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Author Topic: Adding Banana Ice Cubes  (Read 1014 times)

Offline RVIGZ

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Adding Banana Ice Cubes
« on: May 27, 2016, 07:51:24 am »
So I have around 3 gallons of a simple American brown ale in my primary right now. I was planning on leaving 1 gallon alone and taking the rest and adding some fresh bananas to it. I was wondering what the best tactic would be to do this? As of what ive been told thus far, freezing fruit and then adding it to the secondary is the best option (I guess freezing helps kill some bacteria as well as destroys the cell walls of the fruit helping extract more of its flavor). I have been told that blending fruit up and pureeing it is also a way to release a bit more of the fruits flavor into the beer. so I was planning on blending up some bananas (and possibly adding a bit of brown sugar, vanilla, and maple syrup) and then putting this slurry into a few ice cube trays for a few days to fully freeze it, and then add these cubes to the secondary. I just wanted some opinions/suggestions on my current plans.

Offline troybinso

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Re: Adding Banana Ice Cubes
« Reply #1 on: May 27, 2016, 08:18:09 am »
You are right that freezing breaks up the fruit to allow it to more easily give flavor to the beer. I would not suggest putting them into the beer frozen, because the temperature will drop and slow down fermentation. You should probably let them thaw first.

Offline kramerog

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Re: Adding Banana Ice Cubes
« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2016, 08:26:07 am »
Generally the inside of fruit is clean enough and bananas can get pretty mushy so I think you could just put peeled fresh brown bananas into the fermenter without freezing.

Offline RVIGZ

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Re: Adding Banana Ice Cubes
« Reply #3 on: May 27, 2016, 08:28:48 am »
I have had a couple guys tell me not to worry about the temp lowering. Im sure the temp will drop rather low once the frozen fruit is added, but once it melts and comes back up to fermenting temps wont fermentation just pick up as usual? Will temps getting too low kill or harm my yeast?

Offline brewinhard

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Re: Adding Banana Ice Cubes
« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2016, 09:57:24 am »
If the temps drop too low (as per the yeast strain used) you could run the risk of stalling the fermentation as the yeast go dormant or sluggish and don't finish the job. As stated above, bananas have a really thick peel on them and I too think you would be fine just mushing them up right out of the peel, adding them to your fermenter, and racking the beer on top.

EDIT - I have never brewed with bananas before, and after thinking about it, they are quite starchy and I wonder how well they would ferment out.  Maybe they would be better mashed with grains to help them convert?

Offline RVIGZ

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Re: Adding Banana Ice Cubes
« Reply #5 on: May 27, 2016, 10:36:29 am »
If that's the case then I believe I will just squash them up, dump them in the secondary,  and then rack the beer on top. Has anyone else used fresh bananas to get a nice strong banana flavor other than using a hefe yeast?