Sweaty Betty?

Greetings.

I just returned from Denver. While there, I had a couple of "sweaty Betty's", made by a local microbrewery. It was unusual and good... a "German Wheat with a hint of banana and clove".

To get the banana flavor, I'm thinking about slicing up some fresh bananas... ziplocking & pastureizing them at 170 for 10 minutes, mashing them up... and then adding those to secondary.

What do ya'll think? Is there a better way to achieve some banana flavor?

More than likely the flavor is derived from the yeast and not real bananas. Banana and clove flavors are common esters of hefeweisen yeast.

Yeah. Use a hefe yeast. Most of them will have some banana and/or clove flavors going on.

From the descriptions of a couple of Wyeast strains:

Wyeast 3068 Unique top-fermenting yeast which produces the unique and spicy weizen character, rich with clove, vanilla and banana.

Wyeast 3638 Top cropping hefeweizen yeast with complex flavor and aroma. Balance of banana and bubble gum esters with lychee and apple/plum esters and cloves

Thanks! I'll give it a shot!

PS: should I do a starter with the hefe? I've never used it.