banana wheat-ish experiment...

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we've already gotten a bit too into experimentation with my home brew team, and this weekend i came up/brewed something that i have no idea what to expect and have already come upon a few strange things...

I wanted to make a banana wheat, and to make it a little weirded, add some dark grains into the mix for a bit more complexity.... i had the idea of simply picking up your boxed hefe kit from the local brew shop, only for them to be out, so on the fly i decided to grab what i thought might be a good idea. it went something like this...

-3 lb liquid wheat extract
-2 lb dry wheat extract
-1 lb steaped choclate grains (i'm forgetting exactly which ones off the top of my head)
-1 oz of cascade hops
-1 package of wyest bavarian wheat
-3 very past ripe bananas

60 min boil, added the hops at 45 min. Cooled the wort, added the banana goo, pitched the yeast just below 70 degrees....

Thank God a week or so ago when i came up with the banana idea we looked around on here and someone mentioned to use a blow off tube with this, because i have NEVER seen so much bubbling.... with the air lock you normally get a a couple a second during hard fermenting... this guy is more like a bubble machine.... this this is solely due to the INSANE amount of sugar in the banana?

my biggest question here is on timing... i know a typical hefe is around less then a week primary, week secondary, and then bottle... but this thing is crazy... any ideas how long i should keep each phase for? (i will be taking readings once the fermentation stops)

woo... hope this works...

Mod Edit: This is a recipe question. It's been moved to the relevant forum.
 
1 lb of chocolate is ALOT of chocolate in a dark beer, nevermind one that is supposed to be more of a wheat. It might end up overpowering the banana.
 
haha.. yeah... like i said.. this is quite an experiment...

if i said it came to me in a dream would that make it any better?
 
I like those kind of thoughts the best..."it came to me in a dream" Send a bottle my way. I did an experiment with BM centennial blonde, added a bit to much chocolate (1.25#'s), but I am a STOUT lover, IMO it is a great beer.

Then to add a banana flavor to a wheat, I think I know what my next beer will be. I have the ingredients for the BAVARIAN HEFE, so a few extra bananas it is...I will skip the chocolate though.
 
Another thing to do to really get the banana flavor out of a wheat is to ferment at slightly higher temps than recommended. Most Hefe/wheat yeasts suggest something around 65-68*, so bump it up to 73ish and the esters will really come out with some banana and some spice.
 
I like those kind of thoughts the best..."it came to me in a dream" Send a bottle my way. I did an experiment with BM centennial blonde, added a bit to much chocolate (1.25#'s), but I am a STOUT lover, IMO it is a great beer.

Then to add a banana flavor to a wheat, I think I know what my next beer will be. I have the ingredients for the BAVARIAN HEFE, so a few extra bananas it is...I will skip the chocolate though.
I've never thought of adding an actual banana to a wheat. I may also have to try that on my next hefe.
 
I would be concerned that fermentation will drive off the bananna flavor/aroma. Might want to be prepared to do a secondary on some banannas to bring that flavor back to the party. That is A LOT of choc malt but bananna and choc do go very well together so if you can hold onto the bananna flavor I would think this will be a tasty experiment!
 
i'll forsure keep everyone updated...

for everyone elses beer sake tho, don't add banana to anything till i get done with this...theres a very good chance theres a reason for no one ever puts banana in beer... this might kill someone...

but seriously.. go with the blowoff tube if you do... even with it i'm slightly worried i might have a primary bomb...
 
You might want to pick up a flack jacket... Seriously though, sounds like an interesting recipe. Absolutely outside the box. Keep us posted!
 
My last dunkle hefe which included only 8 ounces total of carmal and chololate malt turned out quite banana flavored by fermenting it with a heating blank it around the carboy for the first 4 days of the fermentation in my 65ish basement. I think it was Hefe IV yeast i used.

It took a good 2 months before the bana mellowed enough for me to drink it. and i even added some raspberry extract to it... but after 2 months man was it good!

I have my recipie at home, and I think I did do some decent records on it so i may post them here.
 
Wow...Good to know about the bubbling bananas. I've been thinking about an Imperial Oatmeal Banana Stout, (I really like bananas). Hmmmm...Wonder if I will need a blow off tube...;)
 
If you want banana, just use coopers yeast from their bottles, or weistephaner style yeast.
Anything over 20C gets heap of banana flavour without adding bananas.
Lots of people here reculture coopers yeast, the most common complaint is too much banana flavour from the yeast, and that same flavor is evident in weistephaner.
With the temp sligthly lower on coopers, you get a hint of banana and passionfruit.
 
I added some banana to a bit of my last batch after primary fermentation and got a bad infection. Watch out for that.
 
Always wanted to do a banana choc porter or some kind of beer like that. ramping up the temp on a weisse was the only way I could ever figure it out since banana is such a subtle flavor. I never dabbled in extract since we all know that banana and banana extract have different but good tastes. but I REALLY want to hear about hwo this turns out. I would be more interested however if you would have used a clean ale yeast instead of the weisse yeast. I think the combination of choc and the yeast profile will probably destroy the delicate banana. LET US KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!!!!

What temp did you ferm at?
 
Sounds great! I'd be tempted to push the yeast to the limit to try to extract fusels and banana esters before tossing in some bananas but what ever works, right?
 
i'm fermenting at chicago basement temperature.... which.. hangs around the 70s typically?

i know that it's been going a HARD bubble for well over 24 hours now....

Dycokac... if you have the records of that dunkel i'd love to see em. this crazy experiment was largely inspired by the fact i wanted to make a good dunkel, but felt like experimenting a little more.... dunkels may be (atleast in my opinion) the most overlooked genre of beer, and that really bums me out
 
update on the king gorilla,

First off... don't use bananas unless you want to spend a couple hours cleaning out your primary, and potentially throwing up at the sight of it all....

That being said... so far it is definitely coming out interesting. It is currently in the middle of secondary fermentation. the banana chilled out, and there are almost no wheat characteristics. the chocolate has really taken over.

we "dry bananaed" it and, it started to ferment again....

well see what happens
 
I've been experimenting with a banana bread beer here and I've been putting bananas in the secondary. This time it got 6lbs of bananas in the secondary. I did use some chocolate, but only .25 lbs for a 5 gallon batch. I also added 1 lb of flaked oats to give it that bread feel. It'll be done in the secondary in about 8 days or so. I also went with the Weihenstephan Weizen yeast. I may also add some banana flavoring to the keg after its ready if more banana flavor is needed. You defiantly have to be careful about the infection from the bananas in the secondary, you can't leave them in there to long. Cleanings not that bad as long as you cut the bananas up small enough to fit out because they are pretty mushy. I'll let ya know how this one turns out. The difference from the last batch I made is that I only used 4 lbs of bananas in the secondary and didn't get the taste I wanted, I also used a different yeast.
 
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