OK I KNOW THIS SOUNDS CRAZY!

[dogma46an2]

But my brothers birthday is coming up and he is a freak about banana pudding ... and he loves my home brews ... so what i am wanting to is make a type of banana pudding brew
now i know they have some crazy commercial brews like biscuit and jelly brews and tons of others.
now of coarse i dont want to be brewing a literal puddin snack but . a beer of that sorts
any idea guys .... i know its crazy but i have made crazier .

[Bugeater]

Not as crazy as you might think. I've had great luck with a carrot cake beer and an oatmeal raisin cookie beer. But, then again, folks think I'm crazy too.

To develop a beer like that takes a really good understanding of both the ingredients that give the pudding (or whatever food item flavor you are going for) it's characteristic flavor as well as the flavor contributions that various brewing ingredients can add.

I've never actually used bananas in a beer and I'm not sure the flavor would carry through to the finished beer anyway. A good hefeweizen yeast will carry a strong banana flavor if fermented warm. You will probably need to use a fresh vanilla bean in the process somewhere.

That's about as much help as I have at the moment. Just remember, you may need to dump a batch or two down the drain before you get a version that tastes the way you want, so you may want to start with a half batch to start.

Wayne

[mashtunmonk]

I agree with the above about possibly starting with a hefewisen... or at least the yeast. I have also tried a commercial beer brewed to taste like bananna bread, but I can't think of its name off the top of my head.

[UcfLumberjack]

bananas have been used successfully in meads. the general concensus was that it even helped fermentation for some reason. most of the participants also agreed that the banana seemed to add mouthfeel. might be easier than you think. make a hef but mash high, ferment on bananas, secondary on vanilla. maybe even use a lot of flaked barley or lactose or something to get a creamy mouthfeel to simulate the pudding.

disclaimer: I've never tried this, just taking a few guesses here!

[balvey]

I would think some lactose be in order too to give it that creamy taste.

[bcmaui]

Never thought of this before but curious if the german hefe yeast creates that characteristic in a reaction with the wheat or the barley or both? Has anyone brewed a barley only beer with this yeast and still taste the banana?

When cooking with bananas it helps if you freeze them first after letting them get extremely ripe. Having made banana bread both ways (and like most fruit, when a bunch of bananas goes ripe, it is often all at the same same), the freezing and thawing seems to break them down better before you put them in the bread batter. We typically peel them after they are very ripe and then pop them in ziplock bags in the freezer until my wife cranks out the next batch (usually a big batch at Christmas, but other times as well).

[dogma46an2]

yeah i thought that would be the yeast i would go with or thought of using a cream ale yeast i thought i would need one vanilla bean in 2ndary. maybe some biscuit grains ? lactose as well for mouth feel i thought about but not sure on the pudding end or the rest of the grain bill yet

yeah ive heard of some banana bread styles and even heard of just using bananas in brew to get more mouth feel i dont know?
and how much banana you think for the primary 12lbs for a 5 gal batch?



thank you guys

[ajdelange]

Never thought of this before but curious if the german hefe yeast creates that characteristic in a reaction with the wheat or the barley or both? Has anyone brewed a barley only beer with this yeast and still taste the banana?

The bananna smell is that of amyl-acetate which is the ester of acetic acid and amyl alcohol. The amyl alcohol is produced by the yeast from isoleucine so whichever grain(s) contribute to the isoleucine pool are responsible. Both bareley and wheat contain isoleucine and amyl acetate is found it beers which do not contain wheat.