Plantains

[Judd]

So I'm doing a project for my History of Beer class, and I need to brew a plantain beer. I've heard that these are common in North-East Africa, but that's about all i know about them. Does anyone have any information about plantains, or African beers? I'm thinking of using Sorghum as a base.

 

[david_42]

Millet-based recipe for Tchouk - A traditional West African beverage

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=48092

 

[Revvy]

I googled...ALthough Plantain beer is mentioned throughout google, I can't find anything in depth....

Boy, I love plantains and cook with them alot...would like to know what you find out.

 

[raceskier]

I've been thinking of doing something similar with Ube yams. I was going to treat it like pumpkin, something a lot of people have brewed with. I would cook the startch in some manner to gelatinize, then mash it with malt and let the high diastatic power malt enzymes convert the startches. I believe you can malt the sorghum and achieve the same thing.

 

[TheCrane]

So I'm doing a project for my History of Beer class, and I need to brew a plantain beer. I've heard that these are common in North-East Africa, but that's about all i know about them. Does anyone have any information about plantains, or African beers? I'm thinking of using Sorghum as a base.

Sounds interesting. However, I am more interested in finding out at which university, and in which program do you receive credit for a History of F@(&ing Beer class ?!! You have made on very envious ecology grad student. Cheers!!

 

[Revvy]

I've been thinking, does it have to be beer? Can it be wine?

Either way, you'd want the plantains to be the ripest possible, to get the most sugars out of them.

 

[Judd]

Sounds interesting. However, I am more interested in finding out at which university, and in which program do you receive credit for a History of F@(&ing Beer class ?!! You have made on very envious ecology grad student. Cheers!!

University of King's College, in Halifax. Google it, the class is all over the new lately.

Thanks for all your help. I think I'm going to do a spruce beer, though. Will post recipe soon.

 

[jeffjjpkiser1]

I'm currently making a plantain beer with roasted coconut in my secondary. You can usually find plantain bananas in pretty much every Puerto Rican and Dominican dish there is. In order for the plantains to be ready, you literally need to have the skin turn black. I know it sounds gross but they only turn sweet when they are fully ripened and that only happens when the outside skin in black. I just switched it over to my secondary and added roasted coconut chips two days ago. I roasted them myself (minimum 2 hours in total, 1 hour each side) so the oils don't come out and kill the head retention. Base beer is wheat fruit. When I was cleaning out the drudge from my primary, you could smell the sweet part of the banana at the bottom and the bitter/sour taste at the top. I'm almost inclined to recommend swirling the carboy around from time to time so that sweetness at the bottom comes back up. Best of luck boys, I'll let you know how she turns out