Questions after fermenter overflow

[protodad]

First time posting but I have lurked for a while now.

This is my second batch of beer that I bought from the LHBS. It was a brewers best cream ale kit. Problem is, it had a very aggressive fermentation and it completely blew out the airlock and stopper (day 2). Long story short, my wife drove out of town (local shop was closed) and got the parts to create a overflow tube into another container. Everything seemed fine and I transferred it to a second carboy on day 7. There was a smell of bananas in the beer (ester right?). Now, three days later, the beer seems far darker than I would expect (amber instead of cream). It smells fine as far as I can tell (I am trying not to mess with it) and there is still a pretty thick (3/4 in) layer of trub at the bottom.

Are any of these major indicators of a botched batch? I plan to at least let it sit another 7 days but I am wondering if I should bother.

 

[Hex23]

The darkness is probably from two things, neither of which means you did anything wrong. 1) When in a large vessel, the beer will appear significantly darker than in a thin glass. 2) If your recipe uses LME, it makes it hard to get a truely straw or blond color out of a beer.

Definitely let it sit longer in secondary. Sounds like you might still have a decent bit of yeast in secondary, which should help in bulk conditioning, diminishing any young or off flavors. I'd say let it go at least another week or two. Let taste be your guide.

 

[airdog_47]

First time posting but I have lurked for a while now.

This is my second batch of beer that I bought from the LHBS. It was a brewers best cream ale kit. Problem is, it had a very aggressive fermentation and it completely blew out the airlock and stopper (day 2). Long story short, my wife drove out of town (local shop was closed) and got the parts to create a overflow tube into another container. Everything seemed fine and I transferred it to a second carboy on day 7. There was a smell of bananas in the beer (ester right?). Now, three days later, the beer seems far darker than I would expect (amber instead of cream). It smells fine as far as I can tell (I am trying not to mess with it) and there is still a pretty thick (3/4 in) layer of trub at the bottom.

Are any of these major indicators of a botched batch? I plan to at least let it sit another 7 days but I am wondering if I should bother.

Throw some strawberries in it. Call it Berries and Bananas. Check your ferment temps. Stay below 70. Too Hot will start it again! With off flavors. Sorry, done it before it sucks but lessons learned.

 

[kh54s10]

As far as the color, in the fermenter you are looking through a lot of liquid. When it is in a glass it will be a lot lighter. If you are doing extract, they tend to come out a little darker than commercial or all grain. It is nothing to really worry about though.

Forget about any timetable and ferment your beers to gravity or longer. I and many others feel that after fermentation has finished the yeast will still be at work cleaning up off flavors that are naturally created during fermentation. It will also clear some more given more time.

I start every fermentation with a blow off tube installed. You never know how vigorous a fermentation will be. Temperature control of the fermentation will also control the amount of krausen and the flavor of the beer. Low to mid sixties, wort temperature - not ambient, is best for most ale yeasts.

 

[protodad]

Wow, many thanks for the fast replies. The recipe did use LME whereas my first brew did not. I will let it sit and post on the result.