Using co2 to get rid of banana smell?

[wittmania]

I have my first "ruined" batch of beer after temps here in Nebraska spiked and left me with a bucket full of monkey juice. I'm planning on kegging it tomorrow anyway. I use an aeration stone to force carb my kegs and I was wondering if bubbling some gas through the beer for 10-20 minutes before sealing the keg would drive out some of the esters odors. It's a copper ale that isn't too hoppy so I'm not worried about driving out the hops aroma at this point.

Have any of you tried this? Do you think it will help?

 

[wittmania]

Anybody?

 

[shortyjacobs]

It sure as hell won't hurt. Dunno how volatile the esters are, but it's worth a try, (and bonus points for creativity).

 

[wittmania]

Thanks. I need all the bonus points I can get today!

 

[Warthaug]

If anything will work, your idea will.

The rate volatiles evaporate is determined pretty much solely by the surface area of air they are in contact with. Small bubbles have a lot of surface area. Temp also helps - warmer = greater transfer. So doing it at room temp may be better.

All that said, esters are pretty powerful agonists (activators) of our sweat-taste receptors, so it may be very hard to get levels down to palatable levels...

Bryan

 

[wittmania]

Thought I should check back in here. I did bubble some co2 through the beer and that seemed to help a little. But giving it time to chill really made a difference. By the end of the keg it had been aging for a little more than a month. Honestly, it might have been the best beer I've made so far. The fruity flavors really mellowed out and added a nice complexity, so much so that I may use a Belgian yeast next time that is *supposed to* add esters.

One more reminder to never dump out beer before giving it some time to fix itself.