Newbie Help Needed

[BrewYorkshire]

Hi. I'm pretty new to all this but like to experiment a bit. I think that's what got me into trouble this time! I had a load of bananas left so I thought I'd give banana beer a try. I brewed a straightforward pale. The OG should have been 1.037. I've only just started measuring this kind of thing so I wasn't too worried that the OG was 1.028. After a couple of days fermenting I added the bananas (just chopped up) into the fermenter. The airlock went absolutely crazy for 15 mins or so then settled down. At this stage the reading was1.019. Everything was fine, fermenting away happily for 5 days then it stopped with a reading of 0.014. Since then its not budged. I added some syrup to get it going again which seemed to work but still the reading hasn't budged. I have absolutely not idea what to do now as I think this means the FG is a little under 2%? Is that correct? The beer doesn't seem to have any strange smells and it tastes OK (although no banana flavour) and it is quite bitter. Any ideas on what I should do with it??

 

[Fritzpoll85]

What yeast did you pitch?

I've only seen recipes with pureed banana in the secondary but you might not have had enough banana - did you sterilise them in any way before dropping them in?

 

[BrewYorkshire]

I think I have made a silly mistake. Just moved from a hydrometer to a refractometer. I have assumed that 28 is 1.028 etc but after doing some research then I think this is Brix? If so my readings are 28 and 14 actually making it quite strong not weak? Is this correct? Sorry for being such a twit!

 

[Fritzpoll85]

Ah yes - if you are using a refractometer then the measurements are in brix, so 28 would be around 1.12 and 14 would be roughly 1.06. I think it gets a bit tricky once the alcohol production starts, because it needs adjusting for the alcohol.

What was the original grain bill out of interest?

 

[Fritzpoll85]

Incidentally, depending on your yeast, this is possibly why it has stopped - if your numbers are right, your ABV is around 7.9%

 

[BrewYorkshire]

So the grain used was 3kg ale malt, 0.5kg Vienna and 0.25 Wheat malt. I used safale yeast.

I think I'll stick to the hydrometer going forward. Also the flavour is very bitter. Will this mellow once bottled or is there something more I can do? I've read about checking the PH of the mash but its all getting a bit too complex at this stage.

Thankyou so much for your responses. Its really helpful to get help from someone who knows what they're doing!

 

[Fritzpoll85]

I'm still pretty new to AG brewing. If it was me, I'd let it sit fir a day or so and then move onto conditioning. I'm not sure why it is bitter, but that might condition out. I'd give it a try and see - worst case you have to do another brew!

The refractometer is great but a little advanced and a hydrometer might be easiest to start with.

 

[Keruso]

I'm still pretty new to AG brewing. If it was me, I'd let it sit fir a day or so and then move onto conditioning. I'm not sure why it is bitter, but that might condition out. I'd give it a try and see - worst case you have to do another brew!

The refractometer is great but a little advanced and a hydrometer might be easiest to start with.

Other thing to bear in mind is that refractometers aren't used to check fermentation gravity, only wort gravity before the yeast is pitched, alcohol distorts the reading. Hydrometers can do both. There are ways to convert the refractometer fermenation reading but ive never checked it out.