel to dump the solution into, I began dumping the sanitizer into the now-empty fermentation bucket with the yeast cake inside.

As I did, obviously the smells inside became volatilized by the disturbing of the yeast by the liquid being poured in. As I did I got a whiff of an unmistakeable smell of bananas. My question is as the yeast begin to die at the end of fermentation, might they release esters? Stressed yeast make weird stuff, and growing them to the end of fermentation after the sugar is depleted might make them make esters? I did pitch kind of hot (78 degrees).

I smelled the beer and it too has a bit of banana smell but nothing overpowering. The beer tasted like a stout and doesn't have too much banana in it.

If I did indeed mess up and form esters, is it true that bottling or racking into a secondary and conditioning at slightly higher temps (mid 70s) can fire up the yeast into metabolizing the esters?

What yeast did you use? What was your fermentation temperature?

 

[BansheeRider]

What yeast did you use? What was your fermentation temperature?

OP says mid 70's

 

[CyberErik]

Pitched dry yeast at 78 degrees. 2 Packets of S-05

 

[CyberErik]

I've found a lot of websites and blog posts and stuff that say banana taste fades over time with conditioning and that they are a common early product.

 

[CyberErik]

one more piece of information: this sample was taken after 2 weeks in primary. I bottled half of it and racked half of it into a secondary with coffee and bourbon oak.

 

[CyberErik]

is it possible that the yeast smell of esters themselves and will settle out of the beer?