Taming The Wlp300 Banana

[Julez]

Only up to 1992 though, unless your book is a later revision.

Still a great book! Includes recipes and mash schedules too.

I got a copy of Warner's book only a couple of months ago, and '92 was the last publishing date. It is a good book though.

I've tried a few commercial hefes lately and continue to be dissapointed. All well within their best before dates, I found Erdinger tasteless, Shofferhofer too bananary and Weihenstephaner seemed to be somewhere in the middle, was def. the best of the bunch IMHO, better balanced. If you are basing your fermentation temps on commercial examples, I can see why people would be aiming for higher temps to accentuate the banana/estery characteristics. I wonder whether the phenolic/spicy character can be better produced on a homebrew level and whether its presence has a strong correlation with freshness. The commercial examples I have been trying have been lacking in flavour, that's for sure, hence stands to reason why people go more for banana - at least that's more enjoyable than something watery and tasteless.

Nevertheless, I'm still gunning for the 12/18 rule at home, and hoping my next hefe brew will have decent spicy/clove character and subtle banana/bubblegum. But I guess this is all relative to the yeast strain used and the mash schedule too (i.e. ferulic acid and protein rests, etc).

 

[bayWeiss]

Maybe try WLP380 instead... I am a former wlp300 pitcher, but, I have found i can get more complex/spicy flavors out of the WLP380. I also do a rest around 105F (40C), then do a normal sacc rest after that.

 

[mattwest]

Another option when too much banana - just change the style!