New to brewing, need advice please

This is my first attempt at brewing and I'm starting with a kit to get the hang of it.

I want to turn my stout into a banana stout, how do I do this??

Any suggestions welcome!!

If this goes well, I want to do some from scratch with fresh ingredients etc'

Thanks in advance!!

Please be aware that I am a complete novice, so please don't baffle me with science just yet or take the Mick if my questions seem daft to you!!!

 

The simplest way would be to add a banana extract when you add the priming sugar.

https://www.apexflavors.com/Beverag...ins-Less-Than-010pct-Artificial-Top-Note~2940

 

You could try using a hefeweizen yeast for the ferment. They give noticeable banana flavours. IME they don't taste good with roasted grains though.

 

My recommendation is: Don't. I think a stout is a great starter beer since it hides a lot of flavors caused by common beginner mistakes. Maybe brew the exact same beer for your second brew and try to make it taste like banana.

Getting too fancy early on can leave you wondering what went wrong, and it will be hard to get help here because the 'extra' stuff might be where the issues arose and it will be hard to sort it out.

I'm a bit biased on the banana flavor. I love banana, and I like banana flavoring. When I taste banana in beer though, I always wonder what went wrong. Even in beers that should have some of that banana flavor, it turns me off.

 

If this is your first attempt at brewing, that indicates you'll have many more times to brew. Try the stout without first. Don't get cute on your first batch. Focus on cleaning, sanitizing and process. Try the beer first. You can always add a drop or less of banana flavoring (I don't have any suggestions on which one, I've never used them) to a glass after the stout is brewed and carbonated.

 

On my first batch, I bottled half to recipe, then added flavor extract and bottle the rest. It was a great way to see how the 2 beers compared.

 

This was going to be my suggestion. Make a 5 gallon batch (presumably that's what you're looking at, 5 gallon kits) and split off 2.5 gallons for banana and 2.5 gallons for regular (to compare later), or split it further and try multiple ways of infusing banana.

a. Standard stout (your control)
b. Banana extract stout
c. Raw banana stout
d. Chocolate covered frozen banana stout (the frozen chocolate covered bananas you can get at the supermarket)

You need a control ("a" above).

 

I wouldn't do it on your first batch. Stick with the recipe and work on simplicity until you have a few good batches under your belt.