A touchy subject...

It sounds like his hunch is right about the yeast. There are a couple of things that can cause stressed yeast, or off flavors (some he has addressed or seems aware of).

1) Pitching rate - how much HEALTHY yeast is he adding? What are they SG of his primary?
2) Fermentation Temp - What is the temperature of the area he is brewing? Does he control the temp (keep it from fluctuating)?
3) Oxygen - How does he get oxygen into his wort? Does he shake it? If so for how long?
4) Yeast health - How old is the yeast? How was it stored? Does he add yeast nutrient in his beer? What is the time between pitching and krausen, and then when the krausen falls?

edit: You can always give him this book. I have not read it but I have heard good things about it

 

High fermentation temperature would be the most common cause. If he's pitching at 68F that should be OK, but let me ask: how is the temp being measured? Sometimes the actual fermentation temperature within the carboy can be significantly higher than the ambient temp or the temp as measured on the surface of the carboy. A thermowell is often a good investment.

Nanobrew raises most of the other points I would've mentioned: pitching rate and aeration are really important, too.

Another thing to try is to use a 'cleaner' yeast. Something like Wyeast 1056/White Labs 001/Safale 05 (they're pretty much the same) is unlikely to give you much fruit flavor unless it's really, really stressed by high temperature or under pitching. It's a pretty foolproof yeast for pale ales and IPAs.

Edit: one other thing. Sometimes stale liquid malt extract can contribute off flavors, though they're usually described as metallic or paper-like. If your husband is using liquid malt extract, he might try dry malt extract, which doesn't usually have the staleness problem. Good luck!

 

I thought of the yeast as well. California ale yeast is a great one for IPAs, IMO. The other thing I thought of would be sanitization. How clean is everything? I clean the crap out of everything. Maybe too much, of there is such thing. I don't like banana in my beers either. Good luck!

 

Have him read up on Isoamyl Acetate. That's the ester you are getting. There is a ton of reading on it online.

 

I was going to create my own post in response, until I read this one... I think he has it all covered here.

 

I have some further question that might help us diagnose some potential problems.

What water source are you using? Well, City, spring, RO etc
How are you chilling after the boil? copper chiller, adding cold water, etc
Are you doing a full boil or partial?
What are you fermenting in? Bucket? Carboy? other?
Where do you get your ingredients? LHBS? Catalog?

 

If he is using American Ale 2 (Anchor strain) from Wyeast than I concur with pretty much all the prior comments about yeast. It's my favorite american ale yeast strain, but I always ferment it in my basement at about 60-64F ambient temp. I've fermented it at 68F ambient once. That yeast can really rip right through the sugar, basically spiking the temp of the fermenter. That batch was pretty much a dumper. As said, make sure you pitch yeast into cool wort (~65F or so) and ferment on the cooler end of American Ale 2 temp range and you may find it actually is a favorite as well.
Otherwise, tell him to change to nottingham or us05 yeasts. Nottingham is a favorite of the dry yeast strains.

 

Banana = Too warm of fermentation Temps. ( Unless your using Heifwiezen yeast. )

 

I think we've found the culprit! Ambient temp is not a satisfactory way to gauge fermentation temperatures. In fact, during peak fermentation, the temp inside the carboy can be much warmer than the room--I've heard people say as much as ten degrees or more. So if you get hold of a thermowell (or make one, they're pretty easy) and keep an eye on temperature, I think you'll like the results.

Yeast need oxygen, especially during the first phase of fermentation, so it's common to oxygenate or aerate the wort to promote healthy growth. It's possible that under-aeration could be stressing the yeast and causing off flavors, but I think high temperature is the more likely explanation. Regarding aeration, there are quite a number of ways of doing this, but the simplest is to agitate the wort: when I started, I did this just by pouring the cooled wort back and forth between a couple sanitized buckets before putting it into the carboy. You can also buy equipment to pump in air or pure oxygen, which is what I do now, and that's probably the best practice, and you may want to do that eventually. For the time being, you can probably get by just with agitation for most beers--ie, "smaller" than about 1.060 SG. Good luck!

 

To help solve the potential temperature issue, google swamp cooler. Just a keg tub with cool water iin it. You place your fermenter in it, cover it with a tshirt (end of shirt in water) and point a fan at it. Evaporation wicks cool water up the shirt, keeping the fermenter cooler. Worth a shot!

 

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows

Download some of these podcats and listen to them, together. You might have to search a bit for the more basic shows.

 

Is he a BA? I think you should mention yo him that he needs to get himself in the habit of reading this forum a couple hours a week. The BA homebrew forum is a very deep source for great information.

 

Controlling fermentation temp is the single aspect of brewing that most newcomers are unaware of but that has the greatest effect on beer quality. Pitch your yeast when the wort temp is several degrees cooler than where you want it to be and let it warm up slowly. Also learn to make starters and pitch twice as much yeast. If you're already using DME it's easy to set aside a cup of it to make a starter wort.

 

Youre the coolest SO for trying to figure this out for him to break it to him softly.

Edit: But yea, as with 80% of the posts here... Use enough healthy yeast and make a starter, and fermentation temperature control. You dont even need a good recipe if you follow these two items (well thats not entirely true, but you get the point). Do this, and he'll be making some good brews

 

I agree that Catlynn is ‘cool’ too but you still have to recognize that she has a strong vested interest here: she wants her “Beloved” to make ‘good’ beers so that she can enjoy drinking them. She is very smart to post her query on BA: Cheers to Catlynn!!

So that I can make a contribution to this discussion: it seems to me that fermentation temperature is the ‘issue’ here.

It has been my experience that temperature strips that you place on your fermenter provide ‘good’ temperature measurement. They are cheap/easy to use: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/fermometer.html

So, I brewed a Wit yesterday. My homebrewing area (utility room in my half basement) is a bit too warm now (ambient about 72-73°F). My preference is to ferment my Wit beers around 70°F (although 72°F would be OK). So, since fermentation is an exothermic reaction (it produces heat) I need to ‘manage’ the fermentation temperature. Right now I am able to do that by simply placing my bucket on the basement floor; the basement floor operates like a heat sink drawing the ‘excess’ heat away. I will just use the ‘floor method’ unless the fermentation temperature exceeds 72°F. If that occurs I will place my fermenter in a shallow Rubbermaid pan (about 5 inches tall) and put water in the pan. The presence of water increases the heat sink effect by cooling a couple more degrees. If I should need even more cooling I will place a towel (or a T-shirt) around the bucket for evaporative cooling. If even more cooling is needed I add a fan to the mix.

So, in summary a Fermometer plus some simple cooling techniques equals good beer.

Cheers!

 

I also agree. Keep the temperature of the wort in the fermenter in the 60's (this can be a lot higher than the ambient temperature in the room). Use a "swamp cooler" (basically just a wet T-shirt and a fan) to achieve this. And make a starter to be sure you're pitching enough healthy yeast. The Wyeast smack packs say they're ready to pitch as is, but you really need a starter to make better beer most of the time. Use this website to calculate how to make your starter.

Just two improvements and you'll be on the road to much much better beer.

Edit: OK, three improvements. Aerate the wort by shaking the carboy a ton before pitching the yeast.

 

Why don't you just brew the beer? It sounds like you're very knowledgeable and level headed. Get your own equipment and brew the beer YOU like. And who knows, maybe you guys could have a brew off and have a blind taste with friends to see which they like better.