15kg bananas - What to make?

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

gl0ckage

Regular.
Joined
Mar 29, 2013
Messages
333
Reaction score
5
Location
Huddersfield
Ok guys i have 15kg of bananas sat in my kitchen - They need using today or tomorrow. I have tried making a banana beer, i boiled bananas then threw that mixture into the mash and let it mash for 90 mins.

Tastes like ***, the bananas dont have a taste actually.

Anyone got a recipe for actual banana beer? I know theres a banana wine on her which i will use if i cannot find something to do with these.
 
Got offered 15kg of bananas for £4 - So not one to pass up a bargain i said yes lol :p

It's come out of my brewing budget to buy these things so im hoping to avoid baking with them :P
 
You could make a Gorilla family happy, if you live near a zoo. if you really have 15kilos, that a lot of banana - 33 lbs.

Alternatively, you could make about 15 litres of custard.

On a more serious note:
Banana bread does not actually need that many of them - they go go a long way in a loaf. The girls have made this a few times with over ripe bananas - a novelty item at best IMO.
I strongly suspect they go a long way in a beer, too, but htey might well be a good novelty there as well..
If you go down the wine route, I suspect they need pulping, fermententing, straining, clearing x2, siphoning about five times, at the end of which you get back to your own original observation - they don't taste of much that's any use to a drink and that's why they usually get eaten.

Is there even a banana liqueur?
 
there is a banana liquor cant remember it's name though.

They are getting over ripe now so i might stick them in a fermenter with a little bit of water, some yeast. Let them do their thing and then rack off the "juice" and top up with something. Maybe a completed beer - a mild?

I't s a whole box of bananas between 15-18 1kg bags of bananas, went into the supermarket said i wanted any fruits they were throwing away that night and that i'd pay for over-ripe fruit for brewing and they said £4 - They now give me a ring when they throwing fruit out and i come and put some money in the tills lol :p
 
Sounds like a plan, pulping gives the yeast a head start. I would guess bananas are short on acid, so adding citric or tartaric might be a plan, but how much, i could only guess. Adding tea insted of water might help later on whatever the ultimate use.

If you have nylon bag or even a seive, you could remove some of the pulp after an initial ferment and then add more sugar to whatever liquid you get off it.

What do the winemakers suggest?
 
You could probably chop and freeze a load for smoothies and future banana bread or custard, although I haven't actually tried - bananas never last that long with me around!

Slid said:
Is there even a banana liqueur?
I had a fantastic banana liqueur when I was in the canary islands. I think it's against forum rules to discuss distillation, probably due to the hmrc, so I'll just have to book a flight. ;)
 
I thought the banana flavor in beer came from the yeast used rather than real fruit.

I would have a go at a couple of banana wines and forget the beer.
 
CaptainMallard said:
You could probably chop and freeze a load for smoothies and future banana bread or custard, although I haven't actually tried - bananas never last that long with me around!

Slid said:
Is there even a banana liqueur?
I had a fantastic banana liqueur when I was in the canary islands. I think it's against forum rules to discuss distillation, probably due to the hmrc, so I'll just have to book a flight. ;)

Oh yes, I never really thought about that. My apologies for such foolishness.
At the LHBS, doing a "wash" with a super powered yeast and then adding flavourings seems all the rage, though I have never tried it myself. Spirits have always given me a very bad headache for some reason :? and I generally avoid them.
 
Slid said:
CaptainMallard said:
You could probably chop and freeze a load for smoothies and future banana bread or custard, although I haven't actually tried - bananas never last that long with me around!

Slid said:
Is there even a banana liqueur?
I had a fantastic banana liqueur when I was in the canary islands. I think it's against forum rules to discuss distillation, probably due to the hmrc, so I'll just have to book a flight. ;)

Oh yes, I never really thought about that. My apologies for such foolishness.
At the LHBS, doing a "wash" with a super powered yeast and then adding flavourings seems all the rage, though I have never tried it myself. Spirits have always given me a very bad headache for some reason :? and I generally avoid them.

My local HBS makes its money on the high powered yeast and flavourings - They actually sell the stuff to "D" it even stronger, guy was trying to get me to do it - i was like im ok, ill stick to the grains.

Wonder if the co2 will raise a voile, if i plop the bananas into my bag like mashing and ferment it with the banana in the voile but submerged i can just remove them after.
 
One thing I did for the kids when I got a load of bananas was to get some lolly sticks and peal the bananas and shove a lolly stick up its jaxi then dip it into melted chocolate and freeze. The kids loved them and they lasted for a while frozen.
 
I would expect you'd get better results dropping it in a dark ruby rather than a mild.
 
found this

2 1/2 lb / 1,100 grams mashed bananas
2 lb / 900 grams sugar
1/2 pint strong black tea
1 tablespoon citric acid
Water up to 1 gallon
Yeast nutrient
Sacch. Oryza wine yeast

METHOD - WHAT TO DO

Place bananas in water and bring to the boil. Strain and pour into a fermentation bucket over the sugar, stirring vigorously to dissolve. When cool add the citric acid, strong tea, yeast nutrient and wine yeast. Cover and leave to ferment for five days stirring daily. Using a fine sieve strain the liquid into a demijohn and use an airlock to seal the jar.

Store in a warm place and allow the fermentation to work. When fermentation has ceased, rack the wine into a clean jar and place in a cooler environment and leave for a further few months. When the wine is clear and stable siphon into bottles.

The cereal wine yeast works on the starch and stops this wine from becoming hazy.

Though as you see you will suffer problems with the starch in them perhaps a bit of amylase enzyme which you should be able to find unless you can find the yeast suggested.
 
Frozen ones also work well in a loaf, but you only need about 3 per go so may last some time :whistle:
 
Just a update on the beer i tried the other day - I just put it into a polypin, first tastes were horrible and as i was pouring it down the drain and just had a taste. It's got a mild/ruby taste and a extremely smooth mouthfeel - No overpowering flavours - Could drink it all day long

I didn't record anything of this brew as it was a test to see if it worked.

I used all the random malts i had lying around - also random hops i had left. here's the recipe

Ingredients
PS: This is for a 25L brewpot on BIAB.
1.50 kg Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 2 24.8 %
0.60 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (157.6 EBC) Grain 3 9.9 %
0.50 kg White Wheat Malt (4.7 EBC) Grain 4 8.3 %
0.03 kg Roasted Barley (591.0 EBC) Grain 7 0.5 %
0.30 kg Wheat, Torrified (3.3 EBC) Grain 5 5.0 %
0.12 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) Grain 6 2.0 %
28.35 g Glacier [5.60 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 24.1 IBUs
0.08 oz Cinnamon Stick (Boil 5.0 mins) Spice 11 -
0.79 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 10 -
10.00 g Glacier [5.60 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 9 5.1 IBUs
3.00 kg Banana (0.0 EBC) Adjunct 1 49.6 %
1.0 pkg Nottingham Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP039) [35.49 ml] Yeast 12

I might modify it again and use bananas - But be better at straining it as the "sludge" at the bottom of the barrel was disgusting.

Because of the amount of bananas i have im going to try all the recipes shared with me :)

Thanks guys/girls <3
 

Latest posts

Back
Top