Chocolate Banana Stout - Adding the Bananas

I'm in the process of creating a chocolate banana stout. The recipe is just a typical chocolate stout, which I will add puréed bananas to within the next few days. The fermentation is pretty much done at this point.

I have two fermentation vessels: a 6.5g bucket and a 6.5g glass carboy. The beer is currently in the 6.5g bucket, and I'm considering racking to the carboy as a secondary on top of the banana purée. I expect a second round of fermentation from the bananas. Will prolonged contact with the banana cause any issues? If so, I could banana in the primary and condition in the carboy. Also wondering if I should repitch some of the yeast I could gather from the trub if I use the carboy for a banana secondary.

Any thoughts?

The recipe:

9 lbs Maris Otter
1 lbs Crystal 80L
0.75 lbs Chocolate Malt (350 SRM)
0.5 lbs Roasted Barley (300 SRM)

Hops: 1.5 oz EKG (5%) @ 60 minutes

0.5 lbs Cocoa Powder @ flameout
1 lbs Lactose @ flameout

10-15 bananas sanitized with vodka and puréed into the secondary.

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If you search for it you will find your answer. Many people have racked onto frozen bananas with great results. I think Yoopers also did a banana wine which might be sort of helpful. I say rack onto frozen ripe bananas and let it go until it tastes amazing.

What yeast did you use? I'd be curious to what a Hefeweizen or Bavarian Wheat Ale yeast would do for banana flavor instead of just adding bananas.

This sounds delicious...

This sounds really good. I'm curious about the yeast as well.

zmanzorro said:

What yeast did you use? I'd be curious to what a Hefeweizen or Bavarian Wheat Ale yeast would do for banana flavor instead of just adding bananas.

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I was thinking the same thing, or maybe doing both.

At any rate, this sounds tasty. Looking forward to hearing how it goes.

I used WLP005. I considered using hefe yeast, but for my first attempt at this beer, I wanted to avoid the possibility of the hefe yeast throwing cloves as well as the banana. I will document the banana-ing process for the forum here. Didn't take much pictures of brew day, as it's a fairly straightforward stout.

Sub. Looking forward to the results!

just curious, did you rack onto frozen bananas? how'd it come out?

I actually pureed the bananas before adding them to the fermenter after primary fermentation was mostly done. It seems like the WLP005 I used went dormant or something, as it never really fermented the bananas and when I bottled it, the carbonation never really showed up. The banana, having not fermented kinda went stale. It wasn't terribly good beer. I've put away a 12 pack to cellar for a while and see if it improves. I think if I do it again, I'd use a different yeast.