Bananas and Stale Beer?

General Homebrew Discussion
1

Ok, so this has been bugging me for a while. Many times, with stale but not totally oxidized beer (it doesn’t taste like cardboard or sherry yet) I get a definite banana flavor.

I find it’s more common in pale lagers, but I do get the same thing from some ales, SNPA being a definite one.

Anyone else ever get this? Or am I just mis-identifying another flavor? We aren’t talking Weißbier levels of banana, just kinda enough to know it’s there.

2

In a beer that’s supposed to be hoppy that isn’t fresh or is improperly stored I get a more general fruity sweetness sometimes. I could see this presenting as mild banana for sure. I chalk it up to loss of hops aroma through oxidation unmasking a combination of not perfectly clean fermentation and specialty malts coming to the forefront. I once had a Bell’s Two-day Hearted that someone brought me from the Midwest that had this.