Will Banana fade at all?

[Matteo57]

So I brewed a wheat beer with 3068 and I thought I had kept it at 62 the whole time ....BUT... I guess not. Anyways, LOTS of banana.... LOADS... it is also almost cloyingly sweet. I know beers often mellow or change a bit with conditioning but will that mellow at all or is it just how it willl be? Might have to start giving away a lot of beers to people! ha ha

Btw, OG was hit per the recipe 1.054 and FG was hit at 1.012.

Thanks!

 

[squirrelly]

This is a rare occasion that banana is not a bad thing. For a true German wheat beer using German yeast it is completely within style. The banana clove flavor/aroma is something we look for while judging this style. As far as the residual sweetness, that's hard to tell. What was your final gravity? Being a wheat beer the starting gravity should have been around the 1.040s and final should be about 1.010. This yeast likes to be really warm (in the 70s.) it's possible your yeast was too cold and did not attenuate down resulting in residual sweetness and probably a mouth full of diacytal.

 

[jwplessner]

I did a 4 beer series recently with 3068 at 62f and had heavy banana aroma during the first few weeks in everything but the weizenbock. The lighter beers lost significant yeast flavors after conditioning. I found that the alcohol came out more. I made a note to raise the ferm temp next time--not the right profile for my taste at 62f.

 

[squirrelly]

Raising the temp of that yeast will increase the cherished banana clove flavor you are speaking of. That's why we use that yeast for German ale styles. It falls well within style guidelines, and would be expected at any competition.

 

[Matteo57]

The recipe I was looking at and pulled this beer from the OG was suppose to be 1.050-1.052, so I guess I was 2 points over the OG and the FG was suppose to be 1.010-12 so with hitting 12 I hit the FG.

From the hefs I have tasted and the one I was sort of shooting to mimic or come close to (weihenstephaner), there is some banana there but this is HEAVY banana... like a big banana burst in your mouth with each sip. Pretty sure it is way TOO MUCH banana flavor and not exactly what it should be. With that said, I have never used 3068 so I don't have anything to judge it against from that yeast but from hefs and other german beers, I have never had a beer that had even close to this much banana. Oh well, I guess I'll just sit on it and see how it goes. Ha ha, I have a full 5g keg and about 3g worth of bottles of the beer. My first large batch I made over 5g.

 

[squirrelly]

I'm thinking it's possible that diacytal might be pushing the banana sweetness to the foreground. The banana clove flavor should be very detectable, but at the same time a pleasant subtle background note. The drinker should not be whacked in the face with banana. Sometimes the residual sugars accompanied by diacytal created by an unproductive fermentation cycle can bring out those fruity sweet flavors pretty harshly. The butter popcorn is still often times there, but more evident is a sweet banana candy flavor. The flavor judges typically look for in heffes is more of a subtle banana nut or fried banana.

Are you sure your yeast attenuated down as far as yeastly possible, and you you did a diacytal rest?

 

[Matteo57]

I didn't do a diacytal rest, I thought that was more mostly lagers...? I am pretty sure my yeast was done working. I took a gravity check on day 10 then again day 12 and it was same OG. All of the threads I had read on brewing hefs said to just keg it after it was done roughly 10-14 days usually being in the primary or whenever the yeast was done as hefs drink best young. Never brewed one before so I was following directions.
Should I have kept it in the primary longer to just let things ride for another week? I doubt it would have hurt anything and probably just made things better I'm guessing.
Sucks, I'm bummed, I wanted a good hef, not a banana smacking me in the face with a taste of wheat! Oh well, I'll let it sit for a week or two and see how it tastes... If nothing else I'll make people who come over and want free beer drink it.

 

[squirrelly]

It sounds like you've pretty much done the best you could. If the banana bugs you that much brew it again, but use another yeast strain. You could even get away with keeping your same recipe and swap out the yeast for 1056. That will make more of an American wheat beer, but it may be more to your liking.

If you choose to use the cal ale yeast keep it in the low 60s and give it a little more time in primary. I bet you'll like the end result. If you give it another shot with the German yeast warm it up a bit to the high 60s. It won't get rid off that banana, but the residual sweetness should subside.

You are correct in that wheat beers are best consumed young, that's why I don't make many save for a Belgian Witt in the summer.