Banana Stout Advice

I would try it first without the bananas using wlp300 or wy 3068. Ferment warm around 70 to 73. If that is still not enough banana then consider using bananas in secondary.

 

I accidentally pitched a wheat strain into a sweet stout once. I wished the lactose wasn't in there. It came out thin. If I were to do it again I'd overdo it on the chocolate malt, mash high if you're doing all grain, and ferment in the high 60s. Low lovabond crystal malts would work really nice, as well as biscuit malt or honey malt.

As said above, there are a lot of ways to tackle this. A safe way would be to buy banana flavoring extract. This will really let you nail how much banana flavor you want. Have mid shelf rum and bourbon on hand. Even if it doesn't go into the beer, have mid shelf rum and bourbon on hand.

 

No experience personally, brewing wise, but had a dunkelweizen aged on cocoa nibs at ballast point and it literally tasted like chocolate bananas.

Vikeman recently used bananas in secondary. Check out his thread here.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...-secondary-do-they-float.367064/#post-4346621

If you tag him most likely he'll add his experience. Good luck, sounds great.

 

How would @Brew_Betty tackle a stout?

 

I only make one stout a year. Without banana.

Caramunich 60L
Chocolate malt
Carafa Special II
Roasted Barley

It tastes and smells like coffee and chocolate.

 

I've used bananas before (although added in primary pre-ferment), but you don't end up with a strong banana flavour after fermentation. If you want a hint, or something to complement the Weizen yeast, then I'd definitely try using bananas. If you want something stronger, then I'd use essenses.


FYI: Bananas contain the enzymes required to convert starches to sugars, which is why ripe bananas are way sweeter than unripe ones. I'm not sure if they have enough to convert 100%, but you can definitely do a mash with the mash