So this is my second brew... my first was a Cooper's Lager that I didn't realize really needed to be fermented quite cold, as my LHB store included it with the kit and told me I was good to go. Well, that batch has been bottle conditioning for about 8 days now; I tried one, and it tastes either bananas or apples... my girlfriend says more apple. I'm hoping that taste might mellow out if I just leave them conditioning at room temps for a while longer... like a couple weeks? I'm thinking it might be a lost cause though, since the temps in the room were probably as high as 80 at some points as the house we live in just isn't insulated for crap, and in Dallas that's a bad thing in the summer. To make things worse we didn't really try to cool it at all (wet towel, etc).
Anyway, so then I picked up the New Belgium Tripel receipe from Austin Homebrew Supply... and followed the brew instructions to the T... however I'm worried about my fermenting temp, as the airlock is venting a very strong banana smell at this point. Is this a sign of troubles, or can it smell like banana in the primary but taste just fine later after secondary and bottle conditioning? The ambient temp in the room is about 75 (during hot summer days maybe as much as 78ish), but we have instituted a very ghetto swamp cooler with towels over and around it sitting in about 5 inches of water to wick up the towels and help cool it... and have a ceiling fan on high as well. And we'll also be putting in some ice at lunch time to help during the hottest part of the day. So this knocks it down slightly. Is this still way too hot to ferment this beer? And is the variation in temps making things worse? Are there any other things I can do at this point or later to help mitigate the off flavors? longer or shorter time in the primary? longer/shorter in secondary or bottle conditioning phase? it's been in the primary now about five days and can still see the airlock bubbling... the instructions say 5 to 7 days and rack it to secondary. what do you think? We also did a double pitch of liquid yeast, along with one of those "yeast fuel" capsules that AHB sells.. if that has any bearing on things.
Any advice is much appreciated... we're hoping we didn't waste over $50 on this
Anyway, so then I picked up the New Belgium Tripel receipe from Austin Homebrew Supply... and followed the brew instructions to the T... however I'm worried about my fermenting temp, as the airlock is venting a very strong banana smell at this point. Is this a sign of troubles, or can it smell like banana in the primary but taste just fine later after secondary and bottle conditioning? The ambient temp in the room is about 75 (during hot summer days maybe as much as 78ish), but we have instituted a very ghetto swamp cooler with towels over and around it sitting in about 5 inches of water to wick up the towels and help cool it... and have a ceiling fan on high as well. And we'll also be putting in some ice at lunch time to help during the hottest part of the day. So this knocks it down slightly. Is this still way too hot to ferment this beer? And is the variation in temps making things worse? Are there any other things I can do at this point or later to help mitigate the off flavors? longer or shorter time in the primary? longer/shorter in secondary or bottle conditioning phase? it's been in the primary now about five days and can still see the airlock bubbling... the instructions say 5 to 7 days and rack it to secondary. what do you think? We also did a double pitch of liquid yeast, along with one of those "yeast fuel" capsules that AHB sells.. if that has any bearing on things.
Any advice is much appreciated... we're hoping we didn't waste over $50 on this