Bananas Foster Creamy Ale (All Grain) **pic intensive**

[one8tvw]

Won't blending them make them pretty mushy?

Only asking because I'm making this recipe for an event which is about 20 days away, and my initial fermentation is almost complete. I didn't leave time for the week in the freezer.

I was going to just get some bananas, cut them up, spritz with StarSan, blend with rum, let it sit for like a day in the fridge, and then dump it in.

Think that will be okay?

That should've been fine, freezing really just breaks them down faster.

 

[heyta]

I thought about brewing this but before pureeing the bananas ACTUALLY make bananas foster with them, and caramelize some of the sugars. Maybe leave the brown sugar out of the boil too, and then just puree the bananas foster (without icecream of course)....

 

[rumballs]

Looking forward to giving this a shot soon.

 

[DblTrbl500]

Bananas Foster Brewing Update:

I saw this recipe thought it looked great. I made the wort by following the recipe close to the description. I varied the ingredients slightly according to what was available, with two row Canadian barley, and 15L caramel malt. I used the Saaz hops, adding ounce for 60 minutes, a pound of oats, a pound of flaked corn, two cups of brown sugar with 20 minutes to go, then another half ounce of Saaz at 10 minutes, and Whirlflock at 5 minutes. I used White Labs 001, the California ale yeast.

My original gravity was an eye-opening 1.080, the highest I have ever brewed. The wort had very sweet taste, with an unusual lightness (unlike heavy store-bought maple syrup). After about a day, the thickest krausen I had ever seen had formed. By 48 hours, some of it rose through my airlock, and flowed like cake batter onto the carboy. It even tasted like cake batter, with a bitter finish.

The krausen was so thick (just like photo three of the original post) I waited 12 days until it dissolved, then transferred to the secondary. Fermentation was in the 64 to 68 degree range for the first two weeks, then 70-72 during the hot Memorial Day Weekend. I pureed 14 bananas, about 5 pounds, that I froze when the skins were brown then added them to the carboy (four cups of puree). A second krausen formed, with the airlock going full-force. The banana puree sank to the bottom and looked just like the January 5 post, but is now less visible (it is four days later).

I did not want to add the rum or the vanilla to the secondary because I was not sure if they would be left behind in the trub when I racked it for bottling. However, it’s a good thing because there is very little head space in the carboy. I was also concerned the two fermentations plus rum would have so much alcohol that the other flavors would be lost. I'm planning on 350 to 500 cc of rum. I will also use vanilla extract, and will add 1 to 2 ounces to get a sweet finish.

Banana Chemistry: Bananas contain free glucose, free fructose and about 20% sucrose. When they turn brown, the starches are breaking down into simpler sugars, which I would expect to mean sucrose becomes glucose and fructose. Does anybody know what the yeast will do to the fructose?

The banana oil is isoamyl acetate, a compound made of isoamyl alcohol and acetic acid (vinegar). I am expect this will give the banana flavor. My guess is that yeast will not ferment it. Does anybody know how I can do to prevent it from breaking down to alcohol and vinegar?

I hope this beer turns out well. It has certainly been an unusual brew! I am planning to keep it in the secondary for 14 to 21 days, which would be June 8 to 15.

Comments Welcome!

 

[kerant]

It's on my list but I want to convert to 7gal. Is this a 5gal recipe?

 

[Wreck99]

I have a few on my list I want to make, but I think this one is next

 

[Brett3rThanU]

I just racked mine onto the bananas/rum/vanilla mixture:

 

[nsrooen]

I have had this on CO2 for about three months now, which is too long. First month it was great, banana aroma / flavor and hint of rum. Month two it was still drinkable with no banana aroma and slight hint of flavor. Month three it is undrinkable, the rum has come front and center and taken over, there is no trace of banana left. Not even sure if I will keep drinking it.

Perhaps the outcome would have been different if it had been bottled. If I make it again I will probably do a 2.5 gallon batch with less rum.

 

[sweetcell]

thanks for the detailed update, DblTrbl500!

Banana Chemistry: Bananas contain free glucose, free fructose and about 20% sucrose. When they turn brown, the starches are breaking down into simpler sugars, which I would expect to mean sucrose becomes glucose and fructose. Does anybody know what the yeast will do to the fructose?

yeast will munch down on fructose and turn it into alcohol. fructose is highly fermentable.

The banana oil is isoamyl acetate, a compound made of isoamyl alcohol and acetic acid (vinegar). I am expect this will give the banana flavor. My guess is that yeast will not ferment it. Does anybody know how I can do to prevent it from breaking down to alcohol and vinegar?

i'm relatively certain that yeast can't do a thing to isoamyl acetate. what was there before fermentation should still be there afterwards, unless it is volatile and gets blown off along with the CO2.

 

[smokinghole]

Well I bottled up my banana stout. I put over 2.5lbs of banana in 7.5 gallons. I ended up with 4 bottles short of three cases. I underestimated the sugar contribution of the bananas and didn't adjust my mash temp higher than 152. So I ended up at 1.008, however it doesn't have a thin feel even when warm. I will see how it ends up in three weeks, but I can certainly taste the banana. I think it'll be a good beer but it is a bit boozier than I hoped at 8.2%.

 

[one8tvw]

I have had this on CO2 for about three months now, which is too long. First month it was great, banana aroma / flavor and hint of rum. Month two it was still drinkable with no banana aroma and slight hint of flavor. Month three it is undrinkable, the rum has come front and center and taken over, there is no trace of banana left. Not even sure if I will keep drinking it.

Perhaps the outcome would have been different if it had been bottled. If I make it again I will probably do a 2.5 gallon batch with less rum.

bottling may have been a better option, mine still have tons of banana flavor. i actually just waxed the last 6 and dont plan on opening them for a long time.

 

[nsrooen]

bottling may have been a better option, mine still have tons of banana flavor. i actually just waxed the last 6 and dont plan on opening them for a long time.

Good to know.

 

[razorbuck]

I bottled a batch of this on 4/22/12. I tried one after a week and it tasted like horrible brown bananas. I decided to give it a full month after bottling then give my full opinion. A full five weeks later i put one in the fridge for a day then opened it and it blew all but an ounce of beer all over my kitchen. However, the gross banana taste had now faded and was much more pleasant. I have a lot of banana crud in my bottles and it looks really gross so I am wondering if there is some sort of infection. Pictures will come as soon as i'm sober

 

[Wreck99]

I only have 1oz Saaz on hand so 60 min addition is good. For the 10 min addition I have a couple of choices: citra, cascade, fuggles, and magnum. Any of these work?

 

[LLBeanJ]

Don't waste your Saaz on the bittering addition. Use it for the late addition. Use anything else for the 60 minute. I used Cascade and it turned out great, but really pretty much anything will work for bittering.

 

[Wreck99]

How about this crazy idea? Given to me by a buddy of mine the mad scientist lol. Magnum 0.5oz and fuggles 0.5oz blend for bittering? Then saaz for aroma at 10. Or is it bad practice to blend bittering hops?

 

[Wreck99]

Another question I had was around adding the bananas, rum, and vanilla. Do they need to be boiled before adding to the secondary?

Also, any thoughts of my last comment regarding which other hops to use?

Thanks in advance.

 

[LLBeanJ]

No need to boil the bananas, rum, and vanilla. The rum added to the puree will help to sanitize the bananas. The vanilla beans should be soaked separately in an ounce or two of rum, which will sanitize them, for about a week before adding to secondary.

Regarding the bittering hops, I don't think there's anything forbidden about mixing hop varieties, but in this case, you shouldn't need to. Since Magnum is a high alpha acid variety (typically 13-14%) and Saaz is much lower (3-4%), it takes much less Magnum to get the same IBUs as Saaz. Fuggles, on the other hand, are just a little higher AA than Saaz (around 5-6%). So, with all this in mind, you could go with either .30 oz. Magnum or .75 oz. of Fuggles and get approx. the same bittering as 1 ounce of Saaz.

 

[Wreck99]

Great. Thank you for the advice. I really appreciate it! I still have a lot to learn.

 

[DrunkMick]

Hey,

Was checking out your recipe for the BF Cream Ale and I think it sounds amazing! Want to make it for my mothers birthday as we're from New Orleans and she makes BF only a few times a year.

Although i have read over the thread quite a few times I wanted to confirm with you before I set out to brew;

What was the total count of Vanilla Beans used?
I counted a total of 4
#1 & 2 - 20 minutes left in the boil w/ the brown sugar (split into 4 smaller strips total)
#3 - to infuse flavor into the 8oz of Sailor Jerry Rum added to the banana puree
#4 - to the secondary after 7 days.
Or just 3 total with my assumption that you used 1 to infuse the flavor into the 8oz of rum being wrong?

And as I have never done a secondary fermentation do I add more yeast or does the yeast from the primary transfer to the secondary when I siphon it into the carboy?

Did you do a tertiary fermentation with this one as well? (you mentioned it but never confirmed) and if so, why? (basically whats the advantage to doing a 3rd fermentation)

Did you cold crash this at all to reduce the amount of "floaties" in your final bottled product?

What was the final time frame from grain to fully carbonated bottle? (by my math from your posts it was 55 days. From Jan 2nd to Feb 25th)

Also, did you sparge at all? And if so what was the amount?

And finally, any word on your entry into the Home Brew Competition?


Sorry for all of the questions (still new at this, have only done 3 brews so far), but Im curious as I have entered everything into my iBrewMaster app for my iPad and some of the numbers/readings are different from yours.

Thanks in advanced!

 

[jdub44]

I brewed this beer last night. The only thing I changed was I switched out the Crystal 10 with wyermans carahell, which is pretty much the same thing. I also brewed it as a 6 gallon batch, so my OG was only 1.063, which is fine by me as I didn't want the beer to be that big, and it will still go up with the bananas and rum additions later.
Can't wait for the results. I will post back when it's complete.

 

[Wreck99]

I'll be brewing this up tomorrow I think. Already have the ingredients. This sounds delicious!

 

[LLBeanJ]

Okay, folks, here's an update on my adventures with this brew...

I ended up brewing it twice. For my first attempt, here was the plan and here was the results. To summarize the first attempt, I veered away sharply from one8tvw's recipe and didn't care much at all for the results.

Not to be easily deterred, I decided to take another stab at it. I basically used one8tvw's recipe with some slight mods. I dialed back the OG, shooting for an ABV in the low 6's and I subbed Cascade for the Saaz because that's what I had available. I also racked over a Wyeast 3068 yeast cake from a Hefe that I kegged earlier that day and then fermented at 70° in an effort to get some banana esters from the yeast and used a 5 gallon paint strainer bag to contain the puree and vanilla beans when I moved it to secondary after 14 days in primary. Some of the puree still got through, but most was contained in the bag and I've yet to pour a glass with any floaties present.

The verdict: Awesome beer!!! Explosive banana flavor with a hint of vanilla and a nice boozy rum presence in the background. It came in at 6.3% after primary, so it's actually somewhere north of that with the bananas and rum. Everyone who's tried it so far has loved it. This recipe is a definite keeper and I am pretty sure that popular demand is going to require that I brew this one a couple times a year at a min.

Thanks for doing the legwork on this one, one8tvw!!! My hat's off to you.

 

[Grinch]

I dialed back the OG, shooting for an ABV in the low 6's and I subbed Cascade for the Saaz because that's what I had available.
Thanks for doing the legwork on this one, one8tvw!!! My hat's off to you.

What did your grain bill look like? I'm thinking of doing this one too, but I'd like the ABV to be a little lower as well.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Here's the recipe I ended up going with... (note that it's for a 4 gallon batch)

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Bananas Foster Creamy Ale - Take 2 (4g)
Brewer: Kevin S
Asst Brewer:
Style: Fruit Beer
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 5.700 gal
Post Boil Volume: 4.200 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 4.000 gal
Bottling Volume: 3.250 gal
Estimated OG: 1.060 SG
Estimated Color: 9.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 22.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 80.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5 lbs 4.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 65.6 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 2 12.5 %
10.0 oz Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 3 7.8 %
10.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 4 7.8 %
0.500 oz Cascade [7.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 19.1 IBUs
0.01 oz FermCap-S (Boil 60.0 mins) Other 6 -
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 7 -
0.250 oz Cascade [7.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 3.5 IBUs
8.0 oz Brown Sugar, Dark [Boil for 10 min](50.0 Sugar 9 6.3 %
1.00 tbsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 5.0 mins) Other 10 -
1.0 pkg Weihenstephan Weizen (Wyeast Labs #3068) Yeast 11 -
8.00 oz Rum, Banana (Secondary 14.0 days) Flavor 12 -
4.00 lb Bananas, Pureed (Secondary 14.0 days) Flavor 13 -
2.00 Items Vanilla Bean (Secondary 14.0 days) Flavor 14 -


Mash Schedule: BIAB, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 8 lbs
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Saccharification Add 24.997 qt of water at 156.5 F 152.0 F 75 min
Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min 168.0 F 15 min

 

[DblTrbl500]

June update

I bottled my Bananas Foster ale this past Sunday, after it had spent two weeks in the primary and another three in the secondary. The normal trub layer at the bottom of the carboy was about four inches tall, compared with about an inch or so with a regular secondary fermentation. Since I had pureed the bananas and let them ferment for so long, I assumed that all of the banana oil that was going to dissolve in the beer was already there and guessed that the extra trub was the cell walls and internal organelles of the banana fruit. I was trying to get a clear beer, so I tried to leave this “pulp” (banana bones and guts) behind when I siphoned it to the bottling bucket. Some started to get siphoned toward the bottom so I left about a quart of sludge behind.

The final gravity was 1.011 before adding bottling sugar, rum, or vanilla extract. The original gravity was 1.080 which means the alcohol content was about 9.1%.

I added about a half ounce of vanilla extract and could not taste anything. Another half ounce and still nothing. So in went the last remaining ounce, and I could barely taste a faint vanilla favor. The beer had a high level of alcohol so I started adding rum 50 ml at a time. I’ve never been a rum drinker so I stopped when I could taste it at 150 ml, then added another 50ml “because the beer asked me to”. I always follow instructions when the beer is speaking.

I am now watching and waiting for the beer to condition. I usually allow three weeks, which would put uncapping day at July 8. I am hoping for a creamy head with an amber-ish beer (like LLbeanJ’s photo), followed by the banana-rum and the vanilla finish.

Comments and feedback are welcome. Cheers!

 

[jdub44]

You're not kidding about the trub from the banana! I brewed mine on 6/2, transferred to secondary on 6/10 on top of 4.6 lbs of bananas puréed with 10 oz of Sailor Jerry spiced rum and two more split vanilla beans. I plan on keeping in secondary for another 2 weeks before kegging. I'm glad I bumped the recipe up to 6 gal now!

 

[BeefCrewBrew]

Thank you everyone for this thread. I'm a newbie around here. In fact, this is my first post. I have enjoyed every second of reading this while pretending to work. I have a serious beer boner going on right now.

I have my first ever brew in the primary right now. Can't wait to bottle and taste. And I'll be brewing this recipe at some point after I get this whole thing figured out a little more. Thanks!!

 

[Lycan]

Mmmmm I want this real bad

 

[Wreck99]

Mine is a little over a week into secondary, guess I'll give it another week or two. My banana puree is floating on the top, but thats because I poured the banana puree over the beer after it was in secondary by itself for a day...hope this gets the banana flavor in thorough.

Brewed - 6/4
Xfer to 2ndary - 6/22