Brewskii's Banana Bread Ale

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Brewskii

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Been looking and lurking trying to find a good Banana bread recipie and found a few threads. Here's mine...BTW, Props to all who have gone before me...havent tried this yet but will be brewing it up in the next month or so...if you see somthing you dont like or looks crazy, please post. It is banana beer though , so its supposed to be a little crazy:cross:

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Brewskii's Banana Bread Ale

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.22 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.72 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.70 gal
Estimated OG: 1.061 SG
Estimated Color: 7.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 11.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 74.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1(?) lbs Fruit - Banana (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 9 7.1 %
10 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 2 71.4 %
1 lbs Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4 7.1 %
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 7.1 %
1 lbs Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 7.1 %

0.25 oz Nugget [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 11.6 IBUs
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 6 -
1.0 pkg Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300) [35. Yeast 8 -

Mash Schedule: Double Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 14 lbs
----------------------------
Protein Rest 140.0 F 30 min
Saccharification 158.0 F 60 min
Mash Out 170.0 F 10 min

Sparge: Fly sparge at 168.0 F
Notes: Peel, cut lenthwise, and roast 5 ripe (over-ripe) Banana's in 325 Deg F oven for 30 min or until just browned on top.
let cool and add to the mash. protien rest will help to saccharify the starchy bits.

------
Pitch with WLP300 (NO STARTER -underpitch is OK -no more than 1 vial)
Primary for 7 days @ 75 Deg. F

Secondary on Vanilla Tincture (2 Whole Vanilla Beans (split and scraped) in 1 cup over proof Banana Rum (99 Bananas or similar). Secondary for 7
days at 75 Deg F.

cold crash to 68 for 7 days for brightening.

Bottle with 5.75 OZ Honey as priming sugar dissolved and boiled in 1 cup water.

Created with BeerSmith 2 - http://www.beersmith.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please note that it is my belief that the banana ester will disipate with aging so the ferm profile is fast and hot.
Once I get it in the bottling bucket I will assess the need to add Flavored extracts of Banana and/or Walnut. Adding as needed. That may add some Chemical-funk so it will be used as a last resort.
The honey priming sugar is for fun...I dont expect to get much of a honey note as it is cosumed by the sugar but it will be more than if i didnt use it at all.

:ban::mug::ban:
 
Wow ! I say go for it. Not a big banana fan myself but with that mash temp and grain profile should turn out nice . I'd probably replace the dextrine with some wheat or something but that's just me. Let us know.
 
shutupjojo said:
Wow ! I say go for it. Not a big banana fan myself but with that mash temp and grain profile should turn out nice . I'd probably replace the dextrine with some wheat or something but that's just me. Let us know.

Yea, this is a sticking point w/me. SWMBO hates the just thought of it (wheat beer) and I am also trying to use a wheat beer yeast with no wheat in the grain bill to prove I can and to see what happens. Most of the other recipies like this use it. I don't like the astringency and don't want it to mask the nutty-ness of the MO
 
Please post how this turns out. I've got a Banana Bread Ale recipe that I've been working on based off of someone else's. Probably won't get around to it for another month or two so I'd love to hear what you think of this one before I take a stab at it.

Not sure how much banana flavor you'll get out of adding them to the mash, but that's definitely an interesting approach. I really like your idea of using 99 bananas with the vanilla beans instead plain vodka.

Definitely let us know how this turns out.
 
Picking up the ingredients for this this weekend. Brew day should be either next weekend or the weekend after. That is, if I don't do my IIPA first
 
Scaled this via Brew Smith to 1 Gal and am going to brew this weekend on my pilot system BIAB-style.
Bananas will be extra-ripe for the mash. Considering adding one to the secondary... We'll see
 
Brewed in yesterday! Used one banana in mash,'baked until juices ran out and got carmel brown (30'min). I split it Down the middle but I think I will make smaller chunks next time because even after the protien rest it was still intact although it was softer. By end of conversion it was basically gone. The Wort smelled just like banana nut bread! That is until the hop addition (0.06 oz of 14% AA bittering to 11-12 IBU) and then it was not noticeable behind the hops. Think I may up the bananas in the mash as well.'this had good results but it was subtle.
It's fermenting in my warm kitchen with a re-usable hand warmer type heat pack leaning on it. I'm shooting for 75 but I think warm is the best I can hope for with such a small volume.
Will post brewday pics soon.
 
OK...well, tried like hell to maintain 75.'wasn't too hard when it was all out fermenting but once it slowed down it was more
Difficult.
I moved it from primary and it really needed the 99 bananas and vanilla bean... This version seems like the hops are too prominent for the subtle banana to make it through. I shot for 10 IBU and ended up with ~ 12 ( it's hard to measure that small for a 1'gal batch).
Should cut that in half. I will probably also add more 99 bananas at bottling time depending how the 1/4 cup tincture with 1/4 vanilla bean comes through in a week of secondary ferm (starting today)
 
Brewskii said:
OK...well, tried like hell to maintain 75.'wasn't too hard when it was all out fermenting but once it slowed down it was more
Difficult.
I moved it from primary and it really needed the 99 bananas and vanilla bean... This version seems like the hops are too prominent for the subtle banana to make it through. I shot for 10 IBU and ended up with ~ 12 ( it's hard to measure that small for a 1'gal batch).
Should cut that in half. I will probably also add more 99 bananas at bottling time depending how the 1/4 cup tincture with 1/4 vanilla bean comes through in a week of secondary ferm (starting today)

Ok update...
Bottled last night. It's not bad it needs some adjustment. Grain bill is perfect in my estimation. Nutty and bready and a perfect platform. The yeast character complements the banana bread thing but not like I wanted.
Even with the 99 bananas and vanilla, I only really got it when I took off the lid to the secondary.... After that it was very hard to pick up in the nose or palate. The 99 and vanilla does give a noticeable alcohol nose ... Not sure what to do about that yet.
In direct opposition to my previous post... The hops are actually good in this... Much better after a little secondary aging.

Verdict; need to really over- try for bananas! I like doing them in the mash but I will increase the percentage. The yeast ferm was hard to hold hot and really fell short so I think water bath and aquarium thermometer ( or wait till summer).
Also think I will cut back the grain bill to maybe 1.050 OG so it dosent get that hot alcohol thing.
Not a bad beer at all but remarkably un-exceptional for what I tried to do to it. Makes me believe that my fermentation was over pitched and under temp for the banana thing. Will try next time and update.
 
Thanks for the update. Was actually just thinking about this the other day. Maybe instead of adding them to the mash, you should puree them, freeze, then add the puree to secondary? Since it's a wheat beer, it could/should be cloudy anyway.
 
turkeyjerky214 said:
Thanks for the update. Was actually just thinking about this the other day. Maybe instead of adding them to the mash, you should puree them, freeze, then add the puree to secondary? Since it's a wheat beer, it could/should be cloudy anyway.

It uses a wheat beer ale strain but my grist contains no wheat ( on purpose). I am not afraid of haze. I think my next step will be to put them in the fermenter as you say. I have read about the freeze trick for fruit. This may be the the perfect place to try it.'looking forward to 12/17 to crack open the first try and see if it has changed at all.
Post if you decide to pull the trigger on your brew.
 
clcondawg said:
How'd it turn out?

Not much changed. The banana was very subtle in the end. I think the recipe actually would work if you could get bananas in the secondary and pitch hot (80 deg) and maintain a hot ferm.

Clove is a more prominent note in what I brewed so in my example I believe the yeast contribution was lacking but as I said I probably over pitched and had some difficulty trying to maintain 70+ in the fermentor. Worth a second look with those 2 things in mind.

I'll be tasting it again in a couple weeks ( my last bottle). I'll see if I can post a pic and some notes.
 
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