Mmm...banana.

[brick]

I'd like to know what you think about a banana-estery winter warmer that I brewed last year in hopes that I won't repeat the mistake. This was my second brew (LME extract kit from AHS) and it wasn't bad except for a very strong banana presence that lasted pretty much until I kicked the batch 3 or 4 months after bottling. Here are the vital stats:

OG: 1.077
FG: 1.024
Yeast: two packets of munton's premium gold (dry, obviously)
Primary time: 8 days (!)
Fermenting temperature: cold (low 60's F probably)
Secondary time: none
Conditioning: Primed & bottled, stored in the basement (~65F)

What do you think caused the banana esters? I thought warm fermentation temps caused that, and I was definitely on the cool side. Could it have been the ridiculously short fermentation period? (I primary for at least 3 weeks now.)

Tim

 

[trevor_b]

What recipe from AHS?

 

[Thehopguy]

Maybe the yeast was pitched at too high of a temp?

 

[Clementine]

short fermentation time, did it get really active that could lead to the middle of the wort being hotter than the outside where your temp strip is? Temp is the biggest factor in banana esters and inital pitch temp is the most important as esters are by products of reproduction that are later cleaned up by the yeast.

I just read the spec sheet on Muntons Prem. Gold and is says highly flocculant, this does not leave a lot of yeast around to clean up the beer. So if something was not quite right with the beer Pitch temp too high (even if brought down later that can effect it like Thehopguy said) or active fermentation driving up fermentation temps in the wort you might be left with a bananarama as the yeast have gone dormant.

Clem

 

[PurpleJeepXJ]

Short fermentation time in my exp results from too high of temps. Also the extract will give off flavours too.

 

[brick]

Thanks for the responses! Pitch temp could well have been high. I'm sure I would have shot for 80F or below, but at the time my process was a little backwards and I was probably going by the stick-on thermometer. That bucket turns out to be a decent insulator so the thermometer would have read lower than actual temp while the wort was warm. Would pitching at around 90F do the trick?

**EDIT**
Forgot to mention the recipe. It was the AHS Winter Warmer. Malty and good, except for the banana thing.