Homebrewing a Banana Style beer

welcome to BA.
no, never intentionally brewed a banana bread beer. and personally I think that is a terrible idea. but who am I to judge? make your beer the way you want it.

can you post the recipe? without the recipe we have very little to go on. nothing meaningful anyway.
Cheers.

 

There is a member in my homebrew club that makes an awesome stout called Chunky Monkey Stout. The flavor is very similar to the Ben & Jerrys Ice Cream. Here is how he adds the banana, chocolate, and nut extract;

 

Ahh, German Hef/ Rye Beer. All of these style of beers there is no banana added to the wort, but the flavor and aroma is coming from the yeast. The default yeast in the recipe is WLP300. From the White Lab Website:

http://www.whitelabs.com/yeast/wlp300-hefeweizen-ale-yeast?s=homebrew

 

go for it.

the hefeweizen yeast strain will produce banana notes. so you must use an authentic German hefe strain. follow the fermentation recommendations carefully. try to be spot on with the temps. there is a banana "sweet spot" to ferment at, though it isn't something i can say with confidence. an American hefe strain ain't gonna cut it. go German.

it is somewhat of a misnomer to describe this yeast as brewing liquid banana bread. unless the recipe has some unusual additions, it is banana-esque. cloves are also a typical description.
Cheers.

 

I used the wyeast counter part to wlp300 for my first batch (3068) - a hefeweizen and got quite a bit of banana flavor from it. The recipe was simple, 6lbs of wheat DME, 1 oz hops hallertau, so all of the flavor came from the yeast. I have heard the high side of the range produces more banana, but I only brewed once with ambient around 67-69. That being said, it certainly isn't overwhelming, so this won't give you exactly what you are looking for. You might want to search banana bomb, I seem to remember there being a thread link that when I was getting ready to brew my first batch back in July.

 

I'd go into late primary with the banana after tasting it. It will give you the best control of the flavor. You can always use rum to help sanitize and it's going to be bananas foster for the name.

 

Banana Brew Haiku

Under pitch...ferment
Warm...Presto change-o it's a
Banana brew...ooph.

 

Better Banana Brew Haiku

Hefeweizen yeast
Under pitch and ferment warm
A banana bomb!

 

Surprised this didn't come up yet -
http://www.wellsandyoungs.co.uk/home/our-beers/ales/wells-banana-bread-beer

I thought I remember reading on a pack or bottle that they used bananas in the beer, but it doesn't seem to say it there.

I'd say if you can brew up something with similar banana aroma and flavor but with a more bready backbone, you would have improved on Wells. I think the rye malt would help in this case.

 

Oh and if I were to add anything, biscuit malt would be a nice one to really push that bread flavor.

 

Here's a Bananas Foster Creamy Ale recipe that I'll be brewing once it warms up a bit.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/bananas-foster-creamy-ale-all-grain-pic-intensive-291125/

Lots of reading on this thread, but seems that most people like it. Although general consensus is to give it some aging time.

 

That thread is bananas! (I had to). Makes me want to try it though.