Yet another banana bread recipe

I had a pint of Wells banana bread beer the other night and thought it was a great change of pace. I decided to try a very simple recipe to duplicate it, but maybe a tiny bit sweeter. (This uses real bananas, rather than using a hefe yeast at high temps.)

Here's the recipe I made last night, scaled to make 1.5 gal:

32oz (70%) 2-row
10oz (20%) med crystal 40L
6oz (10%) flaked wheat

1/2 oz Fuggle at start of boil
1/2 oz Goldings at 15 min

English Ale yeast (dry)

4 ripe bananas, mashed, added to primary at start of fermentation

I might add a little vanilla and cinnamon before bottling.

There's about 1/2 inch of mashed banana floating in the fermentor, and I'm already getting good activity after 12 hours (71 deg F). I'm think I'll bottle it as soon as the major activity stops, since I'm concerned about the bananas spoiling. Looks like racking will be tricky.

8 days later I'm bottling since there's no visible activity in the airlock. I added about 1/2 tsp table dissolved table sugar per bottle for priming. No additional spices.

I tasted a little before adding the priming sugar and the banana flavor and aroma are very nice though there's a little bitterness which will hopefully condition out.

I'll open a bottle in a week or two to taste... (I guess you can tell by now that I'm not particularly patient )

Interested how this comes out! Let us know!

OK I chilled a bottle and opened it tonight after 2 weeks.

Earlier in the evening I had a Monk's Blood (Belgian dark ale). Surprisingly similar! The actual banana flavor is much subdued after conditioning leaving a mildly fruity, full-bodied Belgian flavor, drinkable and well balanced though not as complex as the Monk's Blood. The color is unfiltered orange-brown. Good head but not as long-lasting as the Monk's Blood. I didn't test the gravity but from the effects I'd judge it about 8%, definitely stronger than the stouts I've been making.

Compared with the Wells Banana Bread beer (from memory FWIW), mine is more full-bodied and sweeter, with a more subtle banana flavor mostly in the nose and the aftertaste.

Much better than I expected considering the simple recipe and the guesswork. I'll be making it again, although next time I'm going to follow the suggestion in the Sad Banana Ale thread and use a grain sack for the mashed bananas in the primary.