Bananas Foster Creamy Ale (All Grain) **pic intensive**

I'm getting ready to make this. I have read through all 28 pages and there was a lot of side chatter. From reviewing all the back and forth I believe I have the originall recipe figured out.

one8tvw can you review and comment if I got it right??

Bananas Foster Creamy Ale (All Grain)

(2 weeks prior to brewing infuse 8oz Sailor Jerry with 2 vanilla beans (split))

10.00 lbs Briess 2-Row Brewers Malt
1.00 lbs Oats, Flaked
2.00 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L
1.00 lbs Briess Corn, Flaked, Yellow

Mash @ 152.0°F for 60 min
Mash Out @ 168.0°F for 15 min

Bring to a boil

1.00 ozs (12.42) Saaz 60 mins
2.00 cup Dark Brown Sugar 20 mins Boil
2.00 each Vanilla Bean (split) 20 mins Boil (Save Rum for Secondary)
0.50 ozs (2.25) Saaz 10 mins

Cool to pitching temperature (Expected post boil SG = 1.070)

Pitch 1.0 pkg California Ale White Labs 0001

Primary 7 days (Use blowoff tube)
(Note: after 7 days the gravity was 1.010.)

Combine 5.00 lb peeled Bananas and the 8 oz Sailor Jerry Rum (that had the vanilla bean soaking in it) in a sanitized blender.
Funnel mixture into Secondary, rack beer onto mixture and add blowoff tube

(Combine 4oz of Rum and 1 Vanilla Bean (Split) and set aside)

(Note: after 7 days in the secondary the gravity was back down to 1.010)
After 7 days in secondary add the Vanilla Bean that has been soaking in the Rum. (Save Rum for Bottling)

After 14 Days in Secondary (total) rack to tertiary for another 7 days then bottle

For bottle priming
Mix 4oz Table Sugar, 1oz Light Brown Sugar, 4oz Vanilla Infused Rum & 16oz Water
Bring to a boil, boil 1 min, cool. Add beer from tertiary and then bottle.

Bottle condition approximately 2 months.

I can't believe how clear this came out. The clearest beer I've ever brewed. It's still a bit early. Needs another week or 2 in the bottle. I bottled one week ago today, but couldn't help but try one when I noticed how clear it was. Banana definitely sticks out with hints of the rum and vanilla. I cant wait til it gets a nice foamy head going on. Cheers!

Just an FYI, this one is taking a little longer to bottle carbonate. It's been 2 weeks and not quite there yet. Probably the higher ABV from the rum. Tasting good though, going to give it another week or two.

How about putting a SMALL touch of lactose in this beer? How do you think it would change it? Would it be too sweet?

how about posting a picture on how clear it came out? Where would you say the color falls?

Anyone thought of using WL029 Kolsch yeast with this? LOVE this yeast and white labs rates is a 4(same as OP's suggested yeast) in a cream ale.

http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/Styles-Ale.pdf

*Edit, I just read the entire post and must have missed if this is 5lbs peeled...or 5lbs w/ the peel on of bananas?

5 lbs peeled bananas.

dallasdb said:

Question: Why did you freeze the bananas?

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freezing the fruit helps to rupture the cellular walls. this aids at getting all the juice you can from them. as for bananas it helps as the OP said to ripen them & makes them smoother due to cell repture. not much liquid in bananas!

just ask a monkey!

GD

one8tvw said:

Banana is no longer floating on the surface.

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wow! this looks like a mead i vinted with 20 lbs of fresh mangos puree.

i lost about a gallon of must from all the fruit residue not preciptating out.

next time i'll use a fining agent.

how are you gonna deal with the fruit residue?....cold crash?
at the time i did my mead i had no capability for CC.


GD

gizmodog51 said:

wow! this looks like a mead i vinted with 20 lbs of fresh mangos puree.

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That must have been an expensive mead...20lbs of mango puree!!

subscribed

cbehr said:

That must have been an expensive mead...20lbs of mango puree!!

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stumbled upon a huge sale on over ripe mango...bought all the bags & they even went behind the counter and made sure i got all'em. $1.00 @ bag! but this was about 12 years ago. the honey was some of the food storage honey dedicated to the children....children gone , honey freed up for mead!

that was the best I have made to date, though it took a couple years to mellow.

GD

I brewed 2 gallons of this yesterday and thought I'd try a Kolsch yeast. I hit 1.080 right on with about 2.25G total volume. I was shocked how long the sediment took to settle out. I've never seen it take so long in a beer, not sure if the hight OG had something to do with. Fermenting away this morning, I'm anxious to try this is 6+ weeks.

drakub said:

So there is an issue with my banana beers. They were placed in bottles over 3 weeks ago and while trying two of them they are way over carbonated ... actually to a point of exploding when opened. Will this carbonation come down with time or did i do something wrong? I did use dark brown sugar when bottling rather then light brown sugar. Everything else was done according to the recipe.

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another possibility is that you introduced a highly attenuative bacteria/yeast, such as brettanomyces of lactobacillus, thus bringing your FG lower than expected. These organisms are slow acting, so it would be plausible if you bottled at your expected FG.

To avoid such contamination, I would finely dice the bananas prior to freezing them, and treat them with campden 24 hours prior to racking onto the fruit.

I'll admit I haven't read through all 30 pages of this thread.

I am curious as to whether anybody has foregone the addition of rum, and what this would taste like in comparison to the original recipe?

Is the rum really a critical component of this recipe? What does it lend which cannot be achieved with malts/banana?


Any suggestions on how to alter the recipe/compensate for the omission of rum?

Delaney said:

I'll admit I haven't read through all 30 pages of this thread.

I am curious as to whether anybody has foregone the addition of rum, and what this would taste like in comparison to the original recipe?

Is the rum really a critical component of this recipe? What does it lend which cannot be achieved with malts/banana?


Any suggestions on how to alter the recipe/compensate for the omission of rum?

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I've brewed this recipe 3 times now, never without rum, so for all we know it might be awesome. However, the recipe is supposed to be a beer version of the classic Bananas Foster dessert, of which rum is a key component, to the point that Bananas Foster isn't really Bananas Foster without the rum. I'd say if your intent is to brew banana beer and not Bananas Foster, then it would be appropriate to go sans rum; however, for Bananas Foster beer, the rum is a must.

Not to derail the thread, but could an addition of molasses be used to produce rum flavor?

Just put my version in the fermentor. It. Is as close to the original as I could make it with my recources, and scaled down to 3.5 gal with lower abv, very excited

Just brewed this one today, My numbers came in a little low at OG 1.062. The wort tasted great going into the carboy.

Cold crashing mine tonight as there is still a good bit of junk floating. Probably bottle sunday if it clears by then.

cbehr said:

Cold crashing mine tonight as there is still a good bit of junk floating. Probably bottle sunday if it clears by then.

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Did you go to tertiary or just secondary? I am planning on putting into tertiary this weekend and hope it clears well. Don't have room to cold crash

tx-brewer said:

Did you go to tertiary or just secondary? I am planning on putting into tertiary this weekend and hope it clears well. Don't have room to cold crash

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Just a secondary when add the fruit/rum mixture. Luckily it's about 30-40 degrees around here this time of year so I can put the carboy in my garage for a day or two.

Ok, racked to tertiary tonight. There was a lot of banana gunk left and some came along for the ride. Hopefully most of it will settle out over the next week. Taste was good, I was hoping for a little more sweetness though but still very excited

I had never heard of Bananas Foster until we took the kids to Disney this Christmas and loved it (the Bananas Foster that is, Disney was ok too )
Now I found this thread and am almost pissed off that I just picked up the ingredients to do a Nut Brown Ale. Oh well, I have subscribed to the thread and this one is definately next up after doing my Nut Brown Ale.
I am new to brewing. My first batch (a pumpkin ale) is fermenting away as I type. This hobby and forum may combine to give me a drinking problem

I brewed this again on Saturday. It was such a hit last year, I did 10 gallons this time. I kept everything exactly the same as my initial recipe, which is slightly different then the OP's. I had gotten some El Diablo yeast from Flying Dog brewery which is local to me and decided to use that instead of Chico in one of the 5 gals batches. El diablo is a Belgian yeast that they use in Raging *****. Should be interesting to see how they compare.

i believe someone made such a suggestion earlier in this thread - to use a belgian yeast and ferment warm, to get banana esters.

even if you don't go warm, should be interesting!

I am dying to brew this up, but due to busy family and work schedules I have not got around to it, but could do it this Sunday. My problem is that I will be away from home for a while, so I could rack it onto the bananas after a week in primary, but would not be able to get back to it until almost 4 weeks to rack it off the bananas. I believe the original recipe calls for a 3 week secondary?
Anyone have experience with an extended secondary on this recipe?

I've brewed it 3 or 4 times now and 2 weeks was what I did every time. I'd be concerned with mold growing on the fruit if left much longer. You can brew it now and either leave it in primary until you return or transfer to secondary but don't add the bananas until after you return. I'd probably opt for the extended primary if it were me.

I don't think mold will grow in there. the bananas provide some fermentable sugars and will kick up fermentation again - this will push out the O2. mold won't grow in CO2.

This will likely be on my list of things to do!

sweetcell said:

I don't think mold will grow in there. the bananas provide some fermentable sugars and will kick up fermentation again - this will push out the O2. mold won't grow in CO2.

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I am not thinking any mold will grow. Too much alcohol and CO2 in there. I am more thinking of potential off flavours from being in the fermentor too long.

I might just play it safe and wait for a better time to brew this up.

I can't comment with regards to "final product" as mine is conditioning now, but I left mine on bananas for a month. When bottling, it tasted great. I think you should be fine...

Just wanted to say thanks for the recipe. It was very good.

And everyone making this, set at least a sixer aside to age a couple months. I found at first, rum was hard to taste, after a month or so, rum was much more distinct, and after a few months all the flavors kind of meld together and even out, very good, too bad I only got two bombers left

I still have some from my original batch. I can't believe how good they taste. I'm
So glad people have really been enjoying my creation.

one8tvw said:

I still have some from my original batch. I can't believe how good they taste. I'm
So glad people have really been enjoying my creation.

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Oh yes, very much. Got great reviews from everyone that tried it. I think next time I would like to make it a little sweeter. Need to do some researching, thanks again

one8tvw said:

I still have some from my original batch. I can't believe how good they taste. I'm
So glad people have really been enjoying my creation.

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This was my second ever batch of beer made. Loved it, and so did everyone who tried it. Thanks.

Is everyone putting vanilla beans in the boil too, or just in the secondary? It seems like all the vanilla flavor/aroma would get driven off from boiling 20 mins.

I've only been adding the vanilla beans to secondary.

I am stoked to be finally ready to brew this up. I have my first ever yeast starter going on my new stir plate (made from scrap parts from work) and will be mashing in tomorrow morning. As usual, the worst part for this hobby will be the waiting ~8 weeks to drink this, but I am sure it will be worth the wait.

I am going to try a variation on this, by making a base unflavored brown ale and then adding bananas, vanilla, rum, to the secondary.