EJay
Well-Known Member
I've done 28 all-grain batches, but have only used Nottingham a few times. My last brew was Bee Cave pale ale scaled to 2.5 gallons.
I used a full pack of Nottingham. I hydrated the pack for quite some time before pitching. I dropped it on my stir plate after initial hydration, mostly because I wanted to play with the stir plate. I pitched around 62f.
I had two problems. The first was the slowest fermentation ever for me -- it took a full three days to show any signs, which was really strange because the few times I've used Nottingham, it took off like a rocket, and this time I was using a full pack into 2.5 gallons. I figured the problem was somewhat cooler ambient temperatures than normal, but three days seemed pretty excessive. I'm aware that the conventional wisdom around here is 3 days isn't uncommon.
The second problem I discovered when kegging it today. There's a strong banana smell. This is also strange to me because fermentation never got above mid 60s and I had always thought that banana was a problem at higher temperatures.
At least I didn't detect any acetaldehyde, to which I am pretty sensitive and notice it a lot, though it typically ages out for me.
Is the banana smell something likely to age out? Any idea where I went wrong? I would think a full rehydrated pack into 2.5 gallons is a healthy pitch rate.
I suspect maybe I rehydrated for too long and probably shouldn't have put it in the stir plate. Danstar's instructions say DO NOT STIR but I didn't pull the instructions down until after I already had. Maybe I somehow killed a bunch of yeast with that and effectively under pitched? I'm really grasping for an explanation.
I used a full pack of Nottingham. I hydrated the pack for quite some time before pitching. I dropped it on my stir plate after initial hydration, mostly because I wanted to play with the stir plate. I pitched around 62f.
I had two problems. The first was the slowest fermentation ever for me -- it took a full three days to show any signs, which was really strange because the few times I've used Nottingham, it took off like a rocket, and this time I was using a full pack into 2.5 gallons. I figured the problem was somewhat cooler ambient temperatures than normal, but three days seemed pretty excessive. I'm aware that the conventional wisdom around here is 3 days isn't uncommon.
The second problem I discovered when kegging it today. There's a strong banana smell. This is also strange to me because fermentation never got above mid 60s and I had always thought that banana was a problem at higher temperatures.
At least I didn't detect any acetaldehyde, to which I am pretty sensitive and notice it a lot, though it typically ages out for me.
Is the banana smell something likely to age out? Any idea where I went wrong? I would think a full rehydrated pack into 2.5 gallons is a healthy pitch rate.
I suspect maybe I rehydrated for too long and probably shouldn't have put it in the stir plate. Danstar's instructions say DO NOT STIR but I didn't pull the instructions down until after I already had. Maybe I somehow killed a bunch of yeast with that and effectively under pitched? I'm really grasping for an explanation.
