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

[tx-brewer]

Cold crashing mine tonight as there is still a good bit of junk floating. Probably bottle sunday if it clears by then.

Did you go to tertiary or just secondary? I am planning on putting into tertiary this weekend and hope it clears well. Don't have room to cold crash

 

[cbehr]

Did you go to tertiary or just secondary? I am planning on putting into tertiary this weekend and hope it clears well. Don't have room to cold crash

Just a secondary when add the fruit/rum mixture. Luckily it's about 30-40 degrees around here this time of year so I can put the carboy in my garage for a day or two.

 

[tx-brewer]

Ok, racked to tertiary tonight. There was a lot of banana gunk left and some came along for the ride. Hopefully most of it will settle out over the next week. Taste was good, I was hoping for a little more sweetness though but still very excited

 

[ChrisL_]

I had never heard of Bananas Foster until we took the kids to Disney this Christmas and loved it (the Bananas Foster that is, Disney was ok too )
Now I found this thread and am almost pissed off that I just picked up the ingredients to do a Nut Brown Ale. Oh well, I have subscribed to the thread and this one is definately next up after doing my Nut Brown Ale.
I am new to brewing. My first batch (a pumpkin ale) is fermenting away as I type. This hobby and forum may combine to give me a drinking problem

 

[jdub44]

I brewed this again on Saturday. It was such a hit last year, I did 10 gallons this time. I kept everything exactly the same as my initial recipe, which is slightly different then the OP's. I had gotten some El Diablo yeast from Flying Dog brewery which is local to me and decided to use that instead of Chico in one of the 5 gals batches. El diablo is a Belgian yeast that they use in Raging Bitch. Should be interesting to see how they compare.

 

[sweetcell]

i believe someone made such a suggestion earlier in this thread - to use a belgian yeast and ferment warm, to get banana esters.

even if you don't go warm, should be interesting!

 

[ChrisL_]

I am dying to brew this up, but due to busy family and work schedules I have not got around to it, but could do it this Sunday. My problem is that I will be away from home for a while, so I could rack it onto the bananas after a week in primary, but would not be able to get back to it until almost 4 weeks to rack it off the bananas. I believe the original recipe calls for a 3 week secondary?
Anyone have experience with an extended secondary on this recipe?

 

[LLBeanJ]

I've brewed it 3 or 4 times now and 2 weeks was what I did every time. I'd be concerned with mold growing on the fruit if left much longer. You can brew it now and either leave it in primary until you return or transfer to secondary but don't add the bananas until after you return. I'd probably opt for the extended primary if it were me.

 

[sweetcell]

I don't think mold will grow in there. the bananas provide some fermentable sugars and will kick up fermentation again - this will push out the O2. mold won't grow in CO2.

 

[TechMiller]

This will likely be on my list of things to do!

 

[ChrisL_]

I don't think mold will grow in there. the bananas provide some fermentable sugars and will kick up fermentation again - this will push out the O2. mold won't grow in CO2.

I am not thinking any mold will grow. Too much alcohol and CO2 in there. I am more thinking of potential off flavours from being in the fermentor too long.

I might just play it safe and wait for a better time to brew this up.

 

[BarrelheadBrew]

I can't comment with regards to "final product" as mine is conditioning now, but I left mine on bananas for a month. When bottling, it tasted great. I think you should be fine...

 

[tx-brewer]

Just wanted to say thanks for the recipe. It was very good.

And everyone making this, set at least a sixer aside to age a couple months. I found at first, rum was hard to taste, after a month or so, rum was much more distinct, and after a few months all the flavors kind of meld together and even out, very good, too bad I only got two bombers left

 

[one8tvw]

I still have some from my original batch. I can't believe how good they taste. I'm
So glad people have really been enjoying my creation.

 

[tx-brewer]

I still have some from my original batch. I can't believe how good they taste. I'm
So glad people have really been enjoying my creation.

Oh yes, very much. Got great reviews from everyone that tried it. I think next time I would like to make it a little sweeter. Need to do some researching, thanks again

 

[Nefariouss]

I still have some from my original batch. I can't believe how good they taste. I'm
So glad people have really been enjoying my creation.

This was my second ever batch of beer made. Loved it, and so did everyone who tried it. Thanks.

 

[theIrish]

Is everyone putting vanilla beans in the boil too, or just in the secondary? It seems like all the vanilla flavor/aroma would get driven off from boiling 20 mins.

 

[LLBeanJ]

I've only been adding the vanilla beans to secondary.

 

[ChrisL_]

I am stoked to be finally ready to brew this up. I have my first ever yeast starter going on my new stir plate (made from scrap parts from work) and will be mashing in tomorrow morning. As usual, the worst part for this hobby will be the waiting ~8 weeks to drink this, but I am sure it will be worth the wait.

 

[TechMiller]

I am going to try a variation on this, by making a base unflavored brown ale and then adding bananas, vanilla, rum, to the secondary.

 

[tx-brewer]

I am going to try a variation on this, by making a base unflavored brown ale and then adding bananas, vanilla, rum, to the secondary.

What do you mean unflavored Brown ale

 

[ChrisL_]

So I racked this onto the banana rum mixture 14 days ago and went away for holidays and I came home to what you see below. Anyone brew this and see anything like it?





A couple of notes.

1. I had no lid for my bucket with a hole for the bung/airlock and when I drilled the hole it made a few cracks so a bit of air may have got in.
2. I input in a mesh bag and used it to lift out the banana mixture.
3. I took a sample and it reads 1.006
4. I don't detect any off favours. The banana flavour is there, albeit just barely. The taste is not bad, but having said that I have not yet learned to appreciate the taste of hydro samples. To me they are just warm flat green beer.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[TechMiller]

What do you mean unflavored Brown ale

Just a basic brown ale, malt, hops, little bit of brown sugar, nothing fancy.

 

[ChrisL_]

I bottled this up the other night and had an extra half bottle so I forded carbed it to get a sneak peak. It tastes pretty good. I did this as per the original recipe but only 2.5 gallons and used three pounds of bananas. Thus far I find the rum to be a bit hot and the banana to be be a touch faint. Hopefully the rum mellows a bit with time, but I think this is going to be a fine tasting beer.

 

[tx-brewer]

I bottled this up the other night and had an extra half bottle so I forded carbed it to get a sneak peak. It tastes pretty good. I did this as per the original recipe but only 2.5 gallons and used three pounds of bananas. Thus far I find the rum to be a bit hot and the banana to be be a touch faint. Hopefully the rum mellows a bit with time, but I think this is going to be a fine tasting beer.

It does, this ages very nicely, stash a couple bottles or a 6 pack for a couple months if you can

 

[ChrisL_]

It does, this ages very nicely, stash a couple bottles or a 6 pack for a couple months if you can

That won't be an issue. I am not big on waiting, but I refuse to put this much work into my beer to drink it when it is too young and not at its best. Besides I have a keg of Leffe clone to keep me busy for the next little while!

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[ardonthorn5]

i'd like to do this recipe and use some munich malt and maybe some darker crystal....

 

[thiessenace]

I.am thinking ill.be brewing this on saturday. Any suggestions?

 

[rappell]

I brewed last Saturday an the og was 1.073. Checked it today when going to secondary with bananas.........1.010! ABV 8.3... Tastes great? I had the vanilla beans in the Sailor Jerry for a month. Anyone have an idea how much the abv will go up do to the rum?

 

[TaylorBrewed]

I brewed last Saturday an the og was 1.073. Checked it today when going to secondary with bananas.........1.010! ABV 8.3... Tastes great? I had the vanilla beans in the Sailor Jerry for a month. Anyone have an idea how much the abv will go up do to the rum?

How much do you estimate to have to bottle ? 5 gallons ? Did you use only 8oz of rum ? I have never had sailor jerry rum and don't know the alcohol level. Just guessing and saying you do 5 gallon batches and the alcohol is 40 percent and you used the original recipe of 8 oz then I come up with this .

5 gallons equals 640 oz.
8oz rum divided by 40 percent alcohol equals 3.2oz of actual alcohol .
3.2 divided by 640 plus 8 equals .49 percent added . So you should have a 8.8 percent beer if all is true. Hope that helps