Beer Forum

I just bottled my second brew(a Hef) a week ago 4/17/11 and being a noob to brewing...I wanted to taste my beer. I know, I know that I'm popping a top way too early but I'm curious. Completely dissapointed...way too much banana flavor and smell. Here is my question: Is this normal for a Hef when drinking too early in the maturing stage? Will the banana taste and smell simmer down after several weeks? Or did I mess up at some point before bottling?

I partial mashed with wheat, two row and cara-pils. Used hef extract, hallrttauer hops, and white labs #300
My initial gravity was 1.068 ...way higher than the theoretical/projected (1.047). (Don't know why it was so high)
Fermented at about 72F
Two stage fermented for 5 days in first, 10 days in second with a FG of 1.012 on bottling day.

Thanks!

Doubtful that the banana will fade much. Next time WLP 320 will give much less of that flavor. If you can, ferment at slightly lower temps as well.

+1 on lower temps. buy a fermometer. try to keep it as low as you can.

put a wet-tshirt over your fermenter. if you can, also blow a fan on it. that'll keep it at a nice cool fermentation temp. that should keep all your fermentations in the mid-high 60s, which is ideal for a lot of these beers.

yeah, 72 is way hot for a Weissbier.
Cool it down into the low 60's (like 63F).

HTH-

Thanks. Since I live in south Texas it's gonna be difficult to get down to those temps until I get cooler of some sorts.

Yeah, not much you can do about ferm temps without control (and getting colder is more expensive than getting hotter). Change your yeast to an American wheat beer yeast (WLP 320) and lay in a large store of bottles in the winter!

Your SG was higher than expected? Did you adjust for temp (readings will fluctuate depending on the temp of the wort) and of course, spin the rod to knock down any bubbles, which will also change the reading.

Personally, I love a good bubble gum wheat. I brewed with 380 at 80+ degrees. I probably should have named it Hubba Bubba...