Could this work? (Banana Wheat)...

[jrobidoux]

Am very new to brewing, and have limited space (am currently only brewing 1 gallon batches) and access to ingredients. That said, SWMBO would really like some banana brew, so I thought I would give something really basic a whirl:

1# Briess Bavarian Wheat DME
1# 20L Crystal Malt steeped

.5 ounces Willamette hops for about 13 IBU
Ale Yeast

For the banana, I was gonna drop some sliced banana, peel and all, in at the end of the boil (even though this may only accomplish the clouding of my beer) as well as racking to a secondary with puree'd/pasturized banana for a few weeks. If after all that I'm not getting any banana I could use some banana extract as a last resort.

Guess I am just wondering if there is any obvious reason why this wont work, otherwise I think I will just go for it. Thanks for any help you can offer!

 

[dlaramie08]

I'm not sure about all of that banana stuff, but if your ferment warm enough it should get you that banana flavor you're looking for as well. Especially if you use a wheat yeast an ferment at the top of it's temp range.

 

[Insomniac]

Use some pectic enzyme maybe, banana may take a while to age, but i've never seen anything clear faster! Would be interested how this turns out, ive got a banana mead aging but a banana wheat sounds good!

 

[TheMan]

Why not just use a hefe yeast and ferment it warm like mentioned above? You will get plenty of esters with that method, no actual banana needed.

 

[Insomniac]

Where's the fun in that?

 

[ghank15]

I just made a hefe with WLP 300(Bavarian Hefeweizen). It was at 68 degrees for the entire duration of fermentation and bottle conditioning.
Now, I love hefe's. But even when I am looking for the banana flavor I can't find it.

That said, my hefe tastes like banana heaven. The flavor is subtle enough so it isn't overpowering, but strong enough so that you know it is there.

You really don't need to add the banana, however, if you want to, I say go for it.

 

[jrobidoux]

Thanks everyone for the input. I am definetly going to see if I can get my hands on some of the WLP 300. My only concern with it though is that I don't really trust my noob methods for keeping the primary at just the right temperature to get the desired effect. Have been using a swamp cooler in my warm apartment and can keep it between 65-68 pretty easily, but if I scale back my ice pack usage the whole thing might just spin out of control...

 

[krumb]

Thanks everyone for the input. I am definetly going to see if I can get my hands on some of the WLP 300. My only concern with it though is that I don't really trust my noob methods for keeping the primary at just the right temperature to get the desired effect. Have been using a swamp cooler in my warm apartment and can keep it between 65-68 pretty easily, but if I scale back my ice pack usage the whole thing might just spin out of control...

you will do just fine. get the wlp300 and go to work!

the fun part of "making" beer is finding ways to create specific flavors without using the object that gives that flavor.

 

[ghank15]

if you are really going for the banana flavor, I wouldn't worry about ensuring an exact temperature. the most important time is the first 48ish hours. I could be wrong, but I think for that yeast, the happy zone is 64-65, which would produce fewer esters. The closer you get to 70, the more banana there will be.

Then again, adding bananas to something fermenting at 65 would probably achieve the same effect.

 

[TheMan]

Thanks everyone for the input. I am definetly going to see if I can get my hands on some of the WLP 300. My only concern with it though is that I don't really trust my noob methods for keeping the primary at just the right temperature to get the desired effect. Have been using a swamp cooler in my warm apartment and can keep it between 65-68 pretty easily, but if I scale back my ice pack usage the whole thing might just spin out of control...

Ferment at 65-68 for the first two or three days then remove it from the swamp cooler and let it get to room temp for the remainder. You'll have plenty of banana from that.

 

[jrobidoux]

So generally speaking then after the first few days of fermentation I can relax on my religious exchanging of cold ice packs for warm ones?

Insomniac: for what use is the pectic enzyme? And I agree with you, I have to at least be able to say there was some real banana in this brew at some point!

 

[Insomniac]

Pectic enzyme breaks down the pectin found in fruit. It helps release flavour and colour, but also, if you have heated the fruit it will stop it forming a pectin haze that will never clear. You will find more info down in the wine/cider/mead sections as it's used a lot in those.

 

[TheMan]

So generally speaking then after the first few days of fermentation I can relax on my religious exchanging of cold ice packs for warm ones?

I do not know how long you keep exchanging the cold ice packs, but after fermentation starts to die down (7-10 days likely) you probably don't need to keep exchanging them as often. And for the hefe, you can stop exchanging them sooner than other ales because you're trying to get the esters from the yeast that are released at higher temps.