Wyeast 1388 - my beer tastes fruity

[bakins]

Made a real simple PM "belgian" gold. 4.5# 2-row, .5 wheat, 4# pilsner LME and 2# sugar. Pitched Wyeast 1388 - 1/2 gallon starter. Started at 64, then ramped it up to around 75. OG=1.068. Took a sample to taste and get a reading after 2 weeks: 1.011. I let my wife taste it and she asks "what kind of fruit did you put in this one?" It tastes like a pear tree crossed with a pineapple. Is 1388 always this fruity? I love Duvel and supposedly 1388 is the same yeast? Maybe will be less "fruit in your face" when carbed? I was gonna keg it, but not so sure now.

 

[Malticulous]

Apple and pear? I get that from it. High carbonation probably hides most of it's flavor. Some clone recipe here has a crap load of pears in secondary. lol

Esters are reminiscent of lighter fruits such as pears, oranges or apples.

 

[MattHollingsworth]

Sounds like the temp's fine:

Wyeast Laboratories. Belgian Strong Ale™ 1388

I've used this yeast maybe a dozen times, though, and generally liked it better towards 70-72. But I don't like overpowering esters/fruity notes myself.

 

[bakins]

It was over the course of 2 weeks that I ramped up the temp. It's not the esters you get from fermenting US-05 at 75 - it's like pears. A very "clean" pear flavor at that.

It still has a lot of yeast in suspension, so that could be affecting the flavor just a bit. Keg or bottle, that is the question...

 

[Malticulous]

The BGS I have with 1388 is over three weeks old and still not cleared. The one with 3864 has. You could crash cool it. I'm going to bottle mine and put them in the fridge after carbonated.

 

[Bob]

If it's fully attenuated, crash it if you can. A cold-crash for at least two weeks will serve two purposes: Drop a lot of that yeast out of suspension, and let the flavors meld a little.

You're sampling it really, really young. Give the beer some time for the flavors to meld. I suspect the fruit will meld with other flavors within a couple of weeks.

Cheers!

Bob