Banana Beer

[bum]

so I've got myself a 800ml can of pear juice and I'm going to put that in one of them and ferment cool to see what happens :icon_cheers:

Cider?

 

[muckanic]

There's a reasonable chance the African brew would be using plantain bananas for the starch.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Katie =

Traditional African beer brewed with bananas is called (in at least one part of Africa anyway) Mbege and is made with very ripe bananas or plantains.

There is a brewery in the states that brews one commercially http://www.sprecherbrewery.com/beer.php?cat=5

and they also have another version of an African beer made with corn and millet.

Here is the only other real info I was able to dig up on Mbege - I was researching this a bit a few nights ago.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art52705.asp

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/africa...eservers/107734

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=VKlHKI...lt&resnum=3
I would appreciate info on any other traditional African styles people have managed to dig up or have tried to make. I.\'ve been doing a little poking about - and it seems that the africans have it all over us and the americans and indeed everybody else out there on the home brewing front - there is probably more volume of beer brewed in the home there than in commercial breweries. Households are brewing up to seven times a week on average... and it is invariably one of the top few forms of household income

http://www.hedon.info/BrewingRuralBeerShouldBeAHotterIssue

Hope the Mbege info helps

Thirsty

 

[Weizguy]

That was mighty.
Bright pink, too.

I wonder if they would like to share that recipe with me.

I read a recipe from years back where someone used Apple lollies for a Lambic.

FWIW, the lambic was Steve Piatz's Jolly Rancher Apple lambic here

beerz,
Les

 

[Katherine]

Thanks Thirsty I had come across some of those sites.....

I found this interesting....

Bananas are harvested and placed over the fireplace or in the ceiling of traditional Chagga huts where the temperature is high enough to speed the ripening. When they are ripe, usually after 5-7 days, the fruits are peeled and boiled in water until the mixture turns reddish brown. The level of browning is based on the person's preference with regard to the final product. After boiling, the mixture is allowed to cool before transferring to a plastic, earthen pot, or wooden container, where it is incubated for 4-5 days. The mash is mixed with more water and filtered through a bed of savannah grass and ferns on a bed of broad banana leaves mounted on a slopping trough. The filtrate is left for some hours prior to the inoculation with malted millet ('mbege') flour, hence its name 'mbege'

This is the exact beer my friend is after, Im not really up to brewing it. So Ive decided to do a amber ale Ill do a double batch so I can have the amber ale and I will put the bananas in his fermenter. Now I was going to blitz the banana in a food processor but was also thinking about cooking it. Any suggestions. And remember I dont have a thatched roof...

And thank you again.

 

[muckanic]

Here is the only other real info I was able to dig up on Mbege - I was researching this a bit a few nights ago.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art52705.asp

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/africa...eservers/107734

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=VKlHKI...lt&resnum=3
I would appreciate info on any other traditional African styles people have managed to dig up or have tried to make.

There's quite a bit of info around on African sorghum beer, eg, http://www.ianr.unl.edu/INTSORMIL/sm2007%2...m%20beer%20.pdf. Tannin levels seem to be a bit of a problem, although I don't recall Millet Man's gluten-free docs having much to say about that. It is interesting with those Mbege articles that the malted millet seems to be boiled, which would presumably deactivate the enzymes. I wonder if any of those wild microbes have an amylase capability? The articles also suggest that the microbes drop in from above rather than being derived from either the fruit or the grain. They could have their wires a bit crossed there, I suspect, or they have overlooked that some sort of ferment starter is being used.

 

[Ross]

So Ive decided to do a amber ale Ill do a double batch so I can have the amber ale and I will put the bananas in his fermenter. Now I was going to blitz the banana in a food processor but was also thinking about cooking it. Any suggestions. And remember I dont have a thatched roof...

And thank you again.

Katie,

I freeze the whole bananas (peeled) in plastic bags - When you defrost them, they will be half liquid & easy for the yeast to munch on. I droped straight into secondary, but they make so much mess (pulp) I'd be more inclined to put them in a Hop/grain bag.

cheers Ross

 

[Katherine]

Katie,

I freeze the whole bananas (peeled) in plastic bags - When you defrost them, they will be half liquid & easy for the yeast to munch on. I droped straight into secondary, but they make so much mess (pulp) I'd be more inclined to put them in a Hop/grain bag.

cheers Ross

Thanks Ross... that is what I will do. :icon_cheers:

 

[Millet Man]

There's quite a bit of info around on African sorghum beer, eg, http://www.ianr.unl.edu/INTSORMIL/sm2007%2...m%20beer%20.pdf. Tannin levels seem to be a bit of a problem, although I don't recall Millet Man's gluten-free docs having much to say about that. It is interesting with those Mbege articles that the malted millet seems to be boiled, which would presumably deactivate the enzymes. I wonder if any of those wild microbes have an amylase capability? The articles also suggest that the microbes drop in from above rather than being derived from either the fruit or the grain. They could have their wires a bit crossed there, I suspect, or they have overlooked that some sort of ferment starter is being used.

One of the local bottle shops has Wells Banana Bread beer so might have to have a taste!

:icon_offtopic: Australian grown white sorghum is tannin free (I think nearly all oz sorghums are) so we don't have to worry about tannin extraction. I have a heap of articles on traditional African sorghum/corn/millet beers and IIRC part of the mash is boiled and then malted grain is added to it to create a sour mash / live ferment. The beer is typically low alc and drunk fresh while still cloudy/grainy - probably why they brew so often as it does not keep well. Fermentis actually have a yeast for traditional African beer but not available here AFAIK.

Cheers, Andrew.

 

[muckanic]

Australian grown white sorghum is tannin free (I think nearly all oz sorghums are) so we don't have to worry about tannin extraction.

Well, assuming the colour literally means what it says, my local farm supplier only had some red stuff for me to play with. Also known as milo. Actually, wasn't Red Sorghum a movie? I can't remember whether it was beer-related.

But back on topic. Bananas are known for their beta-amylase content. I wonder if any of these African techniques use bananas to dry the brew out? Presumably not if they're boiled.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

There's quite a bit of info around on African sorghum beer, eg, http://www.ianr.unl.edu/INTSORMIL/sm2007%2...m%20beer%20.pdf. Tannin levels seem to be a bit of a problem, although I don't recall Millet Man's gluten-free docs having much to say about that. It is interesting with those Mbege articles that the malted millet seems to be boiled, which would presumably deactivate the enzymes. I wonder if any of those wild microbes have an amylase capability? The articles also suggest that the microbes drop in from above rather than being derived from either the fruit or the grain. They could have their wires a bit crossed there, I suspect, or they have overlooked that some sort of ferment starter is being used.

I suspect you are right - those articles are written by interested observers not brewers. I suspect there are a few gaps. Mind you I would be surprised if there weren't starch degrading enzymes in bananas - plantains especially are quite starchy and that starch has to get turned into sugar of some description to provide energy for a growing plant.

Maybe that's an interesting way to get around the need for malted grains... althougha few articles do mention the use of malted millet - at low temperatures, but it still gets used.

There really is quite a lot going on with sorghum brewing in africa at the moment - the recent IBD africa conference had quite a few talks etc about it IIRC. Check the IBD website and the journal of brewing. The IBD is probably the leading association for african brewers - so they are quite involved.

But most of that stuff is about brewing modern type beers with local ingredients ... I'm interested in brewing the traditional articles - and/or tweaks of them to bring them "slightly" closer to western beers, but still retain a decent portion of the original character.

c'mon Katie - surely you can find some straw, bracken and banana leaves - or a nice BIAB bag in a pinch

 

[Thirsty Boy]

There you go - a bit of poking on te internet and I discover that...

Banana starches are mostly broken down by phosphorylases - resulting in the sugar fractions being prediminanly sucrose, fructose and glucose .... but both alpha amylase, beta amylase, alpha 1,4 and alpha 1,6 Glucosidase - are present in the fruit and importantly, the levels of those enzymes increase as the fruit becomes more ripe.... so hanging those fruit up under the roof till they turn black increases the level of enzymes that we know are good for breaking down cereal starches.

plantains being somewhat more enzymatically active (starch breakdown enzymes) than bananas

Interesting - I might do a little experiment with some oatmeal and a ripe banana ... see what sort of conversion and extraction I can get.

TB

 

[chappo1970]

I could get interested in this.

 

[crundle]

Just wondering what Ross' recipe tastes like when it is done, this sounds like a beer to try, it has got my interest also!

Crundle

 

[Ross]

Which one Crundle - The Banana Amber or the Bananabread Bitter?


cheers Ross

 

[crundle]

Which one Crundle - The Banana Amber or the Bananabread Bitter?


cheers Ross

They both sound great Ross, I am tending towards giving the Banana Amber a try first though.

I love this forum, I would have never thought of making a banana beer otherwise!

Crundle

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I've got me a banana in a paer bag right now - hopefuly nice and brown/black in a couple of days.

The plan is to mill some wheat flour and rolled oats (the only "raw" cereal I have on hand) and mash them at room temperature for half a day or so, with 3/4s of the ripe banana - raise to 62 stir and & hold at that temp for a while and then let it cool down and sit overnight.

The next day I will boil the mixture for a while to develop the colours and flavours - then when the mash has cooled down room temp or so - mix in the remaining banana portion and a wild yeast culture I have on hand (bit of yeast, bit of souring bacteria.. not sure what - I found it at the bottom of a bucket...) and let the remaining amylases and the culture work on the rest of it together.

I'll shoot for a 1.050 is gravity and only filter the mash (100micron filter cloth) after fermentation is done. Then bottle and prime and see what it comes out like.

Maybe - I will get a malted grain free "beer" - maybe (not likely though) it will even be palatable

TB

 

[bconnery]

I could get interested in this.

Well it is a thread on AHB Chappo

 

[scoundrel]

Actually, wasn't Red Sorghum a movie?

red sorghum is the sreet name for high end cocaine.

 

[Katherine]

Ive decided to do the Banana bread bitter. Though a little scared at having 19 litres of it on tap. HA!

Thirsty whats happening with your nanna's?