Hello, total homebrew n00b here. This was my first attempt ever at brewing beer. I tried out the Smashing Pumpkin Ale Extract Kit and it was a lot of fun! I tested one for the first time yesterday after two weeks in the bottls and was a little disappointed. I was pretty paranoid I would mess up somewhere, but I definitely wasn’t expecting the beer to taste like bananas!
After some googling I learned that this was probably due to over production of esters from the yeast. I learned of two likely causes: boiling at too high of a temperature and fermenting at too high of a temperature. In order to avoid this problem in the future I wanted to verify whether or not this was the likely culprit.
What would you suggest? Lowering the boiling temp when I’m making the wort, more closely monitoring the temp of the closet my fermenter is in, or both? Also, any suggestions on this current batch? I read that if I leave it alone the banana taste might settle out and it could become more palatable in a month or so. Is that likely? Thanks for your help!
First off, you can’t change the boiling temperature, it’s going to boil somewhere between probably 208 and 212 degrees no matter what (depending on barometic pressure and your ingredients). You can turn the heat down so it won’t be such a vigorous boil, but that’s about it.
I would say that your main problem was in fermenting at too high a temperature. Depending on the yeast you use, I would recommend starting your fermentation at no more than 65 degrees or so, and preferably around 60-62 degrees.
Your banana flavor will likely mellow out with some aging, but it likely won’t ever completely go away.
Thanks, that reply was super helpful. Any suggestions on how to better relegate the temperature? Obviously the put it in the bottom of the closet in the middle of Winter strategy didn’t work out lol.
A good low cost easy option is a swamp cooler. Just search here for that or google/ you tube it. I use a big Home Depot water cooler. Welcome to the forum :cheers:
