Come Mr Tally Man Stew Me A Banana

FourPart · Post by **FourPart** » Sun Sep 14, 2014 12:44 pm

Right now my flat is flooded with the aroma of stewing bananas - 2½ Kg to be precise - skins & all. Enough to fill my pressure cooker to the brim - not that I'm pressure cooking them - it's just the biggest pot I've got.

Why? You may well ask.

Well, I've decided to have a bash at brewing some Banana Wine. I've got me all the equipment required. Big bucket - thoroughly cleaned out with bleach. Fine cloth bag for straining. Yeast, Yeast Enzyme, Pectin, Demi-Johns & Bubble Airlocks.

Once I've reduced all the bananas to a mulch it's allowed to cool to about 30C, then squeeze it through the cloth into the bucket. Stir in some raisins, lemon juice, sugar & yeast, cover it over with the cloth (rinsed out again after the squeezing), pop it out onto the balcony / conservatory (a cool but not cold place) for a couple of weeks, stirring daily, add the pectin & decant it carefully into the Demi-Johns, with the Airlocks for another 6 - 12 months before bottling.

The pictures I've seen of the process are a bit off-putting at first, with it all looking like a horrible brown mud, but at the bottling stage it appears to be a sort of crystal clear, dark golden. Whether mine turns out like that remains to be seen.

AnneBoleyn · Post by **AnneBoleyn** » Sun Sep 14, 2014 12:59 pm

Daylight come & I wan go home................

Banana Wine? Sounds delicious!

FourPart · Post by **FourPart** » Sun Sep 14, 2014 2:29 pm

Something along the lines of this:

However, I found so many different recipes I've made mine a bit of a hotch-potch of all of them. Instead of Grape Concentrate I've used Seedless Raisins & instead of Citric Acid I'm using Lemon Juice (about half a bottle).

I also found half a pack of Molasses sugar hiding at the back of the larder, which has been there for years & gone rock hard, so I've added that to the sugar.

At the moment it's draining into the bucket in the way that he demonstrated - hanging the bag from the door handle - although I'm using an Orange Juice Carton to push it away from the door so that it doesn't drain down the door & onto the floor.

Another site I came across said to squeeze the juice out from the mulch, yet he expressly says not to, so I think I might give a little squeeze, but not wring it (as I had originally planned).

He also seems to be putting it into the Demi Johns straight away, yet other sites specify First & Secondary Fermentation. The first in the bucket for about a week, and only then into the Demi Johns, in order to minimise any dregs.

Post by **Betty Boop** » Sun Sep 14, 2014 3:00 pm

Yeeeuuuuggghhhhh :yh_sick :wah:

On the squeeze or not squeeze front, I recall from years of making bramble jelly that if you squeezed the cloth after straining it produced a not very nice looking cloudy jelly. So was wondering if that could affect the finished 'look' of the wine?

FourPart · Post by **FourPart** » Sun Sep 14, 2014 3:43 pm

Apparently the pectin is supposed to sort that out. Something to do with the starch not fermenting, but the pectin turns the starch into base sugars.

Anyway, I've decided to put it straight into the Demi Johns, and apart from the raisins, which were added separately, it's pretty much all liquid - just very cloudy & muddy looking - just as predicted.

However, after putting it in the Demi Johns (about 2/3 full in each) I realised I couldn't find my other Airlock, so I've stuffed a load of Soft Toy Filling into the hole of the other one. When all said & done, the Airlock is only to keep bugs out, so the stuffing should do until I can get a new one when I'm in town tomorrow (that is, if I remember). Mind you, you know how things are - I'll buy a new one then find where I put the other one - both of which bought for this very purpose from eBay. I had bought one, then remembered I had another Demi John, so I bought another Airlock for that one, so they didn't arrive together.

Now the question is what to do with all that mulch. I suppose I'll have to flush it - although that's likely to take several goes. Pity I don't have a garden or it'd make excellent compost material.

Post by **Betty Boop** » Mon Sep 15, 2014 12:43 am

Oh my word! I know a guy who works on the sewers around these parts and he'd be horrified :wah: Careful you don't block the drains. Can you not bag it in several bags, go for a walk a few times and deposit bags in the street bins

FourPart · Post by **FourPart** » Mon Sep 15, 2014 1:19 am

I just checked on the Demi Johns before getting ready to go out - the one with the Airlock is bubbling away furiously. I've done wines before, and you'd get a "Bloooop" every 30 secs or so, at the most. I'm not kidding - this one simply doesn't stop. It's "Blop, Blop, Blop, Blop..." (not even taking long enough between "Blops" for a full "Bloop").

Post by **Betty Boop** » Sun Sep 21, 2014 4:10 am

How does this stuff smell whilst it's 'blooping' away in the corner.

I still feel eeuuggghh about it though, don't like bananas much.

FourPart · Post by **FourPart** » Sun Sep 21, 2014 4:19 am

It's got a sort of sweet 'wine brewing' smell. I've found most wines smell pretty much the same when they're brewing. I think it's the yeast you small, rather than the fermenting matter.

After all the soaking (and a daily shake up) the raisins are now like small grapes, floating on top of the mix.

Post by **Betty Boop** » Sun Sep 21, 2014 5:06 am

FourPart;1464668 wrote: It's got a sort of sweet 'wine brewing' smell. I've found most wines smell pretty much the same when they're brewing. I think it's the yeast you small, rather than the fermenting matter.

After all the soaking (and a daily shake up) the raisins are now like small grapes, floating on top of the mix.

:-3 sounds delightful! :wah: I'm sure it will be lovely, along with not liking bananas I am not at all keen on wine, never sweet enough for me.

FourPart · Post by **FourPart** » Sun Sep 21, 2014 5:09 pm

The curious thing is that quite often wines don't taste like what they're made of.

If you like Sweet Wines, you'd love the Blackbeer & Raisin, here...

Country wines and Mead from Lyme Bay Winery

Seriously, it's more like a liquer - and VERY strong.

One time, the choir was doing a Panto, and as we had a Matinee performance & an evening one, we'd either bring a packed lunch or send out for Fish & Chips. Anyway, I took along a bottle of the old B&R, and one of the members, who's usually a bit of a stuffshirt had just one glass & was so sozzled that by the time the evening performance came he was so 'relaxed' that his performance on stage was far better.

Post by **Betty Boop** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 12:54 am

FourPart;1464720 wrote: The curious thing is that quite often wines don't taste like what they're made of.

If you like Sweet Wines, you'd love the Blackbeer & Raisin, here...

Country wines and Mead from Lyme Bay Winery

Seriously, it's more like a liquer - and VERY strong.

One time, the choir was doing a Panto, and as we had a Matinee performance & an evening one, we'd either bring a packed lunch or send out for Fish & Chips. Anyway, I took along a bottle of the old B&R, and one of the members, who's usually a bit of a stuffshirt had just one glass & was so sozzled that by the time the evening performance came he was so 'relaxed' that his performance on stage was far better.

:wah: fancy getting a choir member sozzled before a performance, does he do it regularly now?

We have Cornish Mead here, still bleeuuurrgghhh too sickly sweet and I don't like the hot liqueur feeling of it going down.

FourPart · Post by **FourPart** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 1:14 am

Betty Boop;1464729 wrote:

We have Cornish Mead here, still bleeuuurrgghhh too sickly sweet and I don't like the hot liqueur feeling of it going down.
Last Christmas I was invited to a "Yuletide Meal", laid on by one of my GPs (Group Practice - one of the doctors, that is - not GP meaning... oh you know what I mean), as she co-ordinates the local Good Neighbours' Scheme, which I'm a part of.

I took along a bottle of Garden Mead, bought from Lyme Bay Winery, and it was decided to leave until after the meal, where it was an instant success. Some of the other guests never even realised they still made it, thinking it was just something the was limited to the Romance of Medieval themed movies & the like. They were really surprised at how they could actually identify all the herbs infused into it - mint, obviously, being the first one, but subtle enough so as not to drown out all the others.

While we were drinking it, she told us that the first time she got pissed (her words) was when she was at school, and that was on Mead.

You can be sure there wasn't enough of the bottle left to bring home.

When I was chatting to my Diet Nurse a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned this to her & she just burst out laughing & said, "Yep, that sounds like our Anna".

I love the Traditional English Country Wines - they have so much character & variety to them (just look at the list available on the previous link) whereas the Grape-based wines all seem to be pretty much of a muchness.

FourPart · Post by **FourPart** » Fri Jun 12, 2015 2:45 pm

Having been a few months into this little project I decided it was time to do some tasting & have siphoned off half a glass (half a glass jug that is).

Despite being a little murky - probably as a result of raising to demi-john to a siphonable height, it really is quite nice, and even after only a few sips it's starting to make me feel rather warm inside.

It has the bittersweet sharp tang of a white wine, with a faint trace of sparkle on the tip of the tongue. Perhaps if bottled & sealed now it might develop into a sparkling wine?

Even at this early stage, it is certainly very drinkable. Don't forget, the scheduled due date for completion is Christmas, and it seems to be well ahead of schedule.

Surprisingly, though, it doesn't taste of bananas, although it does have a lovely banana aroma (or 'nose', I suppose you would call it).

Overall, so far, I think I would rate this as a success.

Smaug · Post by **Smaug** » Fri Jun 12, 2015 3:35 pm

FourPart;1480552 wrote: Having been a few months into this little project I decided it was time to do some tasting & have siphoned off half a glass (half a glass jug that is).

Despite being a little murky - probably as a result of raising to demi-john to a siphonable height, it really is quite nice, and even after only a few sips it's starting to make me feel rather warm inside.

It has the bittersweet sharp tang of a white wine, with a faint trace of sparkle on the tip of the tongue. Perhaps if bottled & sealed now it might develop into a sparkling wine?

Even at this early stage, it is certainly very drinkable. Don't forget, the scheduled due date for completion is Christmas, and it seems to be well ahead of schedule.

Surprisingly, though, it doesn't taste of bananas, although it does have a lovely banana aroma (or 'nose', I suppose you would call it).

Overall, so far, I think I would rate this as a success.

Sounds good. I once tried some carrot wine. Once I'd got over my doubts over the suitability of carrot as a "wine", I gave it a go....

It was lovely. Pretty strong,too!