Banana wine experiment

8/24/12 - Boiled in grain bag, 10 previously boiled (most sugars already gone) and 9 new bananas in 1 1/2 gallons water for 90 minutes. Bana flesh only, no skins. Squeezed every bit of juice I could from the bananas, and then added 3 cups of granulated table sugar.

OG 1.074

Yeast starter for WLP565 Saison yeast made from 2 cups water, 1 tablespoon honey, and 1 tablespoon orange juice. Pitched 1/2 of this starter in my 1 gallon batch.

8/25/12 - Fermentation so strong it climbed out the airlock. Cleaned, re-filled, and refitted the airlock.

8/26/12 - No airlock activity! I pulled the airlock, covered the hole and shook violently for 20 seconds. Airlock reapplied. After 2 hours there was still no activity. Added 3/4 cup of orange juice.

8/27/12 - Seeing almost 10 bubbles per minute from the airlock.

Plan on fermenting this to completion, racking until clear and not tasting until at least 2014.


This was an afterthought wine made because I had extra bananas and enough yeast after making a banana quick mead. Hope to see great results, but only time will tell.

My banana wine is pretty good at 6 months old. It will interesting to see how it ages.

So, it's gone a week on the saison yeast. And now I want to finish it up with a champagne yeast. Should I rack it off the first yeast. Or pitch on top of the flavoring yeast?

I would rack off and then make a starter with the champagne yeast before pitching it. I say that out of theory rather than experience but yeast seem to kill off other strains if one has a stronger foothold over the other.

9/2 I racked it to a new carboy and added 4 very ripe bananas to the brew. Planned to pick up some champagne yeast on 9/3, but got to the brew shop after they closed.
On 9/4 I got home and it was bubbling away! New addition of sugar I assume, but I was surprised enough yeast made it over to ferment that strongly. For now I've decided to let the saison yeast ride out and see what happens.

How can I figure ABV with the new addition of fruit?

Racked to new carboy and put in fridge until weather cools when it will be allowed out to further age. Was racking over surprising clear until I got over zealous and pulled up some of the layer of sediment.
Gravity reading was .995, I did top off with water though so I diluted the alcohol level.

To figure ABV (my theory only, i don't know this to be true) you would have had to take a s.g. reading before and after adding the new fruit. Taken that difference in ABV, and added it to your O.G.

Had this judged last night.
They were blown away by the clarity and banana aroma. I was asked twice if I used a banana extract or actual bananas even though they had the recipe and procedures in their hands.

Scored a 70 out of 100 on a scale where scores of 80+ are considered "master brewer" scores.
I was quite pleased. It was a little hot still, and it was suggested to let it age for another 4-5 months. I'll submit it for judging again in August or September and see if it's improved.

Where are you submitting for judging?

Local club