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Are all these banana weights with or without the skins? I see one recipe that specified unpeeled, but the others did not.

I counted the bananas. Used 50 bananas. Without the skin they weighted 12.6 pounds (i used a scale). Fermenting a batch right now. Will run on a traditional tower in 2 weeks.

frozenthunderbolt wrote:Mine turned out O.K.
Decent (if not screaming) banana flavour white, tasty but not bananary when oaked, and pretty fun when macerated with ripe bananas and caramel added to it.

UPDATE:
Had bottled some of my banana brandy white, put some on oak and some on SLICED ripe bananas.

Strained it off with the banana slices with a sieve then ran through a coffee filter - worked beautifully: Golden, crystal clear banana colour, and great banana hit of flavour - added sugar syrup to two bottles and muscovardo sugar to the third (for a ba-noffieish taste that i can mix with sweetend condensed milk to make a great cocktail).

Awesome result - needs the sweetness to really shine - way better than white or the oaked version

making same batch as op in 20 gal wash been fermenting for a week now and huge cap on top ,using a trash can as fermenter so airlock wouldnt seal up to work so im just paying attention to how active it is ,when done im running through a potstill once nice and slow then plan on making what i will call banana cream pie [based on the apple pie reciepe ] i have a bottle of Crème de Banana Syrup and will boil it with some banana juice and 2 cups of sugar and add to the likker and place a half of a vanilla bean in each jar and put it on a shelf for about 6 months, i will keep yous posted

I have read the whole post twice and i'm still uncertain of what the hell I'm gonna get when doing this. It seems everybody has got a different result even when doing the same recipe. So on that note...I'm thinking of just using about 50 bananas, cut them really thin but not mash them. Heat them to 155F and just gonna add some Distillers Malt. Not sure if i will add flaked corn or cornmeal or sugar...I'll decide that on the go
this might add taste and also help with conversion of starch...I'll let you know what in the world happens...if anyone thinks I'm doing something really wrong, just let me know.

well that was a waste of my time...used a potstill and i got absolutely no banana flavor at all...I'll try it some other time

thorson wrote:well that was a waste of my time...used a potstill and i got absolutely no banana flavor at all...I'll try it some other time

Same hear, I did a 5 gallon batch and ran it in a pot still and got no banana flavor.
I ran it down to 30Abv.

it is a very disappointing feeling ...I need to make it a habit of using my 3 gallon boiler on these experiments

I'm not sure what your trying to taste? I'm just looking for a good taste without the crap taste from turbo yeast.
The last batch.... I've a small run is
4 gal wash:
4 lbs of cracked corn cooked at 190 degrees F for one hour in 3 gal.s of water
Strained.
4 lbs of sugar
6 bananas pureed in a blender added to wash
@750 ml of back set from previous distillation
32 grams of bread yeast - pitched
@ 11 grams of bread yeast sprinkled on top of wash

Previous run was with turbo yeast....looking for better.....let you know how this one turns out.....
The turbo is not bad.... Turned out at 55%.

Oops... The yeast is bubbling like crazy.... Coming out the air locks. Good thing I've got the carboy in the sink to catch the boil over. It did the same thing with the turbo yeast....on the previous batch....which made a mess.

Yeah, if you're using a carboy, you will need to leave a good amount of headspace for the fruit.

I would hate to use carboys for fermenting to distill. They're really expensive for what you get. All of my fermenters are huge buckets. A 32gal bucket is the same price as one 5gal carboy. Don't think I'll ever have a problem with anything overflowing, either...

Been fooling with naners. I've found the best way is to make a sugar wash and then fill the thumper with banana pulp. Lots more flavor and uses far less bananas.

Yeah, all the good banana flavor is in the sugars, but then the yeast eats them all on you.

I think the thumper (or right in the boiler) is the best way to get the flavor.

I kept some of mine as banana wine. It’s 2 years old now, and still tastes like butt.

Hilltop wrote:Been fooling with naners. I've found the best way is to make a sugar wash and then fill the thumper with banana pulp. Lots more flavor and uses far less bananas.

Have you tried it with the peels as well? I'm definitely going to get a thumper.

Geoff

When I had my 7.5 gal thumper I filled it with sliced apples and the flavors carried over well, I've not tried bananas yet but will on the next spirit run of rum in probably 3 weeks.
A thumper is a very versatile tool for infusions imo

Shine0n wrote:When I had my 7.5 gal thumper I filled it with sliced apples and the flavors carried over well, I've not tried bananas yet but will on the next spirit run of rum in probably 3 weeks.
A thumper is a very versatile tool for infusions imo

Definitely better than using the boiler, but I think there needs to be more awareness of the ability to just throw stuff right in there. I've had great results throwing bananas right into the boiler with a UJ.

Sorry to bump an old thread but Im doing a Banana/Raisin Rum and since a couple of people asked I thought you guys might be interested.

17.5lbs of Bananas (no skins)
6.6lbs Raisins
6.2lbs Black Treacle
2L Pineapple Juice
Juice of 3 Limes.
12g Glucoamylase
10g Yeast nutrients
20g Mead Yeast
Mineral Water to 20L


Its been fermenting about a day now and while it seems to be going fairly slowly it is caking up nicely and I have just stirred the cake carefully back into the mix. With any luck it should be done in about 10 days so I will update you guys with the final product assuming it all behaves.