bubbachunk

Recipes 

I started today and took pics, hope you enjoy.

I adapted my recipe from one yooper posted that was just banana wine, link here. My process was the same oh bringing the bananas to a boil and then simmering for 30 minutes. Cool water was added then honey and the bags squeezed for liqour. I just dosed it with campden and will use D-47.
18.5 lbs Very ripe bananas
11lb generic store bought honey
3 handfuls of golden raisins (its all I had around)
Water to 5.5 gallons
Brix=23 SG=1.096

Here are the bananas thawed in the bag


Them in the pot of water heating up


Finally them cooling down after the simmer


I will update with pics hopefully tomorrow of when I pitch the yeast and as this moves along.

jaxn

Recipes 

Mmmmmm..... looks fanstastic. I might have to try something similar in a 1 gallon batch.

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bubbachunk

Recipes 

Thanks, I racked it tonight but forgot to take a taste. SG=1.000 after only 12 days!

bubbachunk

Recipes 

Going to bump this, plan on bottling this today. Nearly two years old!

bubbachunk

Recipes 

The banana is very faint imo at first taste but wow is this stuff silky smooth.

bubbachunk

Recipes 

Shot of the finished product minus the wax:

runningweird

Recipes 

looks great, I always thought banana was a no no when it came to fermenting.

beautiful color too.

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fatbloke

Recipes 

Yes, I agree, it does look excellent in the bottle like that.

As for banana being a no-no, well it would seem that the best way to use it is, indeed to boil the fruit i.e. just chop them into chunks, skin and all, then bring to boil and simmer for 15 or 20 minutes. Then just let it cool, before straining the fruit debris out and the pulp can be squeezed for the remaining liquid.

Then it's the liquid that's fermented.

I'm not sure if that technique is to do with just extracting the flavour, or whether it's converting the starches in banana so that they don't cause hazing problems (which would require amylase to get rid of).

But as a no-no ? Definitely not. I had 2 pints of Wells Banana Bread beer with my evening meal yesterday. It was delightful.........

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Oh, and here's some blog stuff!

bigbeergeek

Recipes 

Nifty. Why include the skin?

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Insomniac

Recipes 

Wow, good to see its come out ok! I remember using this thread as insperation for my own attempt at this. I decided to age mine in the bottle so is rather untested but I had a small amount left over after bottling that I kept in the fridge under a vaccuvin wine saver. The banana has just about come back, though as you said its subtle, more like an after taste, but its still not smooth yet. That said it did ferment quite warm so I'm expecting it to need lots of aging!