# Wyeast 1214 - Bubblegum/banana



## tiprya (9/5/12)

G'day,

I was planning on bottling my Belgian Dubbel and had a quick taste last night. I got a fairly noticable amount of bubblegum especially, and some banana.

As per BLAM, I built an appropriate starter and fermented at 18 for the first two days, then let the ferment rise naturally. It reached 22.6 at its peak then fell over a couple of days to sit at around 21 for the last week. I've fermented in primary for two weeks total and was planning to bottle.

I've heard that 1214 throws more banana than the actual Chimay yeast, but as I havn't had Chimay red, I'm not sure if the amount in my beer is normal or not, but it is quite pronounced (I've bought a bottle to compare with mine when its finished). I do remember Chimay Blue and White have a bit of banana however.

Should I leave this beer in the fermenter longer, or let it mellow in the bottle?

Cheers chaps


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## Nick JD (9/5/12)

Sounds about right. 1214 is banana.

3787 is a bit more balanced and slightly more subtle. 

Esters in 1214 don't mellow as fast like they do in the German wheat yeasts.


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## Ross (9/5/12)

Nick JD said:


> Sounds about right. 1214 is banana.
> 
> 3787 is a bit more balanced and slightly more subtle.
> 
> Esters in 1214 don't mellow as fast like they do in the German wheat yeasts.



Yep, sums it up.


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## tiprya (9/5/12)

Ok, thanks guys, I guess thats a better answer than that I'd done something wrong.

So should I bottle now and see how it goes?

And next time ferment lower or use a different yeast?


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## manticle (9/5/12)

Few times I've used 1214, I've had a reasonable amount of banana. Less so bubblegum.

Try fermenting lower but it's not a yeast I'm running back to. There are other Belgians I'd prefer.


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## Nick JD (9/5/12)

I did a hefeweizen with 1214 once. It was fantasticly banana and didn't fall on its face after a week like 3068, and best of all no sulphur, and leads me to wonder if it's not the strain Schneider use in their Weisse.

1214 in hefeweizens FTW. If Chimay made a weizen...

The other great thing about it is it doesn't want to climb out of the fermenter like 3787 (or the wheat yeasts).

Using 1214 and overpitching cold to try to eliminate banana would be easier solved by using another belgian yeast - there's craploads of them.


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