Banana Bochet Port

[Deezil]

Figured i might as well post this, since i've been kicking it around in my head pretty solid since the lightbulb flickered on.. I found a "commercial version" of *kinda* what im aiming for (minus the bourbon barrel)...

What im thinking so far:

5 Gallons Banana Melomel/Port

100lbs bananas
9-12lbs honey
5 gallons water
1/2 gallon brandy

Go-Ferm & Fermaid-O
Opti-White & Booster Blanc
FT Blanc Soft

Vanilla Bean

3oz French Oak - Medium Toast
3oz American Oak - Medium Toast


Put the 1/2 gallon of brandy in a 1-gallon jug & peel/slice bananas up thinly until they wont submerge anymore - up to 20lbs

Cut 40lbs of bananas up and turn them into a lukewarm soup.. Probably dissolve 1/2 the honey into the soup... Add the additional water, pectic enzyme, let it sit for 12 hours... Stir & take hydrometer reading

Aiming for 16% ABV - the tolerance for my leftover W-15 yeast.. The first honey addition will probably get me to 12-13% PA... Will let this ferment down and add the additional sugar needed..

When the 2nd honey addition is made, in goes the other 40lbs of bananas (that will have had extra time to turn brown/develop sugars while sitting out), peeled, and everything gets left in until fermentation is done

Then i'll rack to carboy, degas & half-way clear... Not crystal clear, but free of all major debris.. At this point i could either layer in the oak - 2 months @ 3oz of french followed by 2 months @ 3oz of american - or i could strain the bananas out of the brandy & add, and wait on the oak until its completely clear... Vanilla bean is the last layer..

The addition of brandy should take it from the 16% to the 18% neighborhood

Thoughts?
Opinions?

Starting this just after the new year, but i cant quit thinking about it..

 

[fatbloke]

Figured i might as well post this, since i've been kicking it around in my head pretty solid since the lightbulb flickered on.. I found a "commercial version" of *kinda* what im aiming for (minus the bourbon barrel)...

What im thinking so far:

5 Gallons Banana Melomel/Port

100lbs bananas
9-12lbs honey
5 gallons water
1/2 gallon brandy

Go-Ferm & Fermaid-O
Opti-White & Booster Blanc
FT Blanc Soft

Vanilla Bean

3oz French Oak - Medium Toast
3oz American Oak - Medium Toast


Put the 1/2 gallon of brandy in a 1-gallon jug & peel/slice bananas up thinly until they wont submerge anymore - up to 20lbs

Cut 40lbs of bananas up and turn them into a lukewarm soup.. Probably dissolve 1/2 the honey into the soup... Add the additional water, pectic enzyme, let it sit for 12 hours... Stir & take hydrometer reading

Aiming for 16% ABV - the tolerance for my leftover W-15 yeast.. The first honey addition will probably get me to 12-13% PA... Will let this ferment down and add the additional sugar needed..

When the 2nd honey addition is made, in goes the other 40lbs of bananas (that will have had extra time to turn brown/develop sugars while sitting out), peeled, and everything gets left in until fermentation is done

Then i'll rack to carboy, degas & half-way clear... Not crystal clear, but free of all major debris.. At this point i could either layer in the oak - 2 months @ 3oz of french followed by 2 months @ 3oz of american - or i could strain the bananas out of the brandy & add, and wait on the oak until its completely clear... Vanilla bean is the last layer..

The addition of brandy should take it from the 16% to the 18% neighborhood

Thoughts?
Opinions?

Starting this just after the new year, but i cant quit thinking about it..

Erm, just trying to get my head round this recipe Deezil.

I hadn't thought of a banana port type batch.

Last time I used banana, I had an 18 kg case and even after "topping and tailing" the fruit, it went a long way.

I'll have a bit of a think and post again. But my attempts ? one with the banana sliced, boiled and strained from the pulp, so you only start it with the banana juice/liquid, another was just a base traditional, that then had banana sliced into it for secondary, another was just "topped and tailed" banana sliced into the honey/water and fermented, with more added afterward.

I'm thinking that with a port type affair, it would be a case of starting with boiled/strained banana juice/liquid mixed up to a reasonable starting gravity, then step feeding with honey to let the brew get to as high a strength as the yeast will manage, then after racking etc, adding the brandy to increase the strength, then adding the oak while it's clearing etc (idea's not mine, one of the people over at Winesathome has made a few faux port type batches and it's basically his process)

 

[Deezil]

Erm, just trying to get my head round this recipe Deezil.

I hadn't thought of a banana port type batch.

I'm thinking that with a port type affair, it would be a case of starting with boiled/strained banana juice/liquid mixed up to a reasonable starting gravity, then step feeding with honey to let the brew get to as high a strength as the yeast will manage,

That's almost what i'm thinking, except you didnt have the 2nd addition of bananas..

then after racking etc, adding the brandy to increase the strength, then adding the oak while it's clearing etc (idea's not mine, one of the people over at Winesathome has made a few faux port type batches and it's basically his process)

And thats the part i was wondering about


Guess i coulda typed up better steps huh?
Try this again..


5 Gallons Banana Melomel/Port

100lbs bananas
9-12lbs honey
5 gallons water
1/2 gallon brandy

Go-Ferm & Fermaid-O
Opti-White & Booster Blanc
FT Blanc Soft

Vanilla Bean

3oz French Oak - Medium Toast
3oz American Oak - Medium Toast

Prepare the brandy
- Add the brandy to 1gal jug
- Add bananas to brandy in 1gal jug until it cant take anymore (up to 20lbs)
- Set aside until later

Prepare the must
-Mash/heat up 40lbs of bananas into a liquid/fruit soup
-Dissolve in 6-8lbs of honey (SG 1.090-ish)
-Thin to 5 gallons liquid in primary fermenter
-Add pectic enzyme & let sit 12 hrs
-Add other additives
-Add yeast starter

- @ SG 1.030, add honey to SG 1.060 - 1.070 & add last 40lbs of bananas
- Ferment until yeast give out

-Rack to carboy, settle out gross lees
-Rack to carboy, settle out sur lees
-Rack to carboy

.... Then what

Add the brandy?
Layer the oak?
Add the vanilla?

 

[fatbloke]

Below is the basic steps that Pete (from WaH) used when he explained his technique for "faking" port (faking term was used as we understand that "Port" is a PDO i.e. protected designation of origin - which within the "EU" would mean that it has to be made in area it's always been made in, to be able to call it "Port") anyway......

Fruit, grape or kit base
Ferment fully
Sugar-feed until yeast dies
Degas, stabilise, clear
Sweeten with sugar
Fortify with brandy
Oak
Age

He used the method of taking the ferment down to about 1.010 before step feeding it with honey - and said about using small increments, rather than one big one, as it seems that the yeast should perform better.

I'd have thought that for banana, using some in the ferment, whether you choose to boil them up to obtain a "banana juice" is up to you as, it would seem that most of these type of "fake" recipes would normally just use either grapes, grape juice or a kit as the base.

He did say about using the kind of yeast that will give you as high a % ABV as possible, which I'd have thought would generally be either EC-1118 or K1-V1116 (which would be my preference as I like what it does with meads more than I do with EC-1118).

Any further addition of banana would probably be best once the rest of the ingredients is already used i.e. the vanilla, the brandy, the residual sugared mead, etc etc, then leaving it to age for a good while - probably until all the fruit has sunk, then you would be in a good place to rack it off the sunken fruit for longer term ageing.

I can't say for certain, just a "gut feeling" of how I'd do this by pillaging my experiences of making banana meads, and others ideas or suggestions of methods.

I've got a fake port on my "to do" list, but haven't had time, or space, to do this yet.......

As for using, or even trying to use 100lb of banana ? The 18Kg case I used, well lets just say, that I only used about 12Kg of them, and even using some in the base ferment, then slicing the rest into the finished (and stabilised) batch, it still seemed like a hell of a lot - I still haven't tasted it yet to see how it's going i.e. as to wether it's "bananery" enough for my liking or not. But it's easy to forget, that they're bulky little buggers.......

 

[Deezil]

He used the method of taking the ferment down to about 1.010 before step feeding it with honey - and said about using small increments, rather than one big one, as it seems that the yeast should perform better.

I think part of the reason for multiple, smaller additions, is because they wait until the SG is lower before they start the additions - 1.010 as opposed to my 1.030; might not sound like much but doing ferments in my carboys & even my white plastic fermenter, i've noticed visually, activity in the overall colony starts to taper off below 1.020... You can basically see the gross lees starting to form even though the ferment is still finishing up - I dont like to let my ferment get that far & start to taper off, when im step-feeding personally

He did say about using the kind of yeast that will give you as high a % ABV as possible, which I'd have thought would generally be either EC-1118 or K1-V1116 (which would be my preference as I like what it does with meads more than I do with EC-1118).

I just happened to have gotten lucky with my Riesling grape ferments & had ordered an extra/just-in-case pouch of this W-15 I'm gonna use - i've spent the better part of the last 6 months reading into different yeasts and have come to realize the potential that they bring to the table beyond the ABV.. W-15 is said to bring mouthfeel (& "bright fruit") to the party, so this is basically my "test", as most of the W-15 from my Riesling was blended... W-15 + honey + bananas + additives & tannins; should have some thru-the-roof mouthfeel

But i'm also trying to expand my horizons on these other yeasts, beyond the "Basic 5" and this is only the beginning to my madness

Any further addition of banana would probably be best once the rest of the ingredients is already used i.e. the vanilla, the brandy, the residual sugared mead, etc etc, then leaving it to age for a good while - probably until all the fruit has sunk, then you would be in a good place to rack it off the sunken fruit for longer term ageing.

I've been kicking this around myself, i was just hoping to skip cleaning a bunch of bananas-gunk out of my carboy... And honestly i dunno if i'll have room to store the liquid volume + 40lbs of bananas under airlock as i only have about 6-gallons of free space..

But i was considering waiting on adding the 2nd 40lbs of bananas, until the SG reached about 1.010 for the last time.. That would probably keep most of the banana flavor, and i could let it all sit in the primary until the wine went dry, giving it a good portion of time to extract the flavors from the 40lbs

I can't say for certain, just a "gut feeling" of how I'd do this by pillaging my experiences of making banana meads, and others ideas or suggestions of methods.

Thats basically my attempt here -

-taking the banana "soup" from a typical banana wine theory
-taking the 2nd portion secondary-fruit-addition out of the old "melomel makers handbook" (figuratively speaking)
-step feeding from the older/newer school meadmaker theories
-and the port style im trying to capture (fortifying to stop fermentation & save some of the fruits residual sweetness) but in this case, most of my 'residual sweetness' would be honey.. So i'm treating the brandy more like a sugarless F-Pack in this case and can backsweeten afterward with almost the same result


-Dont really wanna sweeten until i fortify because i want the sweetness to match the finished alcohol level
-Dont really wanna oak until i fortify because the brandy will contain some amount of oak & i wanna work with it, not against it

The catch...
-Dont really wanna fortify until the brandy has had ample time to suck the goodness out of the bananas

As for using, or even trying to use 100lb of banana ? The 18Kg case I used, well lets just say, that I only used about 12Kg of them, and even using some in the base ferment, then slicing the rest into the finished (and stabilised) batch, it still seemed like a hell of a lot - I still haven't tasted it yet to see how it's going i.e. as to wether it's "bananery" enough for my liking or not. But it's easy to forget, that they're bulky little buggers.......

I'll take pictures

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

A little amylase might help it clear up faster. I want to make a nanner mead next season, lets see how this one turns out, your going to have to come up with a cool name for it first. CC

 

[seth8530]

have you considered creating a concentrated banana sugar? If you are intent on using 100 lbs you could create your bannana soup with little sugar in it and then boil it down or freeze fraction it until the sugar is where you want it... BTW if you intend on step feeding and want accurate results on the ABV give my calculator a try.

 

[Deezil]

5 Gallons Banana Melomel/Port

100lbs bananas
9-12lbs honey
5 gallons water
1/2 gallon brandy

Go-Ferm & Fermaid-O
Opti-White & Booster Blanc
FT Blanc Soft

Vanilla Bean

3oz French Oak - Medium Toast
3oz American Oak - Medium Toast

Prepare the brandy
- Add the brandy to 1gal jug
- Add bananas to brandy in 1gal jug until it cant take anymore (up to 20lbs)
- Set aside until later

Prepare the must
-Mash up 80lbs of bananas into a liquid/fruit soup
-Dissolve in 6-8lbs of honey (SG 1.090-ish)
-Thin to 5 gallons liquid in primary fermenter
-Add pectic enzyme & let sit 12 hrs
-Add other additives
-Add yeast starter

- @ SG 1.030, add honey to SG 1.060 - 1.070
- Ferment until yeast give out

-Rack to carboy, settle out gross lees
-Rack to carboy, settle out sur lees
-Rack to carboy

-Add the banana-infused brandy
-Add 3oz French Oak - taste every 2 weeks, rack off
-Add 3oz American Oak - taste every 2 weeks, rack off
-Add vanilla bean - taste weekly, rack off

So i've been giving this more thought, and will continue to do so until i make room in the carboys & give this a shot, probably in the fall - about the same time as blackberry harvest & i can buy the bucket of honey to ferment the bananas, blackberries and a straight up mead all at the same time

About the bananas - I'm still leaning towards an insane amount but it'll be more manageable considering my added research on letting bananas ripen has led me down the road of wanting to let these bananas turn basically-black and then carefully separate them from the peels and add just the flesh of the fruit to the ferment.

This is basically how its done to make amazing banana bread and such - the bananas are still good when black - provided they aren't bruised to hell - its mostly just a texture thing.. When a banana is green, it contains loads of starches and as it turns yellow those starches start to convert to sugar. When a banana reaches the point where it has a spotted look, its perfect to eat - enough of the starches have been converted that they taste sweeter and have a stronger flavor..

But to let them slide even farther down the ripeness scale, then they become perfect for baking - and im assuming wine... I'm also assuming this is why when people have used banana in wines before, they note not much flavor, because the fruit wasn't ripe enough - a theory im excited to test out

I dont know i have the guts to go for liqueur-black bananas, but ill see how they ripen along and probably make a judgement call on them at some point.. Probably somewhere between spotted and blackened.. Dont want any mold to grow or funky smells..

Just thought i'd update this with my newest notes so i didnt forget anything, and whoevers been waiting on this one could read something new

 

[seth8530]

I really like the idea of what you are doing. Keep us posted!

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

Our banana mead has already cleared, you can see your fingerprints through it. We did the cook the bananas, strain and ferment, step feeding with honey. A couple of things on your batch, bananas add a lot of body, so using bananas to test the mouthfeel of your yeast is going to not tell you much about your yeast, probably. Use the skins, you are looking for a lot of flavor you want the skins, they also contain a lot of enzymes to help clear up your mead. We always step feed starting at 1.01, jump it up by about .01to .015 depending on how quick I get the honey to stop dripping out of the bucket Havent people heard about amylase enzymes on this list, a pinch will help break up any starch haze just in case the skins are lacking in enzymes. WVMJ

 

[Deezil]

Our banana mead has already cleared, you can see your fingerprints through it. We did the cook the bananas, strain and ferment, step feeding with honey.

Did you use bananas that still had mostly-yellow peels? I can see maybe warming them up if thats the case, but im leaning more towards bananas that look like this or worse..

A couple of things on your batch, bananas add a lot of body, so using bananas to test the mouthfeel of your yeast is going to not tell you much about your yeast, probably.

I'm not so much trying to test the mouthfeel capacity of the yeast as i am trying to create an overall wine profile that is monster in the mouthfeel department - between the yeast, the bananas and the honey, all of which should contribute to some extent, i'm rather excited to see the outcome

Use the skins, you are looking for a lot of flavor you want the skins, they also contain a lot of enzymes to help clear up your mead. We always step feed starting at 1.01, jump it up by about .01to .015 depending on how quick I get the honey to stop dripping out of the bucket Havent people heard about amylase enzymes on this list, a pinch will help break up any starch haze just in case the skins are lacking in enzymes. WVMJ

By the time the grapes are overripe to the point where i'm processing them, i dont think there will be much beneficial qualities left in the skin as there would be were they still yellow...

I've heard of amalyse but will only go that route if i have haze problems after about a year of aging - long enough for any hazes from the honey to have dropped out of suspension

 

[Deezil]

About the bananas - I'm still leaning towards an insane amount but it'll be more manageable considering my added research on letting bananas ripen has led me down the road of wanting to let these bananas turn basically-black and then carefully separate them from the peels and add just the flesh of the fruit to the ferment.

This is basically how its done to make amazing banana bread and such - the bananas are still good when black - provided they aren't bruised to hell - its mostly just a texture thing.. When a banana is green, it contains loads of starches and as it turns yellow those starches start to convert to sugar. When a banana reaches the point where it has a spotted look, its perfect to eat - enough of the starches have been converted that they taste sweeter and have a stronger flavor..

But to let them slide even farther down the ripeness scale, then they become perfect for baking - and im assuming wine... I'm also assuming this is why when people have used banana in wines before, they note not much flavor, because the fruit wasn't ripe enough - a theory im excited to test out

I dont know i have the guts to go for liqueur-black bananas, but ill see how they ripen along and probably make a judgement call on them at some point.. Probably somewhere between spotted and blackened.. Dont want any mold to grow or funky smells..

With this in mind, i'm thinking ahead a bit

I have a bunch of bananas set aside, doing nothing special to them.. Going to let them ripen, take pictures as time passes & post it for those interested.. When the bananas hit a point where its worth wasting one to take a look, i'll be performing surgery & taking pictures along the way to see how the ripening process changes the inside of the banana.. The hope is to have atleast 1 banana make it to the completely-blackened stage, but theres only 6 bananas in the test.

As of now, they're practically completely yellow & rather starchy tasting (i ate one from another bunch not in the 'testing')

Time will tell an interesting story

So i took it a step farther, and went and grabbed another banana from the bunch upstairs, to do some "Control Surgury" - both of these bunches of bananas were pulled from the same box, which was previously-closed, underneath another box of open bananas. The bunches were laying together within the box.

So i peeled the banana - the peel itself is rather tough and instead of damaging the top of the banana, i chose to use the butter knife to cut the top off where it connects to the bunch and peel the sides down for the sake of the experiment. After peeling the banana, i took a measurement of the thickness of the peel - roughly 3/16"

The 2" mark is on the inner edge of the peel, with the outer edge being the measurement taken

I also smelled both the peel and the fruit - at this point they both smell of banana although neither smell sweet & the banana smell isnt what i know it can be, obviously under-ripe.

I then cut the banana in half, to see the inner structure of the banana

After cutting it in half, i cut the half, in half, to see the structure length-wise - to observe how this structure changes through the ripening processes

Following that, i took the other half of the banana, and ripped it in half to show the texture within the banana at this stage - should prove to be a rough timeline of how the starches in the banana affect the overall firmness of the banana through the ripening stages

The only way i could get an accurate shot of the texture was by setting it down

Hopefully i'm not the only one who will enjoy & learn from this rather everyday occurrence

 

[fatbloke]

Deezil,

Even if they were as ripe as the darkened ones you pictured, the skins will still provide some colour and tannins to the batch.

I've used some like that in one batch of banana mead, just topping and tailing them for hygiene, then slicing into about 1/4 inch lengths straight into the fermenter and added the honey and water on top. I did hit it with sulphites too and then left it for a day or so before pitching the yeast.

With that much banana in the batch I suspect it'll be very "bananery" tasting......

 

[Deezil]

Even if they were as ripe as the darkened ones you pictured, the skins will still provide some colour and tannins to the batch.

I was suspecting that myself, and that's part of what led to my little experiment - i was reading that as bananas ripen, and the starches are converted to sugars, the enzymes and nutrients within the peel are pulled into the fruit itself, causing the peel to lose thickness - so i want to see how much thickness they lose and what kind of state they're in (the peels) when the banana is more ripe than the picture i posted above of the rather-ripe ones..

Depending on how much thickness is lost and the condition at the 'right stage', ill either include or exclude the peels

I probably wont cut the first banana open until its at least at the stage shown above, then the other 5 will be even farther along

I've used some like that in one batch of banana mead, just topping and tailing them for hygiene, then slicing into about 1/4 inch lengths straight into the fermenter and added the honey and water on top. I did hit it with sulphites too and then left it for a day or so before pitching the yeast.

How'd that come out? How long did it make it before it was gone?

 

[fatbloke]

Like all my other meads its in the pile waiting to be drunk...

I just get them about 99% clear the chuck 'em under the stairs for ageing (about 20 gallons there ATM). I'll bottle..........eventually!

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

Deez, bite into the fruit of the banana, it tastes nice like a ripe banana should, now bite into the peel - it has lots more flavor than the flesh. If you really want a monster banana taste you need to add the skins, it doesnt matter how thick they are, just that they are ripe. All your experiments are not going to put more banana flavor into the fruit than is in the peel. I only make monster wines, I would never talk myself out of using everything that I could to monster it up. 100 pounds of flesh, who cares. 10 pounds of skins, now you have a banana mead.

Did you ever post what kind of honey you were going to use?

WVMJ

 

[Deezil]

Deez, bite into the fruit of the banana, it tastes nice like a ripe banana should, now bite into the peel - it has lots more flavor than the flesh. If you really want a monster banana taste you need to add the skins, it doesnt matter how thick they are, just that they are ripe. All your experiments are not going to put more banana flavor into the fruit than is in the peel.

Right now, if i was to bite both the fruit and the peel - you're probably right. And its probably a toss up when they're ripe..

But i'm going for "overripe", to an extent where the peel has sent its nutrients (minerals, vitamins, essential fatty acids, etc) to the fruit inside (shown by the peel thinning), has converted 80%+ of its starches into sugars, and has turned black because of a reaction between the leftover sugars in the skin coming into contact with oxygen

I'm going for black-black, but i dont know if i'll achieve that safely. If i achieve black-black, the peels will be deteriorated to a point where including them is more of a risk than a benefit - they wont be organic so they will have soaked in any sprays they received while growing, they'll have had 'extra' time for any molds or bacteria to get started between the brown-stage and the black-stage, and will already have given up a majority of the goodies..

If i only make it to a very-brown state, then i'll most likely include the peels because the risk factors wont be as high and the rewards will be greater due to the skins not having enough time to lose enough nutrition.

Thats just what the facts and my gut/intuition are telling me, so thats what i'm going with. By all means, do it another way - but thats whats going down here lol

Did you ever post what kind of honey you were going to use?

Local blackberry honey - its sweeter on the palette than typical store-bought honey, has a wonderful (what i assume is blackberry) flower aroma and taste

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

I see, you are doing the raw deal, no cooking the nanners, I havent done one like that, I think Bloke has but we cook all of our starchy stuff, gets a lot more flavor from them - think monster flavor - vs hints of flavor Allthough I have a blackberry patch in my Wineyard I dont think we will ever get pure blackberry honey, its at the time of the year though when they are making light honey so that should be perfect. I think I went with some wildflower or locust for our batch this winter. I am getting ready to backsweeten it with more honey and cant wait to taste this batch of bannana mead, at least in the winter we get to taste our vintages WVMJ

 

[Deezil]

I see, you are doing the raw deal, no cooking the nanners, I havent done one like that, I think Bloke has but we cook all of our starchy stuff, gets a lot more flavor from them - think monster flavor - vs hints of flavor

Yeah, im going the raw route because im going to try to wait until theres *no starches* - or from what i've read, something like less than 8% starches when it starts in the 82-87% range - thats what happens when the peels are black as opposed to brown, almost no starches & more sugars which translates to that same flavor instead of what you thought would be lost

I am getting ready to backsweeten it with more honey and cant wait to taste this batch of bannana mead, at least in the winter we get to taste our vintages WVMJ

Lemme know when ya taste it, how it goes.. I dont ever claim to know it all and always enjoy the learning process.. Appreciate the convo, ya made me dig a bit deeper and be sure of myself

 

[Deezil]

5 Gallons Banana Melomel/Port

100lbs bananas
9-12lbs honey
5 gallons water
1/2 gallon brandy

W-15 yeast

Go-Ferm & Fermaid-O
Opti-White & Booster Blanc
FT Blanc Soft

Vanilla Bean

3oz French Oak - Medium Toast
3oz American Oak - Medium Toast

Prepare the brandy
- Add the brandy to 1gal jug
- Add bananas to brandy in 1gal jug until it cant take anymore (up to 20lbs)
- Set aside until later

Prepare the must
-Mash/heat up 40lbs of bananas into a liquid/fruit soup
-Dissolve in 6-8lbs of honey (SG 1.090-ish)
-Thin to 5 gallons liquid in primary fermenter
-Add pectic enzyme & let sit 12 hrs
-Add Fermaid-O, Booster Blanc, FT Blanc
-Add yeast starter

- @ SG 1.030, add honey to SG 1.060 - 1.070 & add last 40lbs of bananas
- @ SG 1.020, add Opti-White
- Ferment until yeast give out

-Rack to carboy, settle out gross lees
-Rack to carboy, settle out sur lees
-Rack to clean carboy

-Add the banana-infused brandy
-Add 3oz French Oak - taste every 2 weeks, rack off
-Add 3oz American Oak - taste every 2 weeks, rack off
-Add vanilla bean - taste weekly, rack off

Got the urge to pick this recipe apart for all the different flavor, aroma and texture enhancements from everything going on here.. Also taking a deeper look at some of the additives i'm using, to better approximate the timing for the desired effects

The honey, "has a deeper color and rich, sweet flavor"

From the W-15 yeast, "[FONT=&quot]bright fruit and heavy mouthfeel" & "p[/FONT][FONT=&quot]roduces higher levels of glycerol and succinic acid"[/FONT]

From adding Booster Blanc to the juice, "[FONT=&quot]a smoother mid-palate and aromatic freshness[/FONT]" - i've seen this effect in my Peach, which i had previously done a batch without any of the additives and the differences is night/day

From adding FT Blanc Soft to the juice, "[FONT=&quot]softness and improved mouthfeel", "[/FONT][FONT=&quot]enhances texture with a perception of sweetness on the palate" & "[/FONT][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]can contribute to minerality"[/FONT] [/FONT]

From adding Opti-White near the end of fermentation, "[FONT=&quot]for smoothing and better integration of wood and alcohol" [/FONT] for the brandy, french & american oaks to follow

From the brandy's website, "blend(ed) it specifically for richness and full flavor", "begins with a delicate bouquet of sweet and brown spice, delicious notes coaxed from its extended time aging in barrel. On the palate, inviting flavors of vanilla cream, maple and sherry linger into a satisfyingly smooth finish".. Plus all the bananas i'm infusing into it

Then the french oak, "aromatic sweetness and full mouthfeel", "a fruity, cinnamon/allspice character, along with custard/ crème brûlée, milk chocolate and campfire/roasted coffee notes"

And the american oak, "aromatic sweetness and mouthfeel/fullness" & "a campfire/roasted coffee attribute with cooked fruit more than a fresh or jammy"

The vanilla and water kind of explain themselves..

It'll be interesting to come back to this post & see just how many of these bits actually translate and come through in the finished wine