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Banana

PostPosted: Sun Apr 28, 2019 9:08 pm
by Wobblyboot
Finally found cheap nanas, 15kg boxes for $5 each, got 2 an put them in freezer. Had to take them out to defrost tonight. Will put them in fermenter after work tomorrow an post the way I do it :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Re: Banana

PostPosted: Sun Apr 28, 2019 10:37 pm
by Doubleuj
Just be careful and make good cuts, there was a thread here a few years ago about banana washes and they can produce high levels of foreshots. I’ll try to find the thread tomorrow.

Re: Banana

PostPosted: Mon Apr 29, 2019 8:07 pm
by Wobblyboot
Got home early from work an started on nannas. About 35kg of them with the others in freezer. Added 10l of water an hit with mixing drill. Sg was 1.045 and added pectinase and will leave it for 24hrs for it to do its job.

Re: Banana

PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2019 7:39 pm
by Wobblyboot
Got a bit busy and left the pectinase to work for 2 days :teasing-tease: , all good. Added ec1118 and big pinch of citric acid. It’s bubbling away now :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Re: Banana

PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2019 8:49 pm
by bluc
:handgestures-thumbupleft:

Re: Banana

PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 10:03 pm
by invisigoth
it's been a few months.. how did it go? i ran my own version today.

Re: Banana

PostPosted: Sat Aug 03, 2019 1:53 pm
by garouda
Wobblyboot wrote:Got a bit busy and left the pectinase to work for 2 days :teasing-tease: , all good. Added ec1118 and big pinch of citric acid. It’s bubbling away now :handgestures-thumbupleft:

We have lots of bananas different varieties here, so thanks for the input. Why pectinase? There isn't that much pectine in bananas. If the purpose is to break down starch molecules why shouldn't we use amylase?

Re: Banana

PostPosted: Mon Aug 05, 2019 12:02 pm
by Wobblyboot
The ripening process converts the starch to sugar so amylase isn’t needed. There is pectin in bananas is I use it but that is up to u wether to use it or not.
I still haven’t run it, been busy with ag bourbon. Will run it soon 8-}

Re: Banana

PostPosted: Mon Aug 05, 2019 1:18 pm
by invisigoth
Wobblyboot wrote:The ripening process converts the starch to sugar so amylase isn’t needed. There is pectin in bananas is I use it but that is up to u wether to use it or not.
I still haven’t run it, been busy with ag bourbon. Will run it soon 8-}


hehe mine is the other way around. the nana's finished before the ag bourbon...it's been going for 2 weeks so far :o . i don't use pectin because it promotes additional methanol production. does make it clear a lot faster though. by the time you have done your cuts, oaked it and diluted to drinking abv it probably doesn't amount to a hill of beans... but i err on the side of caution :-p . if your's is nice and clear you probably won't have a foaming problem. at one stage looking through the view port into the boiler, it looked like the perfect 20l mug of beer :)) . I got lucky and the foam started to collapse just as it reached the top of the boiler....glad i had a 100mm spacer before the first plate :scared-eek: ! the fact that there was no heating of the must and no added sugar may have also contributed :think: .

Re: Banana

PostPosted: Tue Aug 06, 2019 8:06 pm
by invisigoth
invisigoth wrote: i don't use pectin because it promotes additional methanol production. does make it clear a lot faster though.


edit: that should read pectinase, not pectin :violence-stickwhack:

Re: Banana

PostPosted: Sun Aug 11, 2019 4:50 pm
by EziTasting
invisigoth wrote:
invisigoth wrote: i don't use pectin because it promotes additional methanol production. does make it clear a lot faster though.


edit: that should read pectinase, not pectin :violence-stickwhack:


Theres been loads of discussion raging about this I'd check out the facts ... as I remember it, it CAN lead to more methanol production, but that depends on how you use it. Of the top of my head, it depends on what temperature you have the pectinase working on the fruit as to how much methanol it produces ... been trying to find the link, to no avail :angry-banghead:

Re: Banana

PostPosted: Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:15 pm
by JayTee
Hi - I've been trying to get banana flavour / smell to come through in the distillate rather as a flavour enhancer rather than produce a banana spirit per se.

I tried fermenting with Hefeweizen ale yeast (White Labs WLP300) at the top of its temp range (c. 25degC) because that's meant to produce banana flavours. As an afterthought, I added half an extremely ripe (almost totally black) banana including half the skin. This was in a wash of about 45L.

Although the fermentation smelled great, nothing came through in the distillate.

I'm obviously way off the mark with my "half a banana" (LOL). Does anyone know approx how many bananas I need to start tasting / smelling banana? Cheers

Re: Banana

PostPosted: Sun Feb 16, 2020 6:58 am
by db1979
The banana flavour/smell comes from the ester isoamyl acetate which has a boiling point of 141 degrees C. This doesn't mean your boiler needs to get to 141 before it'll come across because water and ethanol as a mixture with isoamyl acetate will together have a lower boiling point than 141. Since its boiling point is so high, it won't start coming across until into the tails. So I think you'll have missed the banana due to too tight cuts. Perhaps next time you try, run it faster to encourage more smearing, or you could try macerating bananas in your hearts cuts, then run through a pot still nice and fast (after getting rid of foreshots/heads again).

Re: Banana

PostPosted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 2:52 am
by JayTee
db1979 wrote:Since its boiling point is so high, it won't start coming across until into the tails. So I think you'll have missed the banana due to too tight cuts. Perhaps next time you try, run it faster to encourage more smearing, or you could try macerating bananas in your hearts cuts, then run through a pot still nice and fast (after getting rid of foreshots/heads again).


Thanks. I think I'll try the hearts cut maceration with banana - then fast pot Still. I'm deliberately trying to avoid taking tails as I'd like to be able to drink this pretty much straight away (i.e. with no oaking & carbon filtering).