Banana Wine

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I may actually have to make this, it appears my nephew's stopped making wine and quit being the vitner of his club, and I have the very last bottle of his banana wine, that is so crucial to my famous Jamaican Banana Bread that I give out for Christmas. It calls for about a bottle of this and a fifth of jamaican rum for the 50 or so loaves I make....

I will not be able to do it after this batch unless I get cranking...
 
When grain-bag cools, squeeze to extract as much liquid as possible.
Click to expand...
Made some of this last night. It was hard to get much squeezed out. I didnt do it but was wondering about putting some of the pulp right in the fermentor to get more of the banana flavor in the wine?
 
polk121 said:
Made some of this last night. It was hard to get much squeezed out. I didnt do it but was wondering about putting some of the pulp right in the fermentor to get more of the banana flavor in the wine?
Click to expand...

It'd be very hard to strain afterwards if you did that, I think. Trust me, there is plenty of banana flavor in the wine. It'd be really hard to rack with all of that pulp.
 
I made this in October of '08 and I bottled it last night. Wow, it has a great flavor. It's like a white wine with a rich fruitiness from the bananas/raisins. It really exceeded my expectations.

I hardly squeezed the bananas out of impatience, but it's hard to argue with results.
 
Quick Question... Yooper looking in your direction

I started a 5 gallon batch last night

When racking time, i'm assuming (based on fermented pulp sediment) that im going to lose some volume in the transfer.

Should i top up to 5 gallons again with water, or just scale it back to a 3 gallon batch to preserve the flavor? I'm wondering if the water will dilute the wine.
 
arrowgin said:
Quick Question... Yooper looking in your direction

I started a 5 gallon batch last night

When racking time, i'm assuming (based on fermented pulp sediment) that im going to lose some volume in the transfer.

Should i top up to 5 gallons again with water, or just scale it back to a 3 gallon batch to preserve the flavor? I'm wondering if the water will dilute the wine.
Click to expand...

i racked off with water on one batch and it never came out quite right. The flavor was a bit off and i definitely preferred the none-top-off batch....but thats just me
 
I made a 3gal batch of this 2weeks ago and I just looked at the bottle of pectic emzymes and it says 1/4 tsb per 5gal and the recipe calls for 1 tsp per gallon. Is this right? I put 3 tsp in it. Did I screw up? If so is it bad??
Thanks
 
Jbt said:
I made a 3gal batch of this 2weeks ago and I just looked at the bottle of pectic emzymes and it says 1/4 tsb per 5gal and the recipe calls for 1 tsp per gallon. Is this right? I put 3 tsp in it. Did I screw up? If so is it bad??
Thanks
Click to expand...

No, that should be ok. My bottle of pectic enzyme says "1-2 tsp" on it, though. I assume they'd be the same strength but maybe not. Even so, a bit too much wont' hurt.
 
I only looked at the first 2 pages of comments so my apologies if this has been addressed before, but how did you get it to be that clear? Doesn't boiling fruit give the wine a permanent haze? I only placed the fruit in at flame-out and I still got haze. It tastes amazing (made it a year ago), just has a haze.
 
DavidSteel said:
I only looked at the first 2 pages of comments so my apologies if this has been addressed before, but how did you get it to be that clear? Doesn't boiling fruit give the wine a permanent haze? I only placed the fruit in at flame-out and I still got haze. It tastes amazing (made it a year ago), just has a haze.
Click to expand...

Normally, I don't boil fruit. but in this recipe it works well! It just cleared on its own, thanks to the pectic enzyme.

If the haze doesn't clear, you could use some more pectic enzyme. If that still doesn't clear it up, you could use sparkelloid.
 
YooperBrew said:
Normally, I don't boil fruit. but in this recipe it works well! It just cleared on its own, thanks to the pectic enzyme.

If the haze doesn't clear, you could use some more pectic enzyme. If that still doesn't clear it up, you could use sparkelloid.
Click to expand...

I see, maybe I'll throw some more in next time
 
My batch finally started today. Did a two gallon batch and can't wait till I can try this... might have to make it my 2012 wine to celebrate the end of the world if your into that Mayan curse and all...
 
about to start this, would it hurt any to add some more bananas to this i think i got around 4 and a half to 5 lbs?
 
Rowdy said:
about to start this, would it hurt any to add some more bananas to this i think i got around 4 and a half to 5 lbs?
Click to expand...

Well, you could. It's pretty banana-y as it is, though. Even a few years later, it's mellowed and is very nice- but still has a banana nose. I guess it depends on what you want- if you want a wine that screams BANANA at you, then more banana would be fine. If you want a fruity table wine with a banana flavor and aroma, then I'd do the recipe as is.
 
will do as is and save the rest for a second batch..

what do you think of premier covee as a yeast for this?
 
cool thanks. after bottling not planning on opening for a couple years
 
I made a 2nd batch last Saturday. So it is ready to go to secondary today. It is pretty active yet. My question is the recipe says to dump it in to the secondary. Or should I rack? There must be some sediment in there after the boiling fermentation. I did not know if the sediment in it maybe still part of the fermenting. This is my first wine.

Thanks
Jim
 
Jbt said:
I made a 2nd batch last Saturday. So it is ready to go to secondary today. It is pretty active yet. My question is the recipe says to dump it in to the secondary. Or should I rack? There must be some sediment in there after the boiling fermentation. I did not know if the sediment in it maybe still part of the fermenting. This is my first wine.

Thanks
Jim
Click to expand...

If it's still pretty active, you can pour it into secondary.
 
i just racked this after a week in primary, i forgot to add the raisins.
should i re-rack and add them now or can i wait till the first 30 day racking?
DSCF1338.jpg


*edit*
just re-read the instructions, looks like i am doing it right. lol
 
Mine looked just like that for the first couple of weeks. Went in the primary on 1/31 at 1.095. Then racked to secondary and air locked on 2/6 in was down to 1.020. And now it looks like THIS!:rockin:

100_0509.jpg

100_0512.jpg
 
YooperBrew said:
Not too strong, but it has a definite fruity nose. I'm not sure that it screams "bananas", though.
Click to expand...

I think I might have to make a small batch of it. I've never made wine before, but this summer I was planning on dabbling in some fruit wine making. Dandelion wine is another that I plan on trying as well.
 
I was just too intrigued so I started a gallon of this back in November. I had forgotten about it and discovered it in the cupboard behind a porter that I was kegging. It's cleared incredibly! I took another peek at this thread and realized I added 2 lbs of raisins instead of 1, and I have a feeling it's going to finish too sweet, but I'm still looking forward to it. The only taste I got was a few drops from the eyedropper that I use for samples and the alcohol was overwhelming. I racked it off the raisins and had to top off with about a quart, so hopefully it will mellow.

Cool recipe.
 
Are any steps necessary (or recommended) to sanitize the raisins? Do they present any significant risk of infection?
 
emissary said:
Are any steps necessary (or recommended) to sanitize the raisins? Do they present any significant risk of infection?
Click to expand...

No. Just use a fresh, unopened box and you'll be fine. Use golden raisins, not the regular ones. The regular ones are very dark and will make the wine brown-ish.
 
I have frozen a few black bananas and now i whant to try this, its like 2 pounds but, the only yeast i do have is nottingham, can i try? or is a waste of time?
 
I don't know, man. I think if you're going to put two years into something that it's worth the extra few bucks for champagne yeast :)
 
robtotten said:
I don't know, man. I think if you're going to put two years into something that it's worth the extra few bucks for champagne yeast :)
Click to expand...

I made all my wine with glorious Fleischmanns baking yeast and they all turned out awesome. Fleischmanns gives it an extra sweet/fruity/tang flavor which is great in Blueberry Wine particularly. But the extra flavor is not so prevalent in lighter wines (besides it being a bit more sweet). And no, the sweetness is not from unfermented sugars (that had the capabilities to be fermented). I can get my wines up to 16% with Fleischmanns.

But I only make wine because I can do it for free. If there is some leftover, old, or unwanted fruit, I just take it and make wine with it. I don't really care for wine, so I don't worry about how long it takes. It's a bit of work racking it and keeping an eye on it, but nothing worth complaining over.

I have about 14 gallons of wine (14 1-gallon batches) that have been sitting for about 1-2 years that I still haven't bottled. Too cheap/lazy to buy a corker and some corks. Yeahhhhh
 
The wine or champagne yeast is hard to find here in brazil, thats wy i dont have it, im thinking to order some in my next on line shop. btw, those things i order fror USA its a lot more cheap tham by from local HBS.
and tks for the help, i will try with some bread yeast, my uncle have a banana farm and i what to try before tell him its possible to do.
 
I just read through this whole thread, definitely will have to get started on this ASAP!
 
We made one gallon of this wine at first it looked like something moped up from the floor.now its this clear golden color.its going to sit in the jug for months.thanks.
 
I started my banana wine about a year ago, and it now ready to be bottled. Should I bulk age it for a while longer or bottle it now? I always seem to get a bit of sediment in every wine I make. I don't usually use sparkaloid, because I always wonder if it takes away the flavor.
 
floyd336 said:
I started my banana wine about a year ago, and it now ready to be bottled. Should I bulk age it for a while longer or bottle it now? I always seem to get a bit of sediment in every wine I make. I don't usually use sparkaloid, because I always wonder if it takes away the flavor.
Click to expand...

If it's still throwing lees, I'd wait. But it you don't have lees after 3-6 months, it's ok to bottle it. My dandelion wine throws lees forever, but the banana wine seems to stop and the wine stays clear without sediment in the bottle.
 
Wow. I absolutely need to try making a batch of this. Off to get some bananas! I'll see if I can try it with some Ice Cream bananas. They're delicious. When they turn black they have really do taste a bit like vanilla ice cream.
 

Similar threads

I
Blueberry wine sulphur smell
Replies
18
Views
2K
Ibrew2
I
A
Help with Cherry wine
Replies
4
Views
990
Erik the Awful
E
nashiora
"We have Heart of Darkness at home", or a melomel inspired by the fact I'll probably never taste Heart of Darkness
Replies
13
Views
357
Raptor99
Raptor99
S
Mango peach cider
Replies
1
Views
511
Srimmey
S
D the Catastrophist
Rose Hip Wine
Replies
14
Views
2K
SatchIce9
SatchIce9
InkBird 300

Latest posts

Back
Top