Donkey Kong - Strong Ale.

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Schlenkerla

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I have been thinking of making a new over-the-top extreme beer lately. Something with bananas and sour cherries. I made a banana cream ale many years back that was good. I once had a friend give me a sample of what I think might have been Oud Bruin, not sure. It was like a sour brown ale with a banana wheat like characteristic.

This is what I got put together. Donkey Kong Recipe

I'm not trying to replicate a Belgian by style guidelines. I'm ok with something pseudo-Belgian. I don't have the patience to go with a long drawn out sour aging.

I read Sam Calagione's "Extreme Brewing" and he feels it should not be malty so the fruit stands out in the beer. His Kiwi beer uses torrified wheat and wheat extract and is pretty low hopped.

On the contrary, I was thinking a fat-tire like base or a brown ale malt bill using special-B in place of chocolate.

The link above is pretty much the fat tire grain bill bumped up but holding firm on the percentage of malts.

The fruit addition...... I'm gonna try to hit 1lb-Banana per gallon and possibly 1 can of sour cherry per 2.5 gallons. Doing so at 10 minutes left in the boil, cherries pureed.

I'm looking for opinions. - Thanks!!

cherrypiecherries.jpg
 
I think you'll find 2 cans of Oregon tart cherries will be plenty. I added 2 to a regular Hefe a couple years ago, and it came out not far from a Kriek Lambic.
 
I have been thinking of making a new over-the-top extreme beer lately. Something with bananas and sour cherries. I made a banana cream ale manner years back that was good. I once had a friend give me a sample of what I think might have been Oud Bruin, not sure. It was like a sour brown ale with a banana wheat like characteristic.

This what I got put together. Donley Kong Recipe

I'm not trying to replicate a Belgian by style guidelines. I'm ok with something pseudo-Belgian. I don't have the patience to go with a long drawn out sour aging.

I read Sam Calagione's Extreme Brewing and he feels it should not be malty so the fruit stands out in the beer. His Kiwi beer uses torrified wheat and wheat extract and is pretty low hopped.

On the contrary, I was thinking a fat-tire like base or a brown ale malt bill using special-B in place of chocolate.

The link above is pretty much the fat tire grain bill by percentage of malts.

The fruit addition I'm gonna try to hit 1lb-Banana per gallon and possibly 1 can of sour cherry per 2.5 gallons .

I'm looking for opinions. - Thanks!!

cherrypiecherries.jpg




Gotta admit, I'm interested in this.

What would an allgrain version grain bill look like? Do you add the fruit post fermentation or flame out?


I've made the Northern Brewer version of Fat Tire. Theirs doesn't have any chocolate malt in it. Could you use that as a starting point? What would you change in it?
 
Ok -I went to LHBS got my ingredients.... Money is burnin' a fookin' hole in my pocket..... I also made adjustments to this beer to use Mt Hood and Wheat DME.

I have to do partial mashes with recipes over 1.055 due to my boil size and the fact I'm doing stove top boils.

Yesfan - I posted the all grain below. The grist is just the like my Fat Tire Clone, but only by percentage. I increased the grain bill evenly to raise the gravity 20 points. BTW - That recipe is Jamil Zainasheff's Belgian Pale Ale. Tastes just like Fat Tire. Fat Liar

The tweaks;

Donkey Kong - Partial Mash

Donkey Kong - All Grain
 
Gotta admit, I'm interested in this.

What would an allgrain version grain bill look like? Do you add the fruit post fermentation or flame out?


I've made the Northern Brewer version of Fat Tire. Theirs doesn't have any chocolate malt in it. Could you use that as a starting point? What would you change in it?

I love fat tire so I'm going with that as my base. Fat Liar If I like this I might do it again with a double-brown ale grist using Special-B for Chocolate Malt.

FWIW - When I made a the banana cream ale it was with prehopped DME .... was about 8 years ago. It was like a red 20-30 IBU beer. Definitely banana beer.

Fruit will be added at 10 minutes left in the boil. This is per Sam Calagione's suggestions for adding fruit.

I will slice the bananas with the peel on and the tart cherries will be pureed.

The reason I say peel on is the peel alone adds a bunch of flavor too.
 
Just pitched two packs of rehydrated Fermentis S-33...

Now to wait. I hope I don't need a blow-off.

The meat of the bananas and cherries are totally disintegrated into the wort. The peels are leftover. They turned green right after adding them to the boil. Hope they sink or stay out of the airlock.

They look like cactus or jalapeno slices.... :D
 
I just checked the air-lock.....

OMG - I pitched at midnight, its now 7:40AM. Its going like crazy. 2-3 bubbles per second if not more.

The smell out the airlock is pure banana. :ban::ban::ban::ban:
 
Just reading about safbrew s-33. Some people aren't happy with this strain, but I am certain they under-pitched.

If you use this strain, make sure to double/triple pitch and check Mr. Malty if you raise gravity higher. Mr Malty said I needed 1.3 packs of 11.5 gram packages.

If I had to do this again I'd prolly pitch higher or make big starter. My 1.075 doesn't account for the sugars in the fruit. [EDIT: Maybe not, it says I need to have an OG of 1.123 to go over 2 packs of yeast....]

It appears that it attenuates at about 70%. I'm bumping up my AC to 75F so it runs to upper end of the temp range. Right now its going good at 70F
 
hi schlenkerla, what was the OG?

I didn't check the OG with the fruit added. I flat-out forgot. Calculated its 1.075

I checked my partial mash I had 10' plato after sparging this resulted in about 5.60 gallons. I figured about 70% efficiency. Its going to be close to 7.5-8% ABV. Possibly higher with the fruit addition , maybe 0.5-0.7% points higher.

The PM Recipe - Donkey Kong

The AG Recipe - Donkey Kong
 
OK - I pulled a theif sample. The OG 1.085 with a current gravity of 1.010.

I transferred this to the 2ndary. I grabbed a taste of this. Its got some big ABV taste of the alcohol. ABV more than anything else. There was very little banana taste or neglible cherry taste to what I could determine. The beer was cloudy looked like a saison color-wise. In fact it kind of reminded me of that.

So, the next steps I took were to rack to the 2ndary on top of 4 oz of oak wood chips. I added to amylase and pectic enzymes to knock it down to 1.000 and to remove any haze.

I'm gonna assume the banana/cherry flavors will be slight from this point on now. Who knows I wanted them slight but really not this little.

The trub was bad. 3" Lots on top of the wort, floating on banana peels and then pretty much a good deal in the bottom to make racking difficult.

This will be a big amber, with it being mildly fruity. Will see with some time on oak.

Drinking my 2nd Well's Banana Bread right now.
 
To me Wells Banana Bread beer reminds me of the old banana shaped hard candies? It really had an artificial banana sweetness that I wish was not there. It would be better for me if they just abused their yeast and had a banana bumble gum thing going on.
 
To me Wells Banana Bread beer reminds me of the old banana shaped hard candies? It really had an artificial banana sweetness that I wish was not there. It would be better for me if they just abused their yeast and had a banana bumble gum thing going on.

I'm hoping once its carbed, its more like the banana cream ale I made many years back. The banana taste was pretty prominent. Definitely not fake.

Funny that you mentioned abused yeast. What's not fake/artificial about that? :D
 
Once fermentation is done, try a little and see if you have as much cherry flavor as you want. I often throw a bag or two of frozen tart cherries (3-6 pounds) into the fermenter for my tart cherry barleywine, the extra cherry stays with it during the long conditioning phase.
 
Once fermentation is done, try a little and see if you have as much cherry flavor as you want. I often throw a bag or two of frozen tart cherries (3-6 pounds) into the fermenter for my tart cherry barleywine, the extra cherry stays with it during the long conditioning phase.


Thanks! - It needs to 2ndary for bit. The other flavors might pop out. My sample wasn't the cleanest. I had trub in my glass. My palate might have been questionable. I was eating salsa and bean dip all afternoon and knocking back my new special export.
 
Do you prefer theater popcorn with butter oil? Or real sweet cream butter on popcorn? I was speaking to a preference of flavors, one I perceive to be harsh the other I perceive as balanced and enjoyable.

I know, I was only kidding. More ironic than anything else. I was comparing abused yeast to actual banana in the beer.

I don't do theater popcorn for the reason you state. Its not butter. Both my wife and FIL get sick from eating that crap. I'll stick to raisonettes, twizzlers or nothing at all.

I'm with you regarding enjoyable flavor. I'm for the real deal when it come to food and for beer in that matter.

McDonald's... can't stand it. Highly engineered food for mass consumption. Same with frozen food. :mad:
 
My Donkey Kong Beer is now on tap.

Has a good bitterness, nice color, maltiness is not real evident from the alcohol and bitterness. Silky mouthfeel, slight banana aroma and after taste, not too much. One might not even detect it, though I noticed it right after the pour though. The oak wood smell/taste is not there when it was flat.

I think it has some carbonic bite, it's been in the gas 5 days.

I think it might change once the gas fully saturates this beer and it has a chance to mellow.

View attachment 1468363921415.jpg
 
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