Banana Bochet Port

[Deezil]

First off, a confession: i ate one in a moment of weakness

So the Last of the Mohi-naners..

I grabbed another banana purchased yesterday & used it as a comparison - a rough stand-in - for the "Control". Also, the tape measure was stolen back, so I had no way of measuring the thickness of the peel.

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Off came the hat & shoes, "Stay a while.."​

And the differences become obvious instantly. Different coloration (slight oxidation), loss of 'curve', the consistency difference, overall size difference

After cutting them in half with a razor blade, you can see the differences in the structure within the banana. The amount of liquid on the banana and peel, are both significantly more than the Control/Stand-In. A texture comparable to gelatin, instead of a stiffer, firmer banana that we're used to.​

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I then, carefully, attempted to "break off" a piece, as opposed to cutting it, as seen with previous bananas.

And finally, before eating the riper banana (the Autistic Banana Bandit got the other, nothing wasted!), I cut the peel-removed halves, in half length-wise to expose a different aspect of the bananas structure, as seem with previous bananas.

That would have continued to develop into a bruise, on the 'Stand-In'.​

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I would call this experiment a success - the starch levels within bananas do indeed change (relates to wine-clearing issues), the sweetness levels do seem to rise significantly (less sugar to add, to achieve a reasonable alcohol level), and the peels do seem to lose quite a bit of their thickness, presumably by injecting their nutrients into the fruit as well as becoming oxidized (the discoloration of the peel; an environment for 'nasties')​

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When the time comes, I'll let the bananas blacken completely before removing them and beginning the winemaking process
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[seth8530]

Great research man, I can't wait to see how this turns out!

 

[Deezil]

Banana Melomel/Port

150lbs 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 (months ahead)
- 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 of bananas into a liquid/fruit soup
-Dissolve 6-8lbs of honey (SG 1.090-ish) in warm water
-Add honey-water to banana soup
-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
- @ 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

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..

Didnt wanna lose these two particular pieces, amongst everything else going on in this thread
While the recipe is quoted, it does keep changing as i'm learning so if you're following along in hopes to "play along", thought i'd let ya know

Due to another mead thread, i've spent the day reading on Bochet (beau-shea) mead... Basically a caramelization of the sugars within the honey, in a swapout for losing the aromatic delicateness, it instead has a caramel/roasted marshmellow kinda flavor.. And while i don't want to take it to that severity, i am considering a partial caramelization of the sugars, done to a fraction of the total honey, in hopes of more caramel character without completely losing the aromatic delicateness...

I may do a separate Bochet-style mead prior to this, in order to better grasp what goes on during the process of caramelization

 

[saramc]

Oh yum, bananas foster mead!

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

Banana Bochet, that would have to be a winner along the lines of Saras Foster. Burn the honey, roast the nanners in the oven to caramalize the sugars just a little so you dont have any butter in your mead (I know the butter in the mead sounds good but you would just like it off the top). THis place is terrible, to many ideas, I dont have enough honey to try them all. WVMJ

 

[Deezil]

It's gonna be a Banana-Melomel-Bochet-Port-Behemoth

I'm glad i've taken my time with the research though, this is my first wine im hoping to NAIL all the way around.. Ive made some good wines, but... This is another notch for me..

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

You cant even protect your nanners, how you gonna make a plan WVMJ

 

[Deezil]

I figure if theres 125-150lbs of them, he can steal all he wants and it wont make a dent.. Well.. Okay maybe he can make a dent... I'll figure something out

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

You are going to have to make 2 piles, 1 low down within easy reach and one high up and out of site, probably wont work, once they start to smell ripe they will be easy to find WVMJ

 

[Deezil]

You are going to have to make 2 piles, 1 low down within easy reach and one high up and out of site, probably wont work

Especially since he's my size - 6ft / 250lbs - "up high" doesnt work, but sometimes "down low" does

99% will be in my winemaking area most likely.. but ill probably buy a couple extra "sacrificial bunches" to leave in the kitchen

It'll be interesting though

 

[Stressbaby]

The original banana before Cavendish was known as 'Big Mike.' This banana is not really available anywhere now, of course, but there are many, many other varieties that are delicious. 'Ice Cream' has already been mentioned. I hope to be able to report directly on one red variety...I have 'Dwarf Red' growing now in the greenhouse. It has not bloomed yet. I have several hands of 'Dwarf Namwah' which will hopefully ripen in the next couple of months. There is also one called 'Raja Puri' which I haven't tried but which is supposed to be excellent. All of these varieties are probably better than Cavendish if you can get your hands on them!

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

We got hold of some little half sized bananas that really tasted bannernery, they would have made a great melomel. How long does it take for your greenhouse bananas to go from sprout coming up, to flowering to fruit? WVMJ

 

[dcteague]

I have a batch of a strange concotion using red bananas going now, not a melomel though. I'm going to fortify a slight bit but not much since the ec1118 took my batch to almost 19% already, so I'm going to backsweeten, then bring the alcohol back up to 20% using Marie Brizard creme de banane (its the only distilled banana liquor I can find). Should be interesting once done.

 

[Stressbaby]

We got hold of some little half sized bananas that really tasted bannernery, they would have made a great melomel. How long does it take for your greenhouse bananas to go from sprout coming up, to flowering to fruit? WVMJ

Mine grow from pups. You hardly ever find manners from seed. From 2' pup to flower is about 2 years and from flower to fruit is about 6 months. I think it takes mine about twice as long as normal because of day length and temperature.

 

[dcteague]

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but I'm about to fortify my banana wine and had decided to use something other than brandy since it is a banana based wine. I had thought I'd use a distilled banana liquor, but haven't had luck finding anyone that carries the only one I've found. In searching for "fruit" distilled liquors, I came across Liquor 43. Anyone heard of this? Its about 31% abv, and has a great description in terms of flavor profile - see below:

Tasting Notes
Color: Beautiful gold.

Aroma: Light citrus, vanilla, extremely light touch of warm spice, but not spicy. Almost thought there might be possible hints of saffron, but if there is any saffron it is very faint.

Tasted Neat: Butterscotch, rich buttery toffee, lush, decadent, sweetened like honey without the sharp sugary edge. Lingering sweetness of juicy light flavored citrus. Faintest hint of floral.

Mouth Feel: Medium without venturing to the thick syrupy side.

 

[Deezil]

Quick montage here..

Bought 40lbs of bananas, let them ripen up on the table..

20lbs of which, went into a 1-gallon jug with a half-gallon of brandy

I then made two separate batches of Bochet.. One took the honey to a really golden color, while the other went farther along more towards a burgundy red. The red was done first, fermented solo.. Then when I did the golden version, it started to ferment and I ended up adding the Red Bochet, as well as the other half of the bananas that I had ripened.

Fermented out beautifully, using Go-Ferm, Fermaid-O, Opti-White, and Booster Blanc.. Used W15 for yeast.

Then it came time, several months later, to separate the brandy from the bananas.

And it's all just been sitting, since..

 

[Deezil]

Well... Life keeps getting in the way, and throwing me curveballs... So the big batch that I've pounded the recipe out for, will have to wait. But it WILL happen..

In the mean time, I took the 2-gallon 'test batch', the 1/2 gallon of banana brandy, and some 'leftover' mead..

And combined them all into my 3-gallon carboy.

(That's not leftover brandy in the E&J vessel, but leftover mead that didn't fit. Will be used to top up this 3-gallon as the minimal sediment I transferred, settles. I just didn't have a quart jar on hand, which is what that mead is in for now)

Stay tuned for some tasting notes, in a week or two.

 

[the_rayway]

That's pretty sweet colour Deezil! I'm really looking forward to hearing your tasting notes.

 

[seth8530]

aaaannnnnnnnd we are waiting ( ;

 

[Deezil]

Has an aroma of caramelized bananas, honey. and sweetness from the alcohol.

The first taste that shows up at the party is the caramelized honey, followed swiftly by the bananas.. Both the caramelized honey and banana flavors linger long after the wine has been swallowed; the banana brandy comes through on the following inhale, with the mixture of flavors seeming to last for a good five to ten minutes.