Brewing with Bananas

OK so I'm new to brewing (kinda). I've been brewing for a little over a year and basically have been doing the prepackaged kits that the brew store I go to sells. I haven't branched out and made my own recipes yet and to be honest don't really have much of an interest in it yet. However, my girlfriend wants to. She's been very supportive and has let me take over most of the room in our spare bedroom for brewing (I'm in a 3 room condo on the 5th floor without a basement). So the next kit is for her.

What I need advice on: How to make a banana beer. We have a Hefeweizen kit ready to brew that the employees at the store said the yeast will leave a banana taste. She wants to make it taste really like bananas. (Not my thing, I love IPA's.) In order to get a really banana taste should I add bananas directly to the secondary or maybe a banana extract? How many bananas should I add? What about freeze dried banana chips? Anyone experiment with this? Also, should the bananas be rip, overripe, green? How long should I leave them in the secondary?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

look up eHow for banana beer.

I read that but didn't know if I could put bananas in the secondary and how to do it.

So if you're interested in the banana flavor and not actually using bananas, I would suggest going with a banana extract in addition to fermenting towards the high end of the hefe's temperature range.

Another option is to find some food grade isoamyl acetate, which is the compound that yeast produce that tastes like bananas anyway. Here (http://www.vigoninternational.com/isoamylacetatenatural.aspx) is a site where you can get a 1 oz sample of it and try it out.

Here are a couple threads regarding banana beers that I've subscribed to:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/banana-cream-ale-61850/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/banana-bread-ale-90074/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/recipe-critique-bananas-foster-48483/