My Banana Melomel

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bubbachunk

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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
SANY0166.jpg


Them in the pot of water heating up
SANY0167.jpg


Finally them cooling down after the simmer
SANY0168.jpg


I will update with pics hopefully tomorrow of when I pitch the yeast and as this moves along.
 
Mmmmmm..... looks fanstastic. I might have to try something similar in a 1 gallon batch.
 
looks great, I always thought banana was a no no when it came to fermenting.

beautiful color too.
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.........
 
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!
 
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!

Glad to hear someone else was as mad as me to try it also! I think I may do it again with a larger concentration of bananas though

Nifty. Why include the skin?

It is a variation of this: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f79/banana-wine-33636/

I just figured that if I was going to age it for two year might as well make it a mead!
 
Looks awesome. I did the same thing but i used 3.3lbs of wheat LME, turning it into a bananna hefe-braggot.
 
Looks awesome. I did the same thing but i used 3.3lbs of wheat LME, turning it into a bananna hefe-braggot.

That sounds awesome. I would think if you used the right yeast and fermented it warm you would get banana notes without using bananas but the yeast may die off before it's done.
 
Can't believe this has been nearly 2.5 years now, may need to crack open a bottle this weekend.
 
Please do! I have 30lbs of really ripe bananas that I have to do SOMETHING with tonight! I was thinking about doing a bananaweizen and then a banana melomel for the long stretch.
 
I've been wanting to have a go at this for a while now - a one gallon batch tho.

I'd like to get a balance between the bananas and the honey and I thought clover honey would be good to go with bananas.

So perhaps
4lbs bananas
2lbs clover honey

Does anyone have any thoughts on these amounts?
 
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