banana wine sucks

[Stressbaby]

My batch of Dwarf Namwah banana wine cleared with no trouble, and I boiled them. I used no amylase.
It is very good, but not very banana-ish. I have a gelatin-filtered banana extract in the works to fix that. Stay toon as Joe says.

 

[wood1954]

thanks for all the input. I think I'll backsweeten a little and let it age. Maybe the Welchs is what is giving it the harshness, oh and i almost forgot, i figured i added too much sugar so i added EC-1118 yeast, i think that may be the problem as well , it's probably 17% alcohol. It's good to have experiments like this.

 

[saramc]

I made a Banana Port, thread somewhere, started on 10/1/12 and it is amazing! Have not even fortified it YET, may just leave as is. I used D47, OG 1.122

Wood...age it before you decide to backsweeten. You get a better final result.

 

[midnightsolace]

Midnightsolace, I wonder whether boiling as opposed to simply gently heating might create problems with residual pectins and the difficulty others in the forum say they have had with clearing their wine.

I'm not sure, but I'm curious to find out. I just looked at the recipe I have again... Bring to boil and then simmer for 20 minutes. I may look at other recipes and get an average or baseline or something, but the last time I tried that (with the blueberry wine we just started) I found so many different recipes that I just picked one that made the most sense to me and ran with it. I suppose that's the beauty of keeping a wine making log. If it ends up horrific, I won't use it again.

 

[wineon4]

I make Banana wine at least 3 batches a year and it is always great. I do not use the peels, others I know have made it with the peel and it does not turn out as good.

 

[flyrodkid]

Banana wine

I made a 3 gallon batch of banana wine a couple of years ago without the peels. It took 15 lbs of bananas (before peeling) and I added a couple of pounds of white sugar. All of the bananas were put into a fine mesh grain bag to help contain some of the solids and brought the bananas just to boiling before adding to some cold water in the primary. A little pectic enzyme was added to break down the pectins. It cleared beautifully after the second racking and was bottled after a couple of months. At 4 months, it was indistinguishable from a nice chardonnay. You can only tell that it is banana if you are really looking for a banana nose in the aroma. My only complaint was that I needed to rack it 4 times to get it off of all of the solids which tended to be 'fluffy' and easily disturbed.

 

[vernsgal]

I have to say, I made 5 gal. last year, bottled in January. It cleared totally clear. I am so looking forward to taking a taste this Christmas ( I am one who totally agrees with everyone who has said "give it time")

 

[jamesngalveston]

stressbaby, could i get your banana recipe...

 

[Stressbaby]

stressbaby, could i get your banana recipe...

Sure James, I used this one, but subbed one can Welch's for the raisins:
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f2/banana-wine-recipe-2-a-3629/

 

[wood1954]

A little humble pie is in order, i racked off the lees, degassed and added the appropriate SO2, potassium sorbate and a little sugar to get to SG 1000 and guess what? It actually tasted pretty good. I think in a year or so it will be quite good. good enough to try another batch without the peels.

 

[wood1954]

thought i'd add a picture of how clear this turned out.

 

[Sammyk]

wood1954 Looks great! How does it taste?

 

[wood1954]

surprisingly good. some banana hint and otherwise you would think it's a nice crisp white grape wine. I'll probably try a bottle around thanksgiving day, otherwise i'll let it sit for a year. Definitely going to make another batch this winter.

 

[Sammyk]

That is great from "banana wine sucks" to surprisingly good! Great job!

 

[Noontime]

I'm happy to see the positive progression as well! I have some banana wine I made a few months ago, and I am not impressed with it. I'm probably not going to try it again for another year.

 

[wood1954]

another update

Had a bottle the other day. it has almost too much body, otherwise it tastes good chilled not much banana taste tho. I think i will make it again someday but will definitely use bananas to add body to other wines.

 

[Noontime]

I have also noticed the heavy body wood1954... mine's almost sticky. I think I'll cut down on the bananas next time (lbs/gal). I used to put bananas in most of my non-grape wines for body and mouth-feel, but we have a friend that's deathly allergic to bananas so we don't anymore...I had no idea bananas were a serious allergen to some people.

We definitely get a huge banana aroma, but the flavor is less "bananay" and more complex with quite a bit of vegital taste.