Banana Wine

Please forgive my lazy drunken self... I even searched though the thread for "yeast" but couldnt find if anyone had done experiments with this recipe to find if one yeast works better than another. If I'm gonna wait for 2 years I'd really like to have the best possible results ;]

If nobody has done this maybe ill do a split batch for science.

rowan57 said:

With the 5 Gal fermenter I would be able to manage the headspace appropriately. Appreciate that BetterBottles are popular (none of the places mentioned I think actually sell 'The BetterBottle', they all sell a UK version) but they are also very expensive at around ⅔ the price of new Glass.

That being said, can I use my fermenter? I do I need to take the plunge and buy glass? Bearing in mind that the Banana wine may need a good bit of ageing in the secondary.

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I personally wouldn't age in plastic. It's fine for short term storage, but everything I've had to leave in plastic has gotten "cardboard" flavor after a while. Over about a year, that tends to turn to a "dish soap" flavor.

Leadgolem said:

I personally wouldn't age in plastic. It's fine for short term storage, but everything I've had to leave in plastic has gotten "cardboard" flavor after a while. Over about a year, that tends to turn to a "dish soap" flavor.

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You're not using better bottles then. Long term aging in BBs is fine. I have several beers approaching a year in them with no off flavors.

TNGabe said:

You're not using better bottles then. Long term aging in BBs is fine. I have several beers approaching a year in them with no off flavors.

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I recently bulk-aged a mead in a Better Bottle for a year, and it was magnificent tasting. No worries with the BB.

Leadgolem said:

I personally wouldn't age in plastic. It's fine for short term storage, but everything I've had to leave in plastic has gotten "cardboard" flavor after a while. Over about a year, that tends to turn to a "dish soap" flavor.

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Thanks! Took the plunge and bought a 5 Gal glass Carboy.

Happy fermenting in your new glass carboy. Now get that banana wine going and get it in there. Better Bottles work fine too. The PETG is very inert.

Thanks! The PET bottles are still ⅔ the price of glass so may as well go with glass overall.

On another topic, YEAST.

I have Gervins GV10, GV5 & Lalvin EC-1118, whaddya reckon?

My plan was always Lalvin EC-1118 or Red Star Premier Cuvee (Prise de Mousse). All the best!

TNGabe said:

You're not using better bottles then. Long term aging in BBs is fine. I have several beers approaching a year in them with no off flavors.

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True. PET bottle, but not a BB.

I now have 5 Gal bubbling away nicely in my new Carboy (using EC-1118) and a further 1 Gal in a 1 Gal Demijohn for topping up etc. It is clearing very nicely, I used 1kg muscavado sugar and the clearing wine is a Rosé colour. A couple of accidental gluts yesterday when siphoning from the ale pails and it tastes good.

I'm going to give this another go this weekend. Got a little too excited when I tried this a month or so ago and found that if you don't really let the banana ripen, your OG will be really low. So, I have a session banana coming... Lol. I've been watching the latest batch of bananas and they may be ready to freeze in a few more days.

Did a 2 gallon batch this weekend and waited until all the bananas were really ripe or black. SG 1.107 and I actually ended up with a little too much volume at about 2 1/3 gallons. Smelled great after the boil!

Question on the tannin addition, is there a difference between grape tannin and regular tannin? The lhbs had both, the regular was powder form and grape was liquid.

Is the recipe on the first page the correct amount of liquid grape tannin? Or is it for the powder form?

Stovetop535 said:

Question on the tannin addition, is there a difference between grape tannin and regular tannin? The lhbs had both, the regular was powder form and grape was liquid.

Is the recipe on the first page the correct amount of liquid grape tannin? Or is it for the powder form?

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I always used powdered tannin.

OK. I bought the liquid version since the liquid version said grape. I wonder how much liquid is needed to equal powder.

I think I'm going to give this another try. Last time it turned out horrible, my error of course.

Wow, what a difference in this batch. Smelled absolutely fantastic vs the first one. The fermentation is incredible with the champagne yeast too. I can't wait to see how this turns out.

This is bad ass I was waiting for a good 'nana run thanks AGAIN Yoop

Not sure if this was addressed or not, but has anyone oaked this wine?

Just made a batch of this! My second attempt. The first got messed up by yours truly. I followed the recipe with a couple of minor changes: the bananas came out around 4lb vice 3 1/2lb, and I saw somewhere else that you can use the white grape concentrate to add body in place of the raisins. Other than that, followed to a 't'. It was all mixed up less than a half hour ago and the yeast are already rockin'!

1st full day in primary. Smells god awful at the moment. I didn't notice that I picked up a different yeast than I intended until I got home. I'm sure it'll still turn out fine.

Wow, last night I tasted the lower gravity banana batch and it was already drinkable. I can't wait to taste the second batch.

Thanks Yooper!

I was supposed to have racked mine this weekend. No time!!!!!!!!!!

Yooper said:

I always used powdered tannin.

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Can I just use a cup of green tea instead for tannins?

Also, to make 5 gallons, would you use 17.5 lbs of bananas and 10lb sugar, or adjust it a little different?

I'm thinking about making this soon. Someone just sent me a bottle of banana wine and it was pretty good.

Thanks to Yooper for the recipe, I was inspired to brew a banana beer this weekend (4gal batch, 15lbs bananas with 4.5lbs 2-row and mild hopping for an SG of 1.072 and 21 IBUs). I'll post a recipe if it turns out to be drinkable.

DavidSteel said:

I see, maybe I'll throw some more in next time

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Just to clarify, pectic enzyme should be added at temperatures below 130 F to avoid denaturing the enzyme (Morebeer says 150F, but that is really on the high end for most enzymes), so don't be adding it to your boil (boiling will denature all enzymes). I recommend boiling a few ounces of water for 5 min in the microwave to sterilize it, then dissolving pectic enzyme in the water when the temp is below 130. You can then add this to your cooling mash or to a fermenter prior to racking. Pectic enzyme works slowly at room temp but that should not be a problem as banana wine has to sit for a long time.

I wonder if banana beer or wine made using only the flesh of the fruit would contain less pectin since it appears that much of the pectin is contained within the banana peel. I used only banana flesh in my beer as I was looking for the maximum amount of fermentables. Is there any reason to use the peels if you have a sufficient amount of flesh?

jflongo said:

Can I just use a cup of green tea instead for tannins?

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tannins compounds present in plant material and are extracted at high temperatures, so yes, adding green tea would add tannins, but you'd also be adding green tea flavor. I don't think green tea and banana go together well. It would also take a LOT of green tea to equal the amount of tannins you'd get from even a very small dose of the concentrated tannin powder available at your local homebrew shop.

Oaking is another way of adding tannins and I wonder if a medium toast French oak would impart some nice tannin and vanilla flavors to a banana wine. I may try this in my banana beer.

ten80 said:

tannins compounds present in plant material and are extracted at high temperatures, so yes, adding green tea would add tannins, but you'd also be adding green tea flavor. I don't think green tea and banana go together well. It would also take a LOT of green tea to equal the amount of tannins you'd get from even a very small dose of the concentrated tannin powder available at your local homebrew shop.

Oaking is another way of adding tannins and I wonder if a medium toast French oak would impart some nice tannin and vanilla flavors to a banana wine. I may try this in my banana beer.

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I'll grab some powder next time I'm there then. The only wood chips I have are apple and hickory that I smoke meat with.

Does anyone know how much liquid tannin is equivalent to powder tannin? I purchased a small, 2 oz container of liquid at my lhbs. I can go back and get powder if I need to, but I would rather use the liquid that I have on hand. A quick google search suggested 4tsp of liquid equals 1/2 to 1 tsp of powder, but the sources said this was their "best guess". Anyone have a more accurate idea?

jflongo said:

Can I just use a cup of green tea instead for tannins?

Also, to make 5 gallons, would you use 17.5 lbs of bananas and 10lb sugar, or adjust it a little different?

I'm thinking about making this soon. Someone just sent me a bottle of banana wine and it was pretty good.

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Well it took me awhile, so I read through the majority of these posts.

I'm going to go ahead and use about 18 lbs of bananas and 10lbs of sugar.

Now as far as yeast nutrient goes, is there a reason you guys don't add this right after you pull the bag out, to sanitize the nutrient? Or is that not necessary? When making beer, we always add it at the end of the boil.

Stovetop, liquid tannin is much easier to dose than powdered because you can add in a few drops to a half-pint or so till it tastes about right, then scale up the dose for your fermenter. I have used powdered tannins and found them to be a pain to dose because they were difficult to dissolve.

jflongo, powdered yeast nutrient is extremely dry and bacteria should not be able to survive in it unless you have added moisture, but it is always best to add the nutrient near the end of the boil to both sterilize it and make sure it dissolves fully.

I just started a 1 gallon batch. I'm using Lalvin 71B yeast. My OG came out to 1.110. I can't wait to see how this turns out! It's going to take a lot of patience on my part.

karmabrew said:

I just started a 1 gallon batch. I'm using Lalvin 71B yeast. My OG came out to 1.110. I can't wait to see how this turns out! It's going to take a lot of patience on my part.

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Yep, that' why I'm going to make a 6 gallon batch of this. I figure if it takes a ton of patience, I would rather have 30 bottles, than just 5 or 6.

So I made a bunch of this yesterday, 15 gallons actually. I figured If I am going to wait this long I want a lot of it, plus bananas were on sale of Christmas really cheap.

Anyway, I made the must yesterday and did not have time to pitch the yeast so I added campden tablets and pitched this evening instead. After I pitched my yeast, Lavlin D47, I checked the gravity with my refractometer, 1.126, not what I was expecting. I followed the recipe and amounts, is it possible that I just had really, really sweet bananas? I allowed all the bananas to ripen then I froze them, and by ripen I mean they were black and so ripe that the only thing I could do with them was make wine.

How long is this going to have to age? I feel like two years would be a miracle. Or is this simply going to be banana flavored rocket fuel that I will never be able to drink?

Anyone have any experience pitching D47 into a must this strong? Its listed alcohol tolerance is only 14%0, and having this finish around 1.030 does not sound too appealing. I will probably go pick up something else to have on hand--Suggestions?

Stovetop535 said:

So I made a bunch of this yesterday, 15 gallons actually. I figured If I am going to wait this long I want a lot of it, plus bananas were on sale of Christmas really cheap.

Anyway, I made the must yesterday and did not have time to pitch the yeast so I added campden tablets and pitched this evening instead. After I pitched my yeast, Lavlin D47, I checked the gravity with my refractometer, 1.126, not what I was expecting. I followed the recipe and amounts, is it possible that I just had really, really sweet bananas? I allowed all the bananas to ripen then I froze them, and by ripen I mean they were black and so ripe that the only thing I could do with them was make wine.

How long is this going to have to age? I feel like two years would be a miracle. Or is this simply going to be banana flavored rocket fuel that I will never be able to drink?

Anyone have any experience pitching D47 into a must this strong? Its listed alcohol tolerance is only 14%0, and having this finish around 1.030 does not sound too appealing. I will probably go pick up something else to have on hand--Suggestions?

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Dilute it to 1.100?

I thought about that, only reason I didnt do that was I dont have another open carboy right now.

A couple more questions before I make this. Don't you think it would be easier to add the sugar into your boil kettle after turning off the heat and dissolve it there? Then dump it into the fermenter? Also, would it be a good idea to add a couple cups of raisins in right from the start instead of later?

Is it normal for this to still be bubbling away after two weeks?

Titan88 said:

Is it normal for this to still be bubbling away after two weeks?

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I have made hard cider before, and it took a good 20 days to finish fermenting.

Stole a taste of this tonight after sitting on the raisins for a couple of months. A little sweet still, but wow, is it good! If it keeps improving and drying out for the next couple of months, I think it'll be a keeper!

I used to make this years ago, like about 25, I really have missed it and I think I am going do a batch.

I think I would rack it a few times then set it back in the closet for a year once bottled, sound right?