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BC, the reason you are getting the banana peel (green) notes is that the bananas you used are in no way ripe enough. You need fully brown bananas (not black) as you need to have the cell structure of the peel break down, thus causing the softening of the tannins (the peel should have no crunch to it). Try it again this way and I believe you will be quite surprised as to the difference. Keep up the great videos BC.
@@magacop5180 Of course you can make mead out of anything you can make wine out of. Same thing, you want to make sure the bananas are very ripe so that the sugars have developed in the bananas as well as the tannins. If you want a mead just add honey instead of sugar.
I'm not keen on buying a thing of amylase powder (despite that it's not that expensive, I just want to keep things simple), and I'm thinking a fully ripe banana obviates the need for amylase too maybe
I made a banana wine about the same time you started this one. I was going for more of a Bananas Foster flavoring. I used brown sugar instead of white sugar and added cinnamon and vanilla in secondary. The best flavor extraction I’ve gotten from bananas is a different process. I use half extremely ripe bananas without the skin and half like you did. The extremely ripe bananas I collect over a few months. As I buy bananas whatever ones we don’t eat I let go completely black. Then peel them and put them in a gallon ziplock and freeze. After I have enough, I’ll mix the overripe bananas with the coined ones, mash, and boil everything in water for an hour. Use that water to make your wine.
I made a banana wine last year (5 gallon batch). I used a mix of demererra and moscavado for the fermenting sugar which gave it a kind of dark rum vibe behind the banana taste. A cinnamon stick added to one gallon while it was stabilised and clearing and a little vanilla essense while I was back-sweetening and I ended up with bottled Bananas Foster.
Did you do any further refinement 😉 to clear it up and 😉concentrate the flavor ? 🤔 sounds interesting . Are. Those sugars pricey? I am pretty "Low brow" & familiar with the white & brown varieties . 😃
Thanks for this inspiration! Racking off 12 gallons today into secondary. 6 of a banana’s foster or banana bread flavor, with vanilla and brown sugar, and I caramelized the bananas. The second is a ripe, but not overly ripe banana, with white sugar. Going for more o fB a summery, light porch sipping wine.
I have not watched enough of your videos and I don't know why because they are great. The voice over during the process is very zen and ASMR like? Is that they right term? (Disclaimer. Sorry if I sound nit picky or like a crazy know it all. I'm not. I'm still learning. But I'm always curious as to the why behind the how and it seems modern mead making is "throw these chemicals in. Because that's how everyone else does it or says you need it" where as we start to understand the natural organic process... most aren't actually needed and actually can cause an inferior product as they upset the banalce rather than helping to stabilize the balance of things. As we investigate further into the natural organic chemistry and reactions taking place we find much of it; such as amylase, pectinase, wine tannin and DAP in this recipe; may not actually be needed.) In this video... a couple notes. You know how you used brown mushy good "rotten" bananas for banana bread and muffins, and typically freeze for a day or so before you make it. That's because amylase enzymes released by the peels break down the starches into sugars much in the way that Koji-kin (aspergillius oryzea) breaks down the starches of rice into fermentable sugars for yeast to make alcohol aka sake or mijiu (is that right? Chinese sake?). And bananas aren't actually ripe until they are COVERED with brown spots just before they go brown. So what you have there is almost ripe. Additionally looking at fhe recipe I was like "oof". I don't see why so many modern wine makers don't understand that it's a natural process that will happen without us. We just need to encourage it and try to keep other microorganisms we don't want from getting in there. Nutrients and dap probably aren't needed. The bananas have LOTS of nutrients, lots of potassium, potassium hydroxide, potassium nitrate and the skins especially wil contain naturally occurring nitrogen... after all they kinds serve the purpose of breaking down and conditioning the soild for the seed to grow and flourish in a purely organic process. So nutrients may not be needed. Tannins shouldn't be needed, the skins turn brown right? Tannins. Pectic enzyme shouldn't benefit it much. It WILL help to break down some of the starches further by breaking apart the pectic polymers within the starches, but increases production of methanol, acetone and other undesirable compounds by doing so. Plus the bananas should naturally contain a fair bit of pectic enzymes alone with the amylase enzymes so honestly this should be possible with an organic process where nature takes it's course. In nature, if we didn't pick the nlbananas they would just stay forever. They'd fall, "rot" (aka break down) into almost a liquid, mostly only the husk or fibers of the dried peels would say around like fallen oak ir walnut leaves (remember I said tannins? The peels take forever to biodegrade right? Kinda like tannin rich leaves such as oak, pecan, walnut, grape, blackberry etc? The nutrients condition the sould while the long breakdown period of the fibers that are preserved by the natural tannins provide multi to cover and protect the soil, hold in moisute,, block out sunlight, restrict an over abundance of oxygen etc)... The added sugar is very likely needed especially for a high ABV yeast like D47. And in this case the water is needed. Though maybe letting the bananas do their thing for a couple days might be preferable. I had an idea for basically doing a banana sake completely the wrong/rudimentary. It may not turn out well but it will be a neat experiment either way. Basically, 5gallon bucket sanitized. Lot and lots and lots of bananas washed, cut up, thrown in the bucket, wait for them to turn almost completely brown and add medium grain (short grain rice is so hard to find) steamed rice, mix, let sit for a little bit and then add 71B with a little bit of sugar and water, though not much, as the steamed rice and bananas will turn into liquid as the b-amylase breaks apart starch polymers into simple sugars, water, etc as it goes to work on the bananas and rice. I had this idea after reading the ingredients labels on a bunch of different sakes and notice many contained bananas or sweet potatoes. Both are naturally high in b-amylase and moderately high in a-amylase and can be used as a substitute for Koji-Kin the bacteria used to break down starches. Yes I research WAY TOO MUCH inane scient"organic horticulture/agriculture/chemistry/herbalism/everything stuff. But is SHOUKD be possible even though it would take some time and a littler stirring every few days. A similar process could be done with raw fresh shin on pumpkin, watermelon, cantaloupe (though you MUST wash the skins with distilled white vinegar as cantaloupe naturally produce salmonella)... pretty much anything you can think of that starts out starches and bitter but becomes fragrant, sweet and liquefies as it "rots". Though I feel it important to mention that watermelon and other similar berries (yes most fruits are berries. Including bananas. Except for strawberries and raspberries which aren't technically berries, raspberries kind of fit into berries but not strawberries. Whatever) that are high in citric acid become bitter ir sour when fermenting and require lots of age to taste right. Sorry this is so long but wait! There more! The main reason I came here is I had an idea spurned by Man Made Meads 16 yeast shootout video and how yall mentioned a "corn tortilla taste" and I though you or possibly bearded and bored might be THE GIY to be like "this is crazy enough to pique my curiosity". I explain it more in detail on the 16 yeast shootout video. But basically a pseudo sake corn sour mash mead. Basically take fresh corn, cut from cobs, freeze, mash, freeze. Use the husks the cultivate aspergillius oryzea... somewhere there's a video on it. I've done it but left the samples too long because I forgot about them for like a week. Out of like 14 samples most had other bad molds2 or 3 seemed to only have the mold I was looking for (or at least those molds outcompetes any spores I didn't want) and they had turned the steamed rice fingers into sweet sticky fragrant delicious smelling goo. I shoukd have gone ahead and dumped them in a bucket with steamed rice but instead paranoia got the best of me and I dumped all the sampled in the garbage. Anyway, cultivate the culture like you would use for sake, only add it to a bucket with the mashed corn and either boiled or steamed flaked corn or corn grits. Add mead must and yeast. Profit? No! Not yet. Stir every couple days till it's finished, wait to let all the sediment settle, rack off the liquid and oak it. Basically a low ABV sourmash... I don't know what to call it? It's not a beer by any means, not technically a wine, certainly not a mead. Not a sake because it doesn't have rice... either way the idea sounds like it has potential to come out very tasty. I might have to try it, and try a batch adding a Lactobacilli SCOBY like Philly Sour and see what comes of that. Again. Sorry it was long. But this batch of crazy concoction idea doesn't sound like something Man Made Mead would be interested in. But sound like you or Bearded might be intrigued.
Love this series! 👍 The wine looks exactly like my banana mead I made back in the March of this year. I made 10L of it...that's just over 2.5 gallons, and did not use the enzyme (honestly didn't even know it needed it), which could be why it stalled on me, or perhaps the yeast ate all the sugar it could...I don't know. At any rate, the original gravity was a little high - 1.127 and it stalled at 1.014, which I thought was actually just right and stabilized it right there. Now that I've seen this, turns out that might've been more than just right, as I never had the displeasure to taste something with banana peel flavor, lol! Anyhoo...I started drinking that mead when it was 6 months old a couple of months ago, and ok I've given away a few bottles but at any rate, it's so frickin good I'm currently on my last, out of initial 12 bottles...and I'm already eyeing it! 😅 It's only been 8 months and I don't remember ever going through a mead this fast! Beginner's luck, I guess...
How do you manage acidity in this? Ive heard you talk about how important it is, but bananas have a pH around 4.2 to 4.3. Should you have added citric or tartaric acid?
I've looked at a few banana wine recipes, I like the simplicity of your approach. A couple questions, First, other recipes add Campden into the mixture and let sit for 24 hours, as I understand, to kill the natural yeast in the bananas. Another recipe boils the bananas thus, I assume, eliminating the need for the Campden tablets. I'm curious why you don't do either. The other question, you don't pasteurize, you don't add preservatives. I like that. Even though you cold crash, how do you guard against fermentation restarting after you have bottled? Thanks, I am looking forward to giving this a try.
I'll show YOU leafy and verdant, not vegetal and not fruity with a bit of cider-y-ness!! Holy WHAT?!?!?! How come you didn't tell me you were working on this?!?!?! I'm joking. 😆RIP Jack Keller🤠. Great video!
Nice brew. Thanks for all the hints and tips! I'm planning to collect in the freezer brown bananas and plantains and some organic bananas peel-on to brew a fully flavoured and whole bodied banana ale. Would you recommend to throw them all in the mash to convert all starches or add a boil of the bananas or put them pureed direct into wort?
Banana purée is very difficult to work with, I think the medallions worked well. I’d probably throw them into primary - and maybe use a hefe yeast to add more character?
lol that is how mine turned out. so i modified mine by cooking the banana's with brown sugar and then after primary i added puree' but by accident the wide mouth fermenter got knocked over and i had to clean up a big sticky mess. But it smelled great.
I’ve been thinking about making a banana mead recently, so this episode is timely. I want to ask your opinion on one thing: in addition to ripening (the ones you had here seemed a little underripe to me still) do you think freezing the bananas would help with aromatic expression? It would be my go to way of doing it Thanks BC!!
I always prefer to freeze and thaw fruit when I’m doing my own projects! These were pretty darn squishy, but I agree, they probably could’ve been even darker. They had started to attract fruit flies, though, so I went with it. 😂
I've made banana meads a lot! Specifically banana bochets. They always turn out amazing, especially caramelizing the bananas with the honey. Don't go very dark if you do this. Aim for a light to medium brown. Also, sweetening with the same thing (cooked bananas and honey) really bumps the flavor up.
@@benjamindaniels1273 I was thinking of doing at least a little bochet, and this gives me a nice vector for some spices too since I like adding them to the cooking honey!! Thanks
What would happen if you mash the bananas completely instead of coins? I would think that the increased surface area would extract more, or is that unnecessary?
Osmosis should take care of most of the flavor and sugar transfer, I have done them mashed before and it created a lot of problems trying to get a clean rack to secondary.
I made a banana mead before. Cutting them into discs works fine. I took a few out after fermentation to see how they reacted, and they were basically just fiber sponges at that point. Both sugar and flavor extraction was pretty complete.
When I made this the first time I let the banana go brown, then boiled them with the sugar (I used both granulated and brown) then after letting it go dry I gave it a taste, and I thought it tasted like a PBR. It was a very strange experience.
Excellent! I’ve been researching banana wine and banana mead recipes and bought myself a whole lot of bananas. They’re ripening right now and I want to start either a wine or a mead with them. Most recipes involve boiling the bananas and using only the liquid resulting from that. I loke this recipe a whole lot more because I can’t bring myself to believing all the flavour would have been extracted through boiling. It seems like such a waste. Even when using cheap fruit I can’t bring myself to throw them out without them having given up as much flavour as possible. Now I need to rack my strawberry wine or I won’t have a wide mouth fermenter available. Question: a lot of sources say banana wine needs time to mellow out and come into its own. Any thoughts on that now that you’ve tasted tours?
There wasn’t a lot of alcohol bite or sharpness to this, so I think nearly a year of age is probably about enough. If I recall, I think Jack recommends 18 months? So I’ll put a few bottles back and see what happens.
@@DointheMost - Great! Thanks! I tend to shove my finished onto a shelf for a year to start with, except for a few small taster bottles I use to monitor progress. I have a stash of 125 ml bottles just for that purpose. Being so small they don’t give an exact reflection but they do provide an indication.
I'm conflicted. I like my bananas just past green, by the time the first spot shows up, or the skin thins noticeably, it's too far for me. But I do like a good banana bread - so maybe I wouldn't hate a banana mead (I'd like to love it, but drinkable is a must).
Can anyone tell me what weight of bananas to use for 1 gallon if you are just add bananas to a country wine just to add body to it as opposed to making an actual banana wine ?
Hello Friend! great video as always :) A week ago I subscribed to your channel and for a couple of days your recipe for "great mead" has been fermenting. But please help with the answer, how do you calculate the dosage of the potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate at the stage of stabilization?
@@DointheMost There is an instruction for k-meta, it says from 2 g per 20 liters (1 g per 10 liters) of wine material, on the basis that 1 g of potassium metabisulfite forms 0.56 g of sulfur dioxide (SO2). But I have not found how much sulfur dioxide is required for honey wines. As for potassium sorbate, it requires no more than 0.2% by weight of the product. I just don't want to overdose, and at the same time I want the stabilization of the mead to be successful. 🤔
You can buy it online in a brown powder form. However if you don’t want to do that you can use a tea bag in some water. Tea contains tannins which is why you see brown marks at the end of a cup if you drink tea from it. Tannin is not strictly necessary in wine making. You can get by without it. However it does add body to wine and gives depth.
@@Stevethesearcher i can find like 1 shop online, and I don't want to pay for package more than for product. And it's from some unknown company, so I don't want to buy bulk.. what is tea to tannin ratio?
@@azbc8369 Just make a regular sized cup of tea with a tea bag. Obviously no milk! That should provide enough tannin to put into a gallon of wine. I have seen it done lots of times in other wine making videos. So put a tea bag into a cup of hot water. Let it brew for a few minutes and add it to your wine. That amount will be fine for a gallon of wine.
I made a banana wine a couple years ago using 1118. Meh. I'm sure D47 is better. Also, I think it would have been better with less peel. I left about half the peels on, and that was too much. I would try one peel next time, and not 1118!
amylase and pectic enzymes need specific temps and times to work, all you did was throw em in there together without adjusting for correct temps or time ,this may have been useless
Dem bananas are not even close to " Hella ripe " . No offense , but can't expect to get the author's results if you don't follow the author's instructions. 🤷♂️