Banana Wine

I started a gallon of this a few days ago, forgot the grain bag when I boiled the bannanas so I didn't get much of a squeezing action. Will see how it turns out.

When I read it I didn't notice the aging two years I don't know if I can wait that long .

Hmmmm. I made Banana wine a little while ago, got as far as racking it onto the Golden Raisins and forgot about it. I ended up with about 6 gallons, so I split it into a 5 gal carboy and a 1l demi for topping off. Both were crystal clear before racking onto the raisins. The 1L stayed clear as a bell, however the 5 Gal went back to being cloudy. I figure it would clear. I came to rack it the other day and the 5 gal has never cleared! Now combined I am left with 5 gal of cloudy Banana wine. I added Campden as I had left on the raisins probably 6 months total. Any tips on clearing this wine?

rowan57 said:

Hmmmm. I made Banana wine a little while ago, got as far as racking it onto the Golden Raisins and forgot about it. I ended up with about 6 gallons, so I split it into a 5 gal carboy and a 1l demi for topping off. Both were crystal clear before racking onto the raisins. The 1L stayed clear as a bell, however the 5 Gal went back to being cloudy. I figure it would clear. I came to rack it the other day and the 5 gal has never cleared! Now combined I am left with 5 gal of cloudy Banana wine. I added Campden as I had left on the raisins probably 6 months total. Any tips on clearing this wine?

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Any thoughts anyone?

Have you tried cold crashing or maybe some super clear?

rowan57 said:

Any thoughts anyone?

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How long has it been since you racked the last time?

LoneTreeFarms said:

Have you tried cold crashing or maybe some super clear?

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I havent, I don't have the facility to cold crash 5 gallons yet :smack: and am not really familiar with using clearing products, this being my first wine that has needed clearing (not quite my first wine, but not far off).

johnnync said:

How long has it been since you racked the last time?

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I made the wine around 12/01 (01/12 for those across the pond, 12th January),

I then followed the instructions and racked onto Raisins 2 months later (not sure of date, but lets say 12th March, all clear as a bell).

I most recently racked it off the raisins (1 Gal perfectly clear, 5 gal cloudy) on 27th Sept so around 7 months on the raisins.

Try the super clear. It's really easy to use. The instructions on how to use it is on the package. I believe you just stir the wine up and then add it in I've only had to use it once though.


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Has it been stabilized yet? If not I would stabalize it and give it some time

Yooper, or anybody who can help. My nanner wine is due to rack off the raisins end of this month. I have been monitoring it occasionally and noticed after adding my raisins, that my raisins did not ever float like I have seen others do. So after quite some time of worrying, but not messing with, I decided to steal a little taste to see where it was. It was fairly sweet. There has never been any airlock activity after adding the raisins....so the fear about the sulfites in the raisins sets in.

I still give it a while, until 2 weeks ago. I was taking a jug out of the closet and noticed that there appeared to be a lot of dissolved sugar in the the raisins (clearer waves of liquid that were stirred up when the raisins moved) I took another taste after giving the jug a swirl and it was even sweeter. So I went to the LHBS to pick up another packet of yeast, figuring I had a stuck fermentation. I make a 1 cup starter with sauger, nutrient, and energizer then slowly added close to a tablespoon an hour (of the nanner wine). After I had about 2 cups I let the starter do its thing for a day and then divided it among my 3 gallon jugs. It got cloudy but there was never any airlock activity.

Should I just let it keep going and see what I have for Gravity when I rack off the raisins in a couple weeks? Am I just panicking for no reason?

And I know I am a bad person, because I couldn't tell you what the gravity was when I stole a taste and discovered this issue. I forgot about it. I will drop the hydrometer in when I get moving around more.

M4car223 said:

Yooper, or anybody who can help. My nanner wine is due to rack off the raisins end of this month. I have been monitoring it occasionally and noticed after adding my raisins, that my raisins did not ever float like I have seen others do. So after quite some time of worrying, but not messing with, I decided to steal a little taste to see where it was. It was fairly sweet. There has never been any airlock activity after adding the raisins....so the fear about the sulfites in the raisins sets in.

I still give it a while, until 2 weeks ago. I was taking a jug out of the closet and noticed that there appeared to be a lot of dissolved sugar in the the raisins (clearer waves of liquid that were stirred up when the raisins moved) I took another taste after giving the jug a swirl and it was even sweeter. So I went to the LHBS to pick up another packet of yeast, figuring I had a stuck fermentation. I make a 1 cup starter with sauger, nutrient, and energizer then slowly added close to a tablespoon an hour (of the nanner wine). After I had about 2 cups I let the starter do its thing for a day and then divided it among my 3 gallon jugs. It got cloudy but there was never any airlock activity.

Should I just let it keep going and see what I have for Gravity when I rack off the raisins in a couple weeks? Am I just panicking for no reason?

And I know I am a bad person, because I couldn't tell you what the gravity was when I stole a taste and discovered this issue. I forgot about it. I will drop the hydrometer in when I get moving around more.

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This sounds like exactly what I experienced when I made my second batch. Not sure what the difference was between the first and second batch, except for scaling up from 1 gallon to 2.5.

Mine never did restart, even after more yeast and rousing it.

The next time I make it I think I will stagger the raisin addition and add 1/3 at a time over the course of several days. Hopefully that will keep the preservative effect at bay and allow them to ferment out.

I used Sunmaid Golden Raisins I think.

Homercidal said:

This sounds like exactly what I experienced when I made my second batch. Not sure what the difference was between the first and second batch, except for scaling up from 1 gallon to 2.5.

Mine never did restart, even after more yeast and rousing it.

The next time I make it I think I will stagger the raisin addition and add 1/3 at a time over the course of several days. Hopefully that will keep the preservative effect at bay and allow them to ferment out.

I used Sunmaid Golden Raisins I think.

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I am pretty sure I have Sunmaid in there as well. So if yours never restarted, what did you end up doing, dumping it I assume??

I dumped it. It was very sweet when I tasted it last. I followed the exact same process as the 1 gallon batch I had success with so I have no idea what went wrong. I can't imagine any natural preservative in the raisins would stop a fermentation like that, so I wonder if there was something added to the raisins by Sunmaid.

I will be trying this again, but adding the tannic acid as per the instructions and trying a 2.5 gallon batch again soon. I am not a wine maker, and I don't generally care for wine, so this is more for the fun of it than anything else. I'm still learning what things do in the process.

I also used sunmaid golden raisins and never saw activity start back up. Because of the size batch I made, I added all the raisins for for the batch in my 3 gallon carboy, transferred wine on top and then had enough left to fill up a gallon jug without raisins. So the one gallon is bone dry (.995), while the wine in the 3 gallon carboy is just a tad bit sweeter than preferred. I think once the two are blended, it'll turn out just right for my tastes.


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Homer and Wesley, thanks for your replies. I already had it in my head that I would have to dump.

With that now confirmed, I will gear up to try again in the future.

instead of dumping it couldn't you make a dry banana batch and blend them?

LoneTreeFarms said:

instead of dumping it couldn't you make a dry banana batch and blend them?

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I like how you think! I don't know why I didn't think to blend that way.

What problems would I have siphoning off the raisins and letting it sit for several months while I make a batch? Should I try to do another batch with raisins or just skip the raisins all together?

I know that the raisins are the body of the wine, but after this 3 gallon creation I don't want to have 3 more gallons the same problem.

LoneTreeFarms said:

instead of dumping it couldn't you make a dry banana batch and blend them?

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That's exactly what I would do.

M4car223 said:

I like how you think! I don't know why I didn't think to blend that way.



What problems would I have siphoning off the raisins and letting it sit for several months while I make a batch? Should I try to do another batch with raisins or just skip the raisins all together?



I know that the raisins are the body of the wine, but after this 3 gallon creation I don't want to have 3 more gallons the same problem.

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Shouldn't be a problem siphoning off the raisins and letting it sit until the other wine is ready to blend. Just make sure there is pretty much zero headspace in the carboy or jugs you siphon it into. Also, with the batch you make to blend, I'd skip the raisin step to make sure it's dry so it should overcome the sweetness in the current batch.



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These replies are the exact reason this website thrives! Second brains, fresh thoughts, tons of experience...thank you for all that. I can only hope that sometime soon I have enough knowledge passed on, and learned from experience, that I can contribute the way this forum has helped me.

Bravo to everybody in this thread and to every contributing members of this site.

Now for the hardest questions...how to I convince my wife to let me finish assembling my stc-1000 build, buy stuff for and Christmas cider, start another batch of nanner wine (actually got that covered...gotta drink 3 more gallons of wine :cross and do my first AG brew next Saturday?

Man I got me some sucking up to do, hello honey-do-list

Hoping for some clarification. I see according to the recipe, that after stiring for 7 days, the wine should be "poured" into a secondary fermentation vessal. Is that correct or should it be carefully racked into that secondary . Sorry but I'm a bit confused as to why. Thanks folks.

bern1 said:

Hoping for some clarification. I see according to the recipe, that after stiring for 7 days, the wine should be "poured" into a secondary fermentation vessal. Is that correct or should it be carefully racked into that secondary . Sorry but I'm a bit confused as to why. Thanks folks.

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Yes, the recipe states it to be poured. You can rack if you choose.

Hi @Yooper, do you foresee any issue with this Banana Wine stopping out at 1.000? I think its stable, been in the carboy for a long time. Just got the ability to take a reading.

rowan57 said:

Hi @Yooper, do you foresee any issue with this Banana Wine stopping out at 1.000? I think its stable, been in the carboy for a long time. Just got the ability to take a reading.

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Not really an issue- but it is higher than it's ever finished for me. That could be for a number of reasons, but if it's clear and no longer dropping any lees and still at 1.000, I guess it's done!

Its not clear at this point, to explain what happened. I made 7 Gal (6+1 for topping off). Both went clear as a bell, then when racked onto raisins the 1 gal stayed clear and the 6 gal went cloudy. I left it and figured it would clear up but it never has. When racked off the raisins I combined both and it stayed cloudy. Unfortunately I never took readings as I went along.

I do have K1V which I could repitch with (make a small starter with some of the wine first?) if that sounds sensible?

rowan57 said:

Its not clear at this point, to explain what happened. I made 7 Gal (6+1 for topping off). Both went clear as a bell, then when racked onto raisins the 1 gal stayed clear and the 6 gal went cloudy. I left it and figured it would clear up but it never has. When racked off the raisins I combined both and it stayed cloudy. Unfortunately I never took readings as I went along.

I do have K1V which I could repitch with (make a small starter with some of the wine first?) if that sounds sensible?

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It sounds done to me.

Thanks Yooper, I will clear it this weekend and then rack again once the lees drop.

I was really intrigued by the thought of making Banana Wine so I had to give it a whirl. I have a gallon in the seconday right now! Thanks Yooper!

I wish I could buy a bottle of this. If the SWMBO liked it she'd let me make some

Make 5 gallons anyway bro.. It's a really good white and she'll forgive ya. My next batch will be 15 gallons. I'm going to gas it off and wax the carboies closed n forget about em. See ya in a year or so.

The latest and greatest with my wine.

After trying to fix the stuck fermentation after the addition of the raisins the batch still would not respond. I made a starter and, once it was fully up and going, began adding a half cup of my wine an hour, let rest overnight and then went to one cup an hour. That added to the batch, nothing.

Was debating making a dry batch to blend, as suggested, but was determine to get this going on my own rather than blend it. A visit to my LHBS and conversation that began turned on the lightbulb. I do not know why I never thought/considered the problem.

I used Montrachet yeast as suggested by some on here and by the owner or the LHBS. I know the hydro reading was slightly high, but wasn't so high that I would be concerned. Our conversation was regarding a hi-test brew and yeast that could handle the alcohol content and the switch was flipped. "What if the yeast are constantly being killed due to the alcohol content?"

I brought home a packet of EC-1118 and made up the starter, with some nutrient and energizer, like I did last time. Only difference is I added half cups after my starter was active for 24 hours, and those additions were 1/2 cups every 2 hours. Overnight rests, then after I had enough to make me happy, I let it do its thing for an additional few hours. Added to my 3 1 gallon batches and went to bed.

Woke up to floating raisins and an airlock full of wine in 1 out of 3. 6 hours later, the same with the second, and 8 hours after that, the 3rd also.

Is it the change in tempering a starter to the sulfite addition that comes with the raisins or is it the alcohol content and tolerance of the yeast? I say yeast, but who knows.

Hope this could help somebody who has the same problem as me.

Quick question, I apologize if this has been answered. Could you use sun-maid raisins & not golden raisins? Have everything else on hand. Thanks

smAllGrain said:

Quick question, I apologize if this has been answered. Could you use sun-maid raisins & not golden raisins? Have everything else on hand. Thanks

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I don't see why not, may make it a little darker. That being said, I think I will substitute a can of white grape juice and adjust the sugar next time and skip the raisins.

If you're using the sunmaid raisins, I'd add them earlier to the wine than when scheduled. They are heavily sulfited and may have enough sulfite to inhibit fermentation of them.

Yooper said:

If you're using the sunmaid raisins, I'd add them earlier to the wine than when scheduled. They are heavily sulfited and may have enough sulfite to inhibit fermentation of them.

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How early would u suggest?

smAllGrain said:

How early would u suggest?

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Maybe right away, or in the first few days anyway.

Perfect!! Thanks for the input

This is the best and cheapest wine I've ever made. 2 years and it's amazing. Thanks for the recipe.

I made this 6 months ago and forgot about it. Ive been real busy. Anyway, I have left the raisins in for this whole time will that be an issue. I am going to transfer it over tonight.

I made mine a year ago and just bottled it this past weekend still a little hot tasting but I'm gonna let it sit and cellar for another six months before I crack the first bottle. But the taste I had this weekend was good.

Just started 4 gallons of it. I don't need 4 gallons of banana wine, but that's how many bananas were on sale and I want to practice winemaking, so...

This time I added the requisite additions to help the flavor. People just stare at me when I tell them I'm making banana wine. Then their jaws hit the floor when I tell them it takes 2 years before it's ready to drink! LOL!