Banana Beer... Any Thoughts

[Paulielow]

I've got thirteen kilos of bananas in the freezer that's starting to bug me, so does anyone have a banana beer recipe? If your near me I'm happy to share both the workload and the beer on this one...

 

[peas_and_corn]

This thread has some good discussion.

 

[Paulielow]

Cheers that was my next stop...

Edit: no actual bananas in that one though

 

[MaltyHops]

It's an eleven page thread - the last page suggests some brews discussed
did use bananas.

 

[winkle]

Ross has brewed this a few times, linky which is pretty damm tasty - I'll have to brew a batch once all the bunches around the house start ripening (bastards do it all the same time). Wife has instructed me to brew it for her, which is something that doesn't happen every day .

Edit: porkspin free - beat you Ross

 

[Ross]

This one took out champion fruit beer & 2nd Best of Show in the Qld State Championships

Banana Amber

Cheers Ross

 

[Paulielow]

It's an eleven page thread - the last page suggests some brews discussed
did use bananas.

I only got to page three....I'll try again

 

[Paulielow]

This one took out champion fruit beer & 2nd Best of Show in the Qld State Championships

Banana Amber

Cheers Ross

Thanks Ross but that's way to advanced for me I'm still an extract noob at the moment...

 

[bconnery]

Thanks Ross but that's way to advanced for me I'm still an extract noob at the moment...

You could make a go of that beer with extract, as long as you were comfortable steeping grains. Just replace the ale malt and munich with extract (there's info around the place on how to calculate how much) and steep the rest.

 

[Paulielow]

I haven't tried steeping grains yet as I don't have a thermometer atm, but I've got a tin of roasted dark malt, a tin of caramalt, 500g of LDME, some dextrose and about 50g fuggles pellets. So depending on the srm added by the bananas I might try a Belgian strong ale using some t-58 I've got in the fridge.....

 

[brucearnold]

This one took out champion fruit beer & 2nd Best of Show in the Qld State Championships

Banana Amber

Cheers Ross

:icon_offtopic: Ross, what is this Aroma - hop steep that you talk of? Is this just a tea pot with hops that eats drained into the fermenter?

 

[Ross]

hops added after flame out & steeped for 20 mins.

cheers Ross

 

[brucearnold]

hops added after flame out & steeped for 20 mins.

cheers Ross

Thanks... Thought with the large buckets of hops at 15 and 5 you were doing something different to 0min hops.

 

[Paulielow]

Ok so I think I've got a handle on this I'm gonna put 8kg in my brew pot and mash them then add enough water to cover bring to the boil then cover and leave to sit for an hour to extract the sugars, if I'm doing a 20L batch this should give me a SG OF 1.022 then since I don't have a free space to put it yet I'll add some gelatine and stick it in the fridge until next week to drop all the sediment and ***** out of it then strain it off as gently as I can and use this with my tin of dark roasted malt for a boil using 10g each of hallertau and saaz at 60min and 10g of hallertau at 30min then add another tin of extract, 500g of LDME and a whirlfloc tab at 15 and pitch some t-58 onto it and leave it alone for a few weeks. Should have a an SG of about 1.080 and if I can get it down to 1.018 it should be about 9%.....

 

[Ross]

Ok so I think I've got a handle on this I'm gonna put 8kg in my brew pot and mash them then add enough water to cover bring to the boil then cover and leave to sit for an hour to extract the sugars, if I'm doing a 20L batch this should give me a SG OF 1.022 then since I don't have a free space to put it yet I'll add some gelatine and stick it in the fridge until next week to drop all the sediment and ***** out of it then strain it off as gently as I can and use this with my tin of dark roasted malt for a boil using 10g each of hallertau and saaz at 60min and 10g of hallertau at 30min then add another tin of extract, 500g of LDME and a whirlfloc tab at 15 and pitch some t-58 onto it and leave it alone for a few weeks. Should have a an SG of about 1.080 and if I can get it down to 1.018 it should be about 9%.....

No...... you are better off fermenting out the beer you want to add the fruit to & then racking the finished beer straight on to the unfrozen fruit, no need for boiling.


Cheers ross

 

[Paulielow]

No...... you are better off fermenting out the beer you want to add the fruit to & then racking the finished beer straight on to the unfrozen fruit, no need for boiling.


Cheers ross

Too late I just put it on the stove with 8L waters...... :unsure: have I just wasted it or would my original idea work?

 

[katzke]

If it were me, I would make beer and use the bananas for bread and cut a bunch up to dry as chips. Banana pancakes are also good as well as muffins.

Making chips is a good way to justify a food dryer as well as a vacuum sealer for hops.

You do not need to grow hops to need a sealer. Just buy large quantities and repack them. The dryer also works for drying spent grain for use in dog snacks and grinding up for use in home made bread. That one will cost you a flower mill for making flour (no good for brewing). I guess you could use a blender as you only need a small amount for making bread.

Vacuum sealers are also good for repackaging bulk meat and other things.

 

[Edak]

From what I have read, and wb06 yeast gets very bananary if you brew at its higher temp limits

 

[Ross]

Too late I just put it on the stove with 8L waters...... :unsure: have I just wasted it or would my original idea work?

You wont extract the sugars boiling, you'll need to throw everything in your brew. I don't like the results as much boiling the bananas (I've tried both ways), but it should hopefully still be ok.

Cheers Ross

 

[Paulielow]

You wont extract the sugars boiling, you'll need to throw everything in your brew. I don't like the results as much boiling the bananas (I've tried both ways), but it should hopefully still be ok.

Cheers Ross

I wasn't going to boil it I was just going to bring it to the boil and then cover it to do a mash

 

[dannbrew]

for what my opinion is worth (probably nothing), I did an extract of a banana/vanilla stout back in January 2011. All I did was dice, blend and boil my bananas (whatever your amount of bananas is) in about 2L of water for about 10 mins. I then did my normal extract brewing as normal. It turned out to be a great beer for an extract, with a hint of vanilla. It was simply really good.

 

[Paulielow]

for what my opinion is worth (probably nothing), I did an extract of a banana/vanilla stout back in January 2011. All I did was dice, blend and boil my bananas (whatever your amount of bananas is) in about 2L of water for about 10 mins. I then did my normal extract brewing as normal. It turned out to be a great beer for an extract, with a hint of vanilla. It was simply really good.

So you used the water from the bananas to do your boil, is that right? I know it probably wouldn't effect a stout but did you notice any pectin haze from the bananas...

 

[MaltyHops]

Too late I just put it on the stove with 8L waters...... :unsure: have I just wasted it or
would my original idea work?

Somewhere in Africa, a devastated troupe of monkeys are weeping uncontrollably.

 

[dannbrew]

So you used the water from the bananas to do your boil, is that right? I know it probably wouldn't effect a stout but did you notice any pectin haze from the bananas...

Almost, Paulielow. In a separate pot I just boiled the B's for 10 mins, and then just dumped the whole lot in another pot that had the malt extract (and whatever else) in it - then in the fermenter it went to, well, ferment.

As for the haze, I sure did see that. My personal preference was that I didn't care too much about the haze. I had suspected it would do it but didn't know to what extent. I just let it be. What I "may" do differently in the future is once fermented, I'd rack it into secondary for 3-4 days so it can settle to the bottom of the fermenter - then bottle. Not sure if that'd help the haze but it wouldn't hurt, I suppose.

As a side note, I've done a lot of extract brews with fruit (pears, peaches, watermelon, mango) and that pretty much has that same haze you mentioned. Maybe there are other brewers out there more knowledgeable than I that can shed some lessons on how to get lessen the impact of that haze has from additions like banana. Hope that helps?

 

[Paulielow]

Ok as it turns out if you boil bananas then refridgerate them the pectin coagulates and forms clumps... I suppose its better to happen now than when I put it in beer. I got 10L of liquid from this with an SG of 1.060 so if I add another 10L water I should get an SG of 1.030, is this how it works.... Then I should be able to strain of the pectin clumps and hopefully avoid the pectin haze....

 

[freezkat]

Somewhere in Africa, a devastated troupe of monkeys are weeping uncontrollably.

They go ape for the banana beer at the zoo's commissary. They say it's flavor has a wide a-peel




Hey you asked "any thoughts?" I couldn't hold it any longer