Home Distiller

Yep, oats do sound good.
I have the Maris Otter because it should lend a "bready" taste to the ferment. Not sure how or if that would carry over to spirit.
My banana slop sat overnight, and it is just too thick to try to ferment as-is. Wish I could, but I need to thin it out with something.
If I thin it with just water, I will need to do a double run with it just to get the abv up. If I thin it with something sugary, then I might still be able to do a one-run.
I guess I'm going with my whiskey plan, going to mash the malted barley grains and aim for 1.05 - 1.06 OG. That will keep my SG up while hopefully still thinning the mush out.

Sounds like a good candidate for steam distillation. I've seen videos of rice being fermented when it's almost a solid mass. Can't imagine that the banana slop would be much of a problem to ferment.

S-Cackalacky wrote:Sounds like a good candidate for steam distillation.

It would be. I've never fermented anything this thick though, do the yeast just find a way to get through the slop? How thick is too thick?
Also, from what I've read, steam stripping smears throughout the run, so that would eliminate the option of a single run.

MichiganCornhusker wrote:

S-Cackalacky wrote:Sounds like a good candidate for steam distillation.

It would be. I've never fermented anything this thick though, do the yeast just find a way to get through the slop? How thick is too thick?
Also, from what I've read, steam stripping smears throughout the run, so that would eliminate the option of a single run.

Na. You could do a single pass. Just have a rc going until the entire boiler is up to temp. This will eliminate the unwanted smearing on heat up.

MichiganCornhusker wrote:

S-Cackalacky wrote:Sounds like a good candidate for steam distillation.

It would be. I've never fermented anything this thick though, do the yeast just find a way to get through the slop? How thick is too thick?
Also, from what I've read, steam stripping smears throughout the run, so that would eliminate the option of a single run.

it will thin during fermentation , you might try adding pectic enzymes to thin it out some also, any hbs will have it. I have never tried a mash as thick as yours though.

MichiganCornhusker wrote:It would be. I've never fermented anything this thick though, do the yeast just find a way to get through the slop? How thick is too thick?
Also, from what I've read, steam stripping smears throughout the run, so that would eliminate the option of a single run.

I pressed mine, and kept all the leavings. I was considering putting them in a grain bag and letting it hang in the fermenter, but there's no room.

raketemensch wrote:

MichiganCornhusker wrote:It would be. I've never fermented anything this thick though, do the yeast just find a way to get through the slop? How thick is too thick?
Also, from what I've read, steam stripping smears throughout the run, so that would eliminate the option of a single run.

I pressed mine, and kept all the leavings. I was considering putting them in a grain bag and letting it hang in the fermenter, but there's no room.

Steam would be awesome for this, I think.

raketemensch wrote:I pressed mine...

Well, following your lead, I strained my mess through a bag and then pressed the peels in a small fruit press.
It went really well. At first I could have dumped my 5 gallon buckets over and the banana mush would have stood up like a big ass banana flan.
But after getting after it with a paint mixer it loosened up and I was able to strain it.

The liquid I ended up with is still pretty viscous, too thick to take a hydrometer reading, but in a barrel it looks like it will ferment just fine.
Going to pitch some yeast and see what happens. No whiskey this time, just banana lovin.

For a test, I did dilute a bit of the slurry 100% with water and hydrometer says 1.024ish, so if I'm near OG 1.05 I'm happy. Tastes great and very sweet.

In the end, I added 4-1/2 gallons water to 60 lbs of bananas, and I got back 9 gallons of fermentable slurry, and 14 lbs of squeezins.

MCH, with that much fruit in there it should be awesome! I've always fermented on the fruit, I have thought about putting it in a bag as raket said. And I'm seriously thinking of doing a banana split with some 2 row or golden promise with this next batch. I just don't want to bury the banana.

MichiganCornhusker wrote:Also, from what I've read, steam stripping smears throughout the run, so that would eliminate the option of a single run.

Please pardon the off topic nature of this post, but I've been watching this thread and can't help but comment. Uneven heating will cause smearing through the run. Pumping steam into a thick mash that can't flow will cause uneven heating. Lack of insulation will cause uneven heating, Electric element mounted several inches from the bottom will cause it too. It will be most noticeable on a pot still, and might not matter as much depending on how long you spend equalizing a reflux still (because the heat has longer to spread through the mash.)

I believe I have observed this on my pot still going between electric and propane heat, although it is not a huge difference.

If you could agitate a thick mash enough it could be distilled on regular propane without scorching. You can see in the pintoshine video he cooks corn meal in a large ss pot right on an open flame. He keeps it from scorching by running that god awful loud drill the whole time.

Even heating is the key.

Brutal wrote:Even heating is the key.

Welcome, Brutal, I've been lurking the steamer threads, too.
I think you are on-topic, a thick mash like this might require out-of-the-box distilling techniques to maximize success.
Yes, I agree that even heating is one of the keys to thick mash steam distilling. I do think for stripping it doesn't much matter, but for something as fancy as bananas, perhaps.

Of course, for me right now, this is all moot. I don't have a steam rig setup yet. I am working (not lately) on something that would allow me that option, but that is down the road.

Very grateful to Raketemensch & Firewater for their help here, the pressing idea saved the day, and I did mix in some pectin enzyme a few hours before pitching yeast.
Also to NZChris and S-Cack for keeping me from getting too enzyme crazy and just letting the bananas do their thing.

I think I will still do up a batch of the Maris Otter / biscuit malt whiskey to try blending with this, but happy that I'll get to run this separately.

Checked a sample today, SG 1.024, still lightly sweet, a little fizzy, and delicious. This would make a great carbonated drink right now.
Gone is the viscous gel, strains just like water now. Very encouraging.

Ain't them little yeasties wonderful. MCH, glad to here that the situation has improved and everything is going well. Can't wait to hear how this turns out. How will you be finishing it after distillation?

MichiganCornhusker wrote:Checked a sample today, SG 1.024, still lightly sweet, a little fizzy, and delicious. This would make a great carbonated drink right now.
Gone is the viscous gel, strains just like water now. Very encouraging.

Yeah, it's really tough to not stop at that point, it's so good. I was looking into making Kombucha, but I didn't do it because it's freaking nasty :] But this is kind of like a very similar thing, with a very slight alcohol content.

My last batch wasn't as flavorful (no cooking, no peels) and I almost wish I had stopped it at the slightly-sweet phase, it got a little strange as it dried out. I didn't distill any, as it was only a 2-gallon batch. I tried adding some brown sugar, which is nice when it's fresh, but creates an odd aftertaste as it ages.

Then again, "ages" in this case means about 2 weeks. We'll see in 6 months.

I think I will distill this 5-gallon batch. I'm thinking it'd be a good candidate for aging on the white birch.

Hey, raketemensch, how's yer batch coming along?
Just checked mine, it's down to about SG 1.01, a bit sour (about 4.5 pH), not much smell, but still with a good clean banana flavor.
I'm really thinking about adding some priming sugar to a couple 12 oz bottles of this stuff, capping it, and trying it as a carbonated tart banana drink.
Tart banana struck me as very odd when I tasted it, but it's actually pretty darn good.

My ferment still has a thick mushy cap, so I figure I'll let this go another week and check on it again.

I've been tempted to carbonate it too. It tastes so good as it is that it's hard to give it up for distillation.

Mine has slowed down at the same time as my UJ. I checked ph today, and they're both down at 3. I'm not sure how that happened, I haven't had this issue with previous ferments...

Anytime I run banana I always add 2lbs sugar per gal water. A couple of bunches per gallon skin's on and yeast of choice. For nutrient I use DAP and get great flavor out of my pot still.

Well, it is done.
I ran the banana ferment low and slow, hoping to be able to just do a one-run to keep as much banana flavor as possible.
Heads started coming off around 45%, hearts around 80 proof.

Fores and heads are VERY full of fruity banana, the banana helps the heads smell fruity rather than headsy, and the heads help the bananas taste fruity. But, they still taste pretty much just headsy.
Hearts start to become more brown banana, more like smelling banana bread. Actually very nice. The middle 1/4 pint jar is very very nice. Smooth, sweet, banana goodness.
Cloudy distillate started earlier in the run than I had hoped, at about 35% abv. The first two jars of oily stuff actually still taste pretty good, but as it drops down to 60 proof the flavors start to get sketchy.

Airing out now, but it looks like if I make some wide cuts I will end up with about 1 fifth of 80 proof banana juice.
That will leave me about a quart of feints that I could maybe toss into my next rum run.
I'm not sure why, but I do feel like this would be just fine as a partial sugarhead, or even done with some panela to get a better yield. There is enough banana flavor, for sure, to hold its own with some molasses or panela.

I'll update my tasting notes when I do my final blending, but I think I'm gonna be happy with this one. Thanks everyone for inspiring me, and helping me to do this brew.
I will say, though, that at 1 bottle per 60# of bananas, I might not be going down this road again... Even though it's a much better yield than yams or pumpkins.

I think some panela or some sort of brown sugar would work out nice. glad your run went well.

Sounds delicious, MCH, even if it is a lot of work for not a lot of product. Stepping this one up to a larger ferment is going to be difficult, so I've been keeping an eye out for restaurant auctions to find myself a 20-gallon stock pot.

I'm also thinking about throwing some brown bananas into the thumper once fores have been drawn.

I also found a local source of jaggery, so I'm going to give that a shot next round, too.

I wonder if you'll get more banana flavor with age?

Oh boy, I hope the jaggery that you are trying does not give panela a bad name in your book. It is totally different with a different flavor profile. The only thing that is similiar is that it originated at some point from the sugar cane. Is it pretty salty?

raketemensch wrote:I wonder if you'll get more banana flavor with age?

Yes.
Thought I'd come back and update this thread. My banana shine is now very much a banana in a bottle.
Gobs of banana taste, but without the sweetness.

I haven't done much with this yet, but seems like it would be great with some rum, or in a pina colada.
Can't help but wonder what this would have been like if I had juiced up the recipe with some of Sugar Daddy's panela?

Anyway, calling this one a success!

Good stuff, MCH. I still haven't run mine. My current plan is to finish opening up this new keg (the circlip has now devoured two screwdrivers), and rack off these 5 gallons into it and start up another batch, then run them both in the keg through the flute.

There's been so much building/preparation stuff going on here that I haven't actually done anything but cleaning runs since November.

I think the panela would help, I'm going to try jaggery next, just because I have finally found some. I'd also like to try a full enzyme mash.

If you ferment and distill the Jaggery separately, you get to do the cuts individually, so get the best product of each for blending.

A little tip for getting bananas or other fruit to ripen quicker:

Put them all in an unscented trash bag and spin the top to close it. Open it once a day and check the progress. Paper bags work great too but it can take a lot of bags of you have a lot of fruit.


This is much faster than sitting outside or on a counter/table.


I leave the skins on myself for a banana run.

So, the first batch of banana stuff was just bottled as wine. Not very good wine, either.

The second batch is quite good, but I don't want to fire up the keg for just 5 gallons, so tomorrow I'm racking it off into a larger container, and starting another 5-gallon batch.

I did this batch much like the last one (peels on, sitting at 157 for hours, then dropped it down to 154, added some Amylase, and am letting it rest), except this time I'm going to be fermenting "on the fruit." When it's done I'll compare it to the batch I'm racking off, but in the end they'll be combined and run together through the still.

I forgot how good the house smells when you have bananas simmering on the stove all day...

Funny this thread just popped up. I was just chatting with another member a couple hours ago and we got into my banana shine.
Both agreed that it is pure banana juice in a bottle. Really surprised just how much of the banana flavor came over in distillation.

I fermented mine on-skins, will be interesting to hear your take on the comparison between your two ferments, raketemensch.

MCH, do you mean you filter out the pulp and just include the skins during ferment? So skins but not fruit? Just making sure I follow, as I plan to try this.

aceswired wrote:MCH, do you mean you filter out the pulp and just include the skins during ferment? So skins but not fruit? Just making sure I follow, as I plan to try this.

Going back and rereading the thread I see why you're confused. I did NOT ferment on skins, I remembered that wrong. I mashed everything including the peels, but then I separated the pulp from the skins and only fermented the pulp.
I bet fermenting on the peels, and then steam stripping the whole lot would bring over even more flavor.

I'm dropping in everything, including the peels, as we speak. I'll know in a couple weeks how it works...