Banana wine with some vanilla...?

Pbh187 · 05-02-2009, 06:04 AM

So I started a banana wine about a month ago.

~12 pounds Dole organic bananas (on sale because of a few brown spots)
Bananas were prepared like YooperBrew's recipe but scaled up to 3 gallons with a couple of extra pints of water added. This filled up my 4.5 gallon SS brewpot.
5 pounds plus 2 and 1/2 cups sugar

3 tsp Yeast nutrient (DAP)
3 tsp acid blend (citric, malic, tartaric)
1/2 tsp tannin

1 packet (5 grams) Red Star's Montrachet

Water up to 3 gallons

After one month....

Smells like banana liquor but tastes like a bitter green banana. Went from 1.099 to below .990 in two weeks. Then added sparkloid after a month in primary. Its pretty clear but not all the way there since the clarifying agent was only added about 12 days ago.

In the end my real question.....

I want to age this for a month or 6 with some vanilla beans then back sweeten. What quantity of vanilla beans do people use (if they do) in this type of situation? If anything I could make my own vanilla extract and fortify the wine with it.

Any ideas/tips/brainstorming would be appreciated

**PintOfBitter** · 05-02-2009, 01:42 PM

i've bought madagascar vanilla beans on ebay by the pound a few times - vanillaproductsusa was the seller i think - and done some experimentation. you're probably fine using beans in secondary, just split them down the middle. I'd use 1 or 2, but you could use more and just rack it off the beans when there's enough flavor.

EoinMag · 05-03-2009, 12:30 PM

I have a banana wine there at the moment that is clearing in secondary with some raisin additions, it's lacking in body I find, I might have to add some tannin to it shortly for a bit more bite.
Mine is about three months old now but I think it'll take a lot more before it becomes something that's nice to drink.