# Lbs of bananas for 3 gal of wine



## Victorthenazarene (Feb 8, 2020)

looking to make a banana wine, how many lbs would you recommend for 3 gals? What is the process of getting a high alcohol content without having my starting gravity too high?


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## BernardSmith (Feb 11, 2020)

I guess my question is why would you want to make a high alcohol wine? With wine balance is everything and to make a wine that has a high ABV is like running the marathon on stilts. You want a high ABV drink - then steep banana peels in vodka for a month, strain, and add enough simple syrup to sweeten this to your satisfaction. If you want a wine you should be aiming for about 10-12% ABV. Much above that and you are sitting on a two legged stool. 

If you want to make the wine from the fruit and not the peel (and I have made both - but the peel makes a better wine , in my opinion) you need to use VERY ripe bananas. By that I mean bananas that are really very squishy, with the peel being very dark if not black. I would use about 5 lbs of bananas per gallon but I would begin with about 1.5 gallons of water because you want to boil the fruit for about 30 minutes to extract the sugars and flavors and a great deal of that water is going to be uncollectable when you strain the fruit. 

If you like running on stilts then you step feed the yeast. Begin with about 2 lbs of sugar + the banana liquor and when the gravity has dropped to about 1.000 add another /14 - 1/2 lb of sugar and repeat until you feel that you don't the wine to taste as hot as a spirit or the yeast have quit because of alcohol poisoning... But as I say, you drink wine by the glass. You sip spirits by the shot glass. Very different drinks...


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## Victorthenazarene (Feb 11, 2020)

BernardSmith said:


> I guess my question is why would you want to make a high alcohol wine? With wine balance is everything and to make a wine that has a high ABV is like running the marathon on stilts. You want a high ABV drink - then steep banana peels in vodka for a month, strain, and add enough simple syrup to sweeten this to your satisfaction. If you want a wine you should be aiming for about 10-12% ABV. Much above that and you are sitting on a two legged stool.
> 
> If you want to make the wine from the fruit and not the peel (and I have made both - but the peel makes a better wine , in my opinion) you need to use VERY ripe bananas. By that I mean bananas that are really very squishy, with the peel being very dark if not black. I would use about 5 lbs of bananas per gallon but I would begin with about 1.5 gallons of water because you want to boil the fruit for about 30 minutes to extract the sugars and flavors and a great deal of that water is going to be uncollectable when you strain the fruit.
> 
> If you like running on stilts then you step feed the yeast. Begin with about 2 lbs of sugar + the banana liquor and when the gravity has dropped to about 1.000 add another /14 - 1/2 lb of sugar and repeat until you feel that you don't the wine to taste as hot as a spirit or the yeast have quit because of alcohol poisoning... But as I say, you drink wine by the glass. You sip spirits by the shot glass. Very different drinks...


 
Understood and appreciate the the feedback. I’ll take you advice on the alcohol content. So about 15 lbs of overripe banana boiled on 1.5 gallons of water for 30 mins. Then add the the other 1.5 with enough sugar to get 12% alcohol. What is your take on brown sugar over white? How does the peel make it better?


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## BernardSmith (Feb 11, 2020)

The volume of water I mentioned was based on a gallon of wine. I could not tell you how much water you want to use to boil the fruit. I don't know the volume 15 lbs of chopped bananas. There's raw sugar which is brown and brown sugar which is colored and flavored. I have no experience using brown sugar but I am sure it will add flavors (some of which you might like and some of which you may not).
In my opinion, the peel is better for a couple of reasons. It provides a lot of flavor much like the zest of oranges and lemons and the flavors come from material that is for the most part a waste product. I eat a banana almost every day and I save the peel (store them in my freezer until I am ready to make a banana wine. So the cost of this raw material is zero. It also means that I don't have to compost the fruit after I strain the fruit from the liquor. In my experience you need to age wine made from the fruit for longer than you need to age wine made from the peel. (same amount of time extracting the flavors and color from the peel - about 30 minutes... )… BUT and here is the downside, I have no idea how much pesticide and what pesticides are used on bananas before they are exported to the US. And I have no good idea how to ensure that I am not extracting those pesticides when I boil the fruit or the peel... That said, wine made from the fruit itself is delicious and wine made from the peel is also delicious. From the peel the extract is easy to strain. from the fruit... you have to do a little more work to collect the liquid...


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## subseageorge (Jun 2, 2020)

BernardSmith said:


> I guess my question is why would you want to make a high alcohol wine? With wine balance is everything and to make a wine that has a high ABV is like running the marathon on stilts. You want a high ABV drink - then steep banana peels in vodka for a month, strain, and add enough simple syrup to sweeten this to your satisfaction. If you want a wine you should be aiming for about 10-12% ABV. Much above that and you are sitting on a two legged stool.
> 
> If you want to make the wine from the fruit and not the peel (and I have made both - but the peel makes a better wine , in my opinion) you need to use VERY ripe bananas. By that I mean bananas that are really very squishy, with the peel being very dark if not black. I would use about 5 lbs of bananas per gallon but I would begin with about 1.5 gallons of water because you want to boil the fruit for about 30 minutes to extract the sugars and flavors and a great deal of that water is going to be uncollectable when you strain the fruit.
> 
> If you like running on stilts then you step feed the yeast. Begin with about 2 lbs of sugar + the banana liquor and when the gravity has dropped to about 1.000 add another /14 - 1/2 lb of sugar and repeat until you feel that you don't the wine to taste as hot as a spirit or the yeast have quit because of alcohol poisoning... But as I say, you drink wine by the glass. You sip spirits by the shot glass. Very different drinks...



Do you have a recipe for making the banana wine using the peels ? 

Thanks


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## robert81650 (Jun 2, 2020)

Yes, I would like to see it...........


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## BernardSmith (Jun 2, 2020)

No recipe, as such. I collected and washed about 15 or 20 peels and boiled them in enough water to cover them for about 15 minutes and added enough sugar to bring the gravity to about 1.090 if the total volume would be 1 US gallon (about 2.25 lbs of sugar) . I allow the water to cool overnight. Best to use organic bananas - then you can be more confident that they have not been doused in pesticides. 
With the water cooled I strain out the peel and measure the gravity adding enough water to hit my target gravity. I assume in the first instance that the peel is full of tannin and I don't add acid until after I rack but I add nutrient and shake the bejesus out of this must to introduce air that the boiling removed. I pitch yeast - usually 71B but any yeast you favor is OK . Typically , I ferment in a bucket , loosely covered with a cloth and will rack when gravity approaches 1.005. 
I've made mead using a similar approach except that I substituted about 2.5 lbs of honey for the sugar, and I've made a banana t'ej using this approach and here I added about 4 oz of enchet (gesho twigs) that I had allowed to dry after I used them in a previous batch of t'ej. Those twigs were covered in yeast and bacteria and so I did not have to pitch any additional yeast. 
I find that banana wine tends to need some back sweetening so I stabilize the wine/mead and add enough sweetener to raise the gravity to about 1.008 - 1.010


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## subseageorge (Jun 3, 2020)

Cheers mate, Banana plants are like weeds here, all are wild and organic,. I have made 2 batches of orange as they are also cheap and plentiful. Im just looking at ideas for my next batch. I have bought a 7.9 gallon fast fermenter from amazon and want to try it.


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## robert81650 (Jun 3, 2020)

Looks like a good item..............


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## hounddawg (Jun 4, 2020)

when i make banana wine for my brother, i hate banana and pineapple because they are very messy and hard to clear, that being said i use the entire banana turned black then frozen with 12 lb of banana per gallon and no water, use apple juice or white grape juice instead of water, and as benard said keep ABV from 10% to 14 %. if you want a high ABV then go for either pineapple or lemon both can be run very high with out the jet fuel taste, all my country wines are kept balanced except for skeeter pee which i use for sleep, the meds i take make me a insomniac so instead of sleeping pills i use skeeter pee. all this has been discussed in detail with all my doctors, 
Dawg


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## DizzyIzzy (Jun 5, 2020)

BernardSmith said:


> I guess my question is why would you want to make a high alcohol wine? With wine balance is everything and to make a wine that has a high ABV is like running the marathon on stilts. You want a high ABV drink - then steep banana peels in vodka for a month, strain, and add enough simple syrup to sweeten this to your satisfaction. If you want a wine you should be aiming for about 10-12% ABV. Much above that and you are sitting on a two legged stool.
> 
> If you want to make the wine from the fruit and not the peel (and I have made both - but the peel makes a better wine , in my opinion) you need to use VERY ripe bananas. By that I mean bananas that are really very squishy, with the peel being very dark if not black. I would use about 5 lbs of bananas per gallon but I would begin with about 1.5 gallons of water because you want to boil the fruit for about 30 minutes to extract the sugars and flavors and a great deal of that water is going to be uncollectable when you strain the fruit.
> 
> If you like running on stilts then you step feed the yeast. Begin with about 2 lbs of sugar + the banana liquor and when the gravity has dropped to about 1.000 add another /14 - 1/2 lb of sugar and repeat until you feel that you don't the wine to taste as hot as a spirit or the yeast have quit because of alcohol poisoning... But as I say, you drink wine by the glass. You sip spirits by the shot glass. Very different drinks...


Question: "Step feed yeast? What does that mean? I am assuming adding it gradually, but you didn't indicate the amount of yeast or when it is added?


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## hounddawg (Jun 5, 2020)

DizzyIzzy said:


> Question: "Step feed yeast? What does that mean? I am assuming adding it gradually, but you didn't indicate the amount of yeast or when it is added?


yes that's what it means, it is best to use a hydrometer and as it gets near 1.00 then add sugar and yeast nutrient , EC1118 AND K1V-1116 are the 2 wine yeasts that you can run up the highest 18% to 20% ABV
Dawg


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## SpoiledRotten (Jun 5, 2020)

I read this thread and ordered one of those. Can’t wait to get it and try it out. The fast fermenter.


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## sour_grapes (Jun 5, 2020)

DizzyIzzy said:


> Question: "Step feed yeast? What does that mean? I am assuming adding it gradually, but you didn't indicate the amount of yeast or when it is added?



To be clear, you are FEEDING the yeast _sugar_ in a stepwise fashion, not adding the yeast in a stepwise fashion. You add the normal dose of yeast up front. With that in mind, @hounddawg 's instructions should be clear.


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## hounddawg (Jun 6, 2020)

sour_grapes said:


> To be clear, you are FEEDING the yeast _sugar_ in a stepwise fashion, not adding the yeast in a stepwise fashion. You add the normal dose of yeast up front. With that in mind, @hounddawg 's instructions should be clear.


dang thanks sour'_grapes i missed pointing that out, thank you for having my 6's


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## DizzyIzzy (Jun 6, 2020)

hounddawg said:


> yes that's what it means, it is best to use a hydrometer and as it gets near 1.00 then add sugar and yeast nutrient , EC1118 AND K1V-1116 are the 2 wine yeasts that you can run up the highest 18% to 20% ABV
> Dawg


Thanks Dawg.......how is your foot?


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## hounddawg (Jun 6, 2020)

DizzyIzzy said:


> Thanks Dawg.......how is your foot?


thank you for asking, i ain't lost yet, i swapped Doctors, i'll fight tooth and toenail kicking and screaming to the end, lol, one way or the other i ain't stopping getting back up, 
Dawg


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## hounddawg (Jun 7, 2020)

subseageorge said:


> Cheers mate, Banana plants are like weeds here, all are wild and organic,. I have made 2 batches of orange as they are also cheap and plentiful. Im just looking at ideas for my next batch. I have bought a 7.9 gallon fast fermenter from amazon and want to try it. View attachment 61946


you sure that ain't a extra terrestrial mind probe??? lol,, that does look super cool, is the bottom for dropping gross lees into?
Dawg


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## DizzyIzzy (Jun 10, 2020)

hounddawg said:


> thank you for asking, i ain't lost yet, i swapped Doctors, i'll fight tooth and toenail kicking and screaming to the end, lol, one way or the other i ain't stopping getting back up,
> Dawg


Way to go Dawg.......positive thinking!!


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## subseageorge (Jun 15, 2020)

What yeast did you use for the banana to get 14%


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## hounddawg (Jun 16, 2020)

subseageorge said:


> What yeast did you use for the banana to get 14%


Any will work, you che_ck your hydrometer, at the alcohol ABV that you want you run up your SSG to that when it runs dry you rack age, then come bottling time you add per package instructions potassium metabisulfite, and potassium sorbate mix thoroughly then back sweeten to taste, 
i use for banana K1V-1116
Dawg_


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## MustyMike (Jun 16, 2020)

subseageorge said:


> What yeast did you use for the banana to get 14%


Usually ec-1118. When I purchased my equipment it was sold out so I went with the k1-v1116 they can both run up to about 18% abv. I’m running this batch dry and back sweetening to keep my abv and get the sweetness where I like.


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## MustyMike (Jun 16, 2020)

hounddawg said:


> Any will work, you che_ck your hydrometer, at the alcohol ABV that you want you run up your SSG to that when it runs dry you rack age, then come bottling time you add per package instructions potassium metabisulfite, and potassium sorbate mix thoroughly then back sweeten to taste,
> i use for banana K1V-1116
> Dawg_


Couldn’t have said it any better


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## hounddawg (Jun 16, 2020)

MustyMike said:


> Usually ec-1118. When I purchased my equipment it was sold out so I went with the k1-v1116 they can both run up to about 18% abv. I’m running this batch dry and back sweetening to keep my abv and get the sweetness where I like.


i only use K1V-1116 AND EC-1118
Dawg


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## MustyMike (Jun 16, 2020)

hounddawg said:


> i only use K1V-1116 AND EC-1118
> Dawg


My k1v is fermenting wonderfully. I did a lot of research and Ec-1118 seems to be the go to yeast for these batches. It would be interesting to split a batch and use both to compare.


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## subseageorge (Jun 16, 2020)

I have used only EC-1118 so far and seems to work well. My apple and orange are above 16% with my calculations. Does the K1V-1116 have any temperature restrictions? I really struggle to keep my room at 25 degrees C. My AC is on all the time to keep that temperature, cannot really get below that, So the yeast really needs to be good for 25 to 30 in reality .. 
Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.

George


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## subseageorge (Jun 16, 2020)

Actually i managed to get some RC 212, (Yeast is hard to come by here) Do you think that will work well with fruit wines ?


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## MustyMike (Jun 16, 2020)

subseageorge said:


> I have used only EC-1118 so far and seems to work well. My apple and orange are above 16% with my calculations. Does the K1V-1116 have any temperature restrictions? I really struggle to keep my room at 25 degrees C. My AC is on all the time to keep that temperature, cannot really get below that, So the yeast really needs to be good for 25 to 30 in reality ..
> Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.
> 
> George


As far as I have researched the k1v has a broad range tolerance for temps. Almost 30* if I remember correctly. It seems that the temp you ferment in does one or two things to your wine. At a higher temp you increase the alcohol faster but you lose some of the aroma, while on the other end fermentation takes longer but you can reserve more of the flavors of your fruit. I guess I comes down to preference.


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## hounddawg (Jun 16, 2020)

subseageorge said:


> Actually i managed to get some RC 212, (Yeast is hard to come by here) Do you think that will work well with fruit wines ?


YES


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## hounddawg (Jun 16, 2020)

EC-1118 I feel is great, and my main yeast, K1V-1116 is a good strong yeast, but with lighter flavors will let more aromas through as well as the lighter notes of flavors
Dawg


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## subseageorge (Dec 2, 2020)

MustyMike said:


> As far as I have researched the k1v has a broad range tolerance for temps. Almost 30* if I remember correctly. It seems that the temp you ferment in does one or two things to your wine. At a higher temp you increase the alcohol faster but you lose some of the aroma, while on the other end fermentation takes longer but you can reserve more of the flavors of your fruit. I guess I comes down to preference.


Yes, perhaps i am getting a stronger alcohol at the cost of losing more flavour. However, i cannot do much about the temperature here. Maybe i will use 50% more fruit next time just to see if that increases the flavour. I have 5 gallons of Pineapple and 5 gallons of banana wine made with palm sugar ageing at the moment. (Banana tastes like spicy rum) I am just back from work (On the oil rigs) so can make a new batch now, banana with white sugar is next me thinks. 

Thanks again for all your help mate.


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## hounddawg (Dec 2, 2020)

just my 2 cents, i make banana, and it is a lite flavor, i tend to use great value apple juice as my liquids, i let my banana's turn at least 80% black, then freeze my banana skin and all, and i use 12 lb banana to the gallon liquid, 
Dawg


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## subseageorge (Dec 4, 2020)

hounddawg said:


> just my 2 cents, i make banana, and it is a lite flavor, i tend to use great value apple juice as my liquids, i let my banana's turn at least 80% black, then freeze my banana skin and all, and i use 12 lb banana to the gallon liquid,
> Dawg


We cannot buy juice here, I would have to make the juice from apples, might be away to go though. I might need to buy 10 kgs of apples and juice them. 
I did blacken my bananas and i have and 30kgs in the freezer now, for my next batch, but im going to use white sugar this time. to see the difference in taste.


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## subseageorge (Dec 4, 2020)

hounddawg said:


> just my 2 cents, i make banana, and it is a lite flavor, i tend to use great value apple juice as my liquids, i let my banana's turn at least 80% black, then freeze my banana skin and all, and i use 12 lb banana to the gallon liquid,
> Dawg


Do you use a strainer bag for the bananas while making your primary ?


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## hounddawg (Dec 4, 2020)

subseageorge said:


> We cannot buy juice here, I would have to make the juice from apples, might be away to go though. I might need to buy 10 kgs of apples and juice them.
> I did blacken my bananas and i have and 30kgs in the freezer now, for my next batch, but im going to use white sugar this time. to see the difference in taste.


i cut up my apples freeze then throw in ferment barrel with 3 to 4 times more pectic enzyme called for, as well goldens raisins or black raisins, i got some bulk aging with cinnamon sticke\s and allspice, just something to give banana a little pep to it,
Dawg


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## hounddawg (Dec 4, 2020)

subseageorge said:


> Do you use a strainer bag for the bananas while making your primary ?


no most do. it is much easier that way, but no i dont
Dawg


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