smells like bananas

[lee1]

hi all i have put a brewers choice 80 shilling ale into a cornie , i have been putting my brews into the keg for secondry fermentation at between 1012 to 1010 to create pressure in the cornie if you know what i meen , its been in the keg for a week , i drew a sample off and it smells of bananas ? is there a problem with my brew ? [thanks ]

[far9410]

Wots it taste like ? I like the smell of bananas, but sometimes it means that the ferment temp has been too high for the yeasties . Have you a gas supply for the Cornies, if do I would ferment out completely then rack to Cornie and gas up without any priming

[lee1]

hi have only got a small gas charger hence y i try to build pressure with secondry fermentation this is the only brew its happend to its only been in a week but doesnt taste as it smells cheers

[Ditch]

[lee1]

ha ha very funny wish i could brew duff , maybe i have

[Geezah]

i drew a sample off and it smells of bananas ? is there a problem with my brew ? [thanks ]

It will be fine, its just the yeast cleaning up after itself.
I often get it in early stages of Coopers stout (2-3 weeks) and it dissapears, sometimes comes back when i'm down to the last 3-4 pints in the keg (drawing off sediment???)

[Paddy Bubbles]

Ditch, in the course of your extensive research, did you ever come to a conclusion on what causes this banana flavour/smell?

[Ditch]

Ditch, did you ever come to a conclusion on this?

Not sure, mate That's to say, I don't remember, for sure, what the 'conclusion' was. One of the Meerkat boys was hot on it. Stomach or Geezah? I think they satisfied themselves on it. I believe it may even be a short chain thing; Too high a fermenting temp' creating fusal alcohol, or something? Or, it might simply be overly young beer.

Funny thing is, I haven't had it in ages! Yet I'm blowed if I know what I might have changed. Ooh! Thrashing with a power drill ....! F**k me; Here we go again!

[Paddy Bubbles]

Yeah, just wondering. I got a faint banana nose off my last batch of stout, although I haven't tasted it yet.

I think fusels would taste more like nail polish remover. A hot alcohol flavour. You probably right, just needs plenty of conditioning time. Though I know from your posts that you don't condition your beers for very long!

[Kev888]

The pronounced banana flavours in hefe/wheat beers are caused during the fermentation, I believe due to the esters produced, but I'm no biochemist.

Obviously, hefe yeast is prone to that, but even in other strains the esters can be stronger if the fermentation is warmer. If your fermentation was a bit warmer than normal thats perhaps a possible cause.

Cheers
kev

[Ditch]

If your fermentation was a bit warmer than normal thats perhaps a possible cause.

That. See? I'm only going on faintest memory now. But, I suspect it might have come in twos, with me. And, later, I got the Battery Acid effect, in two ..... Turned out to indeed be that two of my heaters had edged up the scale a degree or two.

Maybe one degree too warm and ye go bananas. Two and it's all out battery acid? I don't see me experimenting to ruin beer though, just to be able to say for certain!

[Paddy Bubbles]

And, later, I got the Battery Acid effect, in two ..... Turned out to indeed be that two of my heaters had edged up the scale a degree or two.

That's as good a description of fusels as I've heard.

[lee1]

just drawn another nip off to investigate and the smell is not as strong maybe it was the dead yeast in the bottom of my cornie with me keging early , i also noticed the second draw off was slightly clearer , will draw some more off over the weekend to see if there is any change .