Banana brandy was the first (and so far only) thing I ever tried to make. And, just like Beaver said, the ferment can go pretty poorly if you're not careful. I actually tried this when I wasn't even drinking age and my father had one extra thing to be pissed about besides the ten pounds of bananas and sugar coating his walls. The ferment expanded, clogged the one-way valve and boy oh boy was the explosion marvelous.
Had this happen to me with a wort i was fermenting. Went to check on it randomly at 3am after a late night snack. My girlfriends woke up to a geyser and me laughing hysterically trying to stop it in the middle of the bedroom
I had an explosion after the wheat that I put on Koji, it’s good that I put it in the shower, and the ceiling height is 3.2 meters, the wheat clogged the water seal, the barrel swelled up and then the water seal blew out in front of me.The fountain was over two meters high. Braga was everywhere
@@ChunkyWaterisReal that gave me a chuckle, i can imagine you sitting there in panic and comming to terms that i will cover the walls in the middle of the night, but i have 1 question. Did the bedroom smell bananas for weeks on end after?
Back in the day, I used to make ginger beer. The carbonation is done by doing a final ferment with added sugar. I misread the recipe and put a tablespoon rather than a teaspoon of sugar in each bottle. These were glass bottles. What I had created were fragmentation grenades with a random fuse time and motion sensitivity. I had them in the laundry and one night, one bottle exploded, causing a chain reaction and exploding several more. I had to use bomb-squad-like protection to disarm (open) the remaining bottles. Then came the fun task of cleaning out the laundry.
If you're trying to speed up ripening, after gathering the bananas together and before covering them, throw a green apple or two in there, then cover and wait. The green apples release a huge amount of ethylene gas, which speeds up the progress. Check frequently though, because it works amazingly fast!
Thank you Jesse was super cool chatting to you, love the extra cooked banana the butter must have helped the flavor carry. Glad the product was worth it. use the spirit to make a super jummy banana cream. Thank you again
This makes an AMAZING liqueur if you turn the bananas from the mash into a syrup (with brown sugar) and use that and a simple syrup that's 50/50 brown and table sugar to cut the ABV in half. Literally tastes like you're drinking banana bread!
I make a fantastic banana rum, us half the cane sugar and molasses and 12 lbs of very ripe bananas. I have also come to the conclusion that rum yeast is just the best yeast for anything using fruit or grains just brilliant. Great vid jesse
As an interesting side note, many fruit wines like peach wine may taste great but have a VERY watery mouth feel. Adding bananas medium ripe will add enough tannins and other flavor agents that will give the wine a much better backbone or mouth feel not too many as it needs to taste like the base fruit just a thought
It's a common wine makers trick to add banana wine to a wine that you want to fix. I never knew why. This must be the reason. Never thought of the tannins, lol. I made a batch of banana wine to have on hand and ended up drinking it instead, lol. Though banana wine is a long process for good flavor. Over a year in bottle before being palatable. You can drink on bottling day, but it's more like banana rocket fuel then lol. Also, they weren't joking about leaving head room when fermenting. I blew the lock almost daily for the first 3 days til I finally just removed the lock and just covered with cheesecloth lol
I made a banana wine a few years ago from over ripe bananas I had put in the freezer with the intention to make smoothies. The wine was a beautifully delicious option. I've been considering Brandies as of late so this video was perfectly timed. Thanks for the great info
I tried this about 10 years ago on a column still but all the awesome banana flavor came out in the foreshots, that part had a beautiful yellow color too. I had read that pre WW2 banana snapps were made with this and you could only drink it in small amounts because of the hangover , I always imagined it as a kind of dessert shot after dinner
Just a small tip. Run the bananas through a meat grinder with the smallest hole die, this will mush them completely and make it lots easier to mix everything. I haven't done this to bananas specifically but I've seen it done to other fruits and you basically get fruit juice with bits out of the grinder. The only way to make it smoother would be to use a mixer or juicer.
Honestly you don't even have to go through that much trouble. Bananas are incredibly soft compared to other fruits, I just throw them peeled into the fermenter with enough headroom, by day 3 they'll have turned to mush by themselves. Just knock the fruit cap down and save yourself some effort.
By late winter/early spring my new laboratory will be finished. I can’t wait to do a banana brandy molasses rum. Hypothetically of course. Spent the last week reading every banana thread on homedistiller.
one of my favorite ones to make .I liked the fact that you used a fat in your fermentation. ( butter) for those that do not know, it helps keep down the head in fermentation. Also Banana brandy foams a lot when distilling it, so I like to think at least part of that carried to the distillation. I made a 2 gallon batch. the extra sugars I used was honey and i put a half teaspoon of non cracked pepper. Good vid man
In Indonesia, especially in Bekonang,mid Java island, this is one of the traditional alcohol drink, the name is "kluthuk", which named same as the banana's variety that we use in local.
Nice one Jesse and Beaver. I’m def going to give this one a ago but as a tasty twist will use Jaggery as the ‘sugar’ component. It has an awesome toffee character that should be a proper retreat.
Yo bro ! I just wanted to say i really enjoy watching your videos on UA-cam ! It really inspired me to discover the awesome world of distilleing and making wicked awesome flavours and awesome creations.
@@danieldanielson2650 no I bruise the bananas and let them go black but not off. That converts all the sugars. Banana is roughly 120g of sugar per kg so just take that amount off your total sugar. And I add the bananas after the clarification step on Buccaneer Bobs amazing method. Jesse has an excellent video doing the Bob recipe.
You just didn't make this video in time! My first run ever was banana brandy, made with Wyeast sweet mead/fruit wine yeast. Mine came out dramatically different from the sounds of things, got kind of a sweet banana upfront ending in a dirt flavor in the wine, but I agree the amount of flavor carryover is crazy. I'm starting my next batch of Nana Brandine tomorrow, the recipe I used for producing the wine is the City Steading banana wine method.
Lalvin EC-1118 is known for quick and vigorous fermentation. This can cause it to loose a lot of the subtle flavors and aromas in your wine. A better wine yeast to use might be Lalvin D47. When left aging on the yeast I t can add spicy, tropical, citrus notes develop and the wine is said to have a silky persistence. It also aids in the stability of aromatic compounds.
I would have used molasses vs plain sugar. But that's a personal preference. When it comes to tropical booze like rum I always found molasses works well with the flavor profile.
@@ohmahgawdfilms sweet summer rain... I mean to say yes banana Brandy mellows into a great tasting spirit. And as far as pineapple,I go to WinCo bulk foods aisle,and I will purchase dried pineapple,and pineapple juice add red star champagne yeast and let me tell you.!!!!!! We are talking "fruit forward!!!!"tasty,tasty mmmmm Mmm good!!! I mean the wash alone is tasty I will sample often when the wash is bubbling at around the 6 or se7an % ABV. And is holding carbonation.yummy!!!
I love adding cooked fruit to my fermentation, I have a black mead going at the moment blackened honey, smoked mandarin and rosemary, with a table spoon of the scorched Manuka woodchips in there aswell. I thoroughly enjoyed this video and has inspired me to consider a small batch brandy for my next fermentation
I've made 'nanner wine before. On my 3rd batch, I mashed in organic sweetened coconut flakes to the tune of two 24 oz bags to around twenty pounds black 'manners. That stuff worked for over 6 weeks! End product was amazing!
just as info, bananas from farms are shipped green, well before they are any good for eating, then in special storage's compartments they fill the air with ethyl alcohol fumes, this ripens the bananas almost instantly... thats why if you dig the bananas from the bottom of the store banana pile, they smell like alcohol or even acetone a bit... maybe you can use the same method to overripe the bananas? that experiment requires another video... just dont ask how i know this ;)
Man I just stumbled across this video after having made a brananady this weekend. Started out with a banana wine matured 1 year but that I wasn’t crazy about. Made about 1.8L at 55% that’s ageing on oak chips. I got banana and earthy tones from mine, but I didn’t cook the bananas, just let em ripen as much as possible, though probably not enough. I’ll definitely try it again but using the tips in this video. Cheers man. Very informative!
That looks like a rad little project and I think I might put it on my own to-do list. I also wonder if putting aside a bit of the stillage for dunder wouldn't help give an extra kick to a simple rum recipe.
I make a home brew banana mead and came across this video. Awesome job first off and ty for the added Ideas from baking to cooking with brown sugar and using rum Yeast. I can't wait to incorporate these and see the difference in the end product.
Good video. Excellent content. Very well produced and easy consuming. Your non threatening demeanor and straightforward information made this video a very refreshing enjoyable experience.
@@TeslaFactory thank god the treatment for methanol poisoning is good ole regular alcohol. If you consume some methanol with ethanol you should be fine (:
That's kind of how they do it in Africa from what I've heard. They make it from fermented bananas and I think it's called waragi. Really strong. Really good tasting.
Well I made your recipe today... Its amazing how things turned out exactly regarding time following your process. I pulled 3.25 liters from this recipe and oh my how yummy it is. I took 50ml from the head for the methane, got the orange flame, then blue and switched to jarring up 9 jars heads to tails. Cant wait to blend it. Ill obviously take some of the distilled mash and start making my dunder and save the tails for the next run. The friends who tasted it loved it and all want me to make more. Right now it is moonshine, but I think maybe I will progress it to a full on rum. Thanks so much for this recipe and the tips! This was my very first run with my still. And it came out so well, but then I probably watched every video you've posted, so I did my share of research. 🙏🙏🙏
Been wanting to try this out after I saw the vice documentary. I made a jam (fruit preserve) brandy a while ago one batch straight jam another batch jam and roasted oats. I was amazed at how much of the jam flavour came through.
hey buddy, just wanted to drop a line of thanks. since i found your channel, i got my still back up and running, and it's been great. i started with a limonchello, but my most recent concoction was distilled apple and plum, downproofed with blueberry juice. it's been wonderful to get back into the hobby.
She is saying what most of us think I love your knowledge But…… I have a terrible pallet,I don’t taste all the complex flavors you can But yep………….. You can taste cheap Lmao Love it man
I've made several runs of peach and a run of blackberry, all came out wonderful ! I'll have to try this. I'm ready to try my 1st rum also, so I'll buy extra rum yeast and give it a shot. Thanks Jessee !
I copied with the banana treatment but then I added white sugar & cane sugar into my mash. After fully fermenting to dry I put in some vanilla essence & 1/2 kilo of honey before I distilled it. Some say it's like banana custard others say it's like a banana foster. I say it's just bloody beautiful.
I’m anxious to give it a try. I know that you’ve had contact with George from Bartly and hops, I hope he’s OK cause I haven’t seen any of his videos lately Keep up the amazing work that you do to make these videos
I checked in with Bearded and Bored, he said George was taking a break. Miss him though. Jess and George got me onto this whole hobby! They are my hero’s and our friend in South Africa is belting out great vids as well now!
Great video. I frequently make banana wine and to get bananas to perfect ripeness for wine making I place the bananas - still in their peels in the freezer. The freezing temps turn the banana peels jet black (so no need to apply more energy to heat them in an oven and that process transforms all the complex sugars into simple fermentables). When you remove the bananas to begin fermentation the freezing will have turned those bananas to pulp. On a sidebar issue freezing peeled ripe bananas makes for a DELIGHTFUL frozen snack - banana sorbet without the sugar... DE-Licious.
@@ClickClack_Bam I use lab cultured wine yeasts and I use a pack for 1-3 gallons and use a couple of packs when I am making 5 or 6 gallons. Standard protocol. Home wine makers cannot over -pitch but it is very easy to under-pitch and that stresses the yeast and may allow competing bacteria to infect your must.
I followed your process nearly exactly (I used 71B yeast though) and it came out incredible. So much flavor came through the distilate! I'm using the backset & a little lees as the dunder for a rum. Excited to see how it comes out.
Enjoyed watchin this. Listening to the input from Beaver I thought to myself that this dude sounds South African and jip I was right. Nice to know that we South Africans have a very unique accent.
More fruit brandy videos!! Apple, Pear, Plum!! Edit: If you can find a Frenchman who knows a thing or two about making Calvados, I imagine it would help a ton.
Great video, Jesse! EC1118 is a champagne yeast designed for the in-bottle second fermentation. It is by design very neutral in profile. Rum yeast is the better pick here, or even a beer yeast that is designed to produce fruity esters. Cheers!
3:15 another thing you can do to accelerate banana ripening is to include a ripened banana in the bag of green bananas. The ripened stuff releases a gas that triggers and accelerates the ripening process, and you'll get ripe bananas in only a few days.
Awesome! I believe I had a comment requesting this in the past! (Not that it had anything to do with this, and it could have been on a different channel and I'm just remembering incorrectly) Either way... I'm EXCITED!!!
I just finished running my banana rum. Super stoked with the results. I was lucky enough to pick up perfect Bananas for $0.09/kg. Yep 9c per kilo. One of the perks livng in Queensland I guess 😂
all this distilling stuff is just simply too advanced for me as im still trying to figure out regular fermenting, such as that used when making wine / mead. could you do a video making a simple banana (or plantain) mead?
I live in American Samoa Islands which are very tropical and lots and lots and lots of bananas everywhere. I have so many bananans growing in my yard I was giving away more then 100lbs a month. Thats why I recently started distilling. I have sugar cane, bananas and sweet potatoes in access. So now I distill all of that. My banana runs are good but not as great as I hoped for. I am going to try your methods of pan frying and baking the bananas too see if that makes the difference. I will let you know how it goes.
This makes me really interested for how it could work with other fruits. Oranges, kiwi, cherries, strawberries, etc. This banana brandy sounds epic. EDIT: Just saw you have a peach one. Hell yeah.
Did you know that there is much more banana flavor in the peel? I freeze my bananas then after they are black, I thaw them until I can squeeze out all the liquid flavor from the peel. In baking you can get 4x the flavor doing this.
That's actually really cool! In fermentation, I just add the peel straight in. Also adds tannins, which may not be a good idea for distillation, but it's great for mead. Add a Belgian yeast, and you've got banana bread in a glass.
In the Netherlands (and probably Indonesia as well) we have something called Pisan Ambon which I believe they distill from plantains. Before you know it you've finished the whole bottle hahaha
When I made banana wine the last time I boiled the bananas and banana peels in a brew bag with a lb of brown and a lb of granulated sugar. Then let that brew in a fermenter and pulled the bag out after a few days. However I really like the idea of oven baking and cooking bananas on the skillet and I’ll give that a try on my next go around for bananas.
You don't use the peels because the amount of pesticides they use on the bananas, concentrates in the final product. which is very unhealthy to consume.
It would probably be interesting to taste the fruit wine beforehand to see if there is a big contribution from the yeast and if that carries into the distillate. Great video as always!
@@StillIthey there new zealander from marlborough. I just made a raisin sultana currant and caramelized sugar brew. Found a banana in a shopping trolly and threw that in too. Tried bread yeast and it brewed for a week. Took 3 days to start. Then got stuck so i put wine dregs in and away it went. Then stopped. Tried turbo yeast but its not for brandy its for stills. The additives taste soooo shit!! My house smells like bananas even though theres only 1 in it
I'm a new viewer, and totally got what she meant by "it tastes cheap". Me and my roommates used to buy every beer we could find to try as many as possible, and that's one of the descriptions we would use too. We all understood "it tastes cheap" to mean that it tasted like it was a mass produced, Bud Light/Miller/mostly water beer.
I make a banana wine, but I just cut up the bananas after I peel them. Then I add the peels, water, banana bits, sugar in a large pot and cook it until everything but the peels are cooked down. I put it all in a pail with some EC-1118 yeast after it has cooled. Really wild fermentation!.
I bake 12-15 plantains at 325 degrees fahrenheit with drizzled honey for 45 minutes to bochet the sugars. I then slice them skins and all and add to four large bunches of bananas also sliced with skins. I boil this in large pots with approximately 6 gallons of spring water a for one hour at a low simmer. I let this cool overnight and strain into a bucket with a boil/ mesh bag. I wring out the bag and add white sugar to bring the wash to about 1.135 . I use llavin ec 1118 and let ferment for three weeks in a bucket under airlock. Usually have a blow off tube for the first week. I use a strainer or spatula to remove the fruit cap. I agitate the bucket and let stand for another week. I use an auto siphon to move it to 1gal glass fermenters with airlocks for another 4-6 months and then bottle. It finished at around 17- 18%abv and is a big hit with friends and family.
ripe bananas, moreso than any other fruit, release ethylene gas which speeds up the aging process of fruit. If you want to ripen your bananas quickly you could include the skins from the overripe bananas in the bag sugar caramelizes at 338f/170c, I'm not sure how the specific sugars inside the bananas change this process, but you might get more caramelization out of the baking step if you raise your temp by 10 or 15c
Out of the lalvin yeasts I would say that ec-1118 is the high ABV turbo yeast of the bunch. It is fast and dirty is all. Is does not preserve much of the flavor. For a banana wine I would rather icv-d47. It’s more full bodied, keeps a lot of fruity aromas and throws some nice citrusy and spicy notes with a long ferment. It can go as high as 15% ABV vs ec-1118 at 18-20% ABV.
I have been doing fruit washes spiked with sugar but only using 3kg of fruit and not blending them in the fermenter. I'll have to try increasing the fruit amount in future. Nectarine is pretty good for flavour carrying over, citrus as well if you want citrus vodkas. I'd probably zest citrus fruits now though and use the juice or fruit flesh and discard the white pith. That's this year's experiments!
I can't distill because I'm American... But I've made a few banana wines, banana mead, and banana beer. One of the things I'd highly suggest (that wasn't done here) is to use some clean banana peels too. The peels have a good amount of banana flavor to them.
Your video made me do ad experiment. I took an unripe banana and put it in the oven 60 degrees Celsius for an hour to see if the amylases in the banana will convert the starch to sugars, and it did. It didn't taste as a ripe banana but a weird hybrid of sweet and unripe banana. So instead of ripening all of you unripes, you can shove them to the oven for few hours and let it "mesh"
Just put 20L batch down. Smells amazing and will be great to see what flavors come off the pot still. Anyone done any aging Banana Brandy in oak yet. Interested to know if it would be beneficial to brandy or just leave it white. Jessie keep up the Kiwi content, great to follow your recipes and tips. As a newbie to distilling and doing gin/rum and now fruit washes.
I want to try this with a Wyeast 3068 or 3638, Solely for the banana esthers they produce. I have had a ton of success fermenting, at higher temps (more esthers), Whit beers without banana and people swear it has banana. A quick aging on coco nibs and it makes for a fun beer. Thanks for the experimentation and recipe ideas, awesome as always!!
This looks awesome! Watching this makes me wonder though given the caramelized bananas. How would a mix of bananas and molasses come out and what would it taste like?
If you ever doubt how much yeast can drastically affect an alcohol, spend some time with an avid beer brewer! You can take two identical grain bills, same hops, same boil time. Then pitch two wildly different yeasts, and end up with two wildly different beers!
Seriously important yet simple question: measures are for peeled or unpeeled Bananas? I just started to do this recipe and primarily thought of making quadruple batch (80l) and bought 46kg of bananas. To be honest I didn't realize that peels are so heavy. It doesn't come to my mind to question measures earlier because I didn't consider that peel woul be such a big variable. After all I decided to use the mass of peeled fruit, and stayed with a little more than double batch. I would appreciate the answer. Also, did have one problem with baked bananas. As suggested first I looked for time when they were black and some opened, but it was way more than 25 min. More thought they started to sweeting some juice, and I didn't know if I suppose to use that fogy thing. In taste it was sweet so I did use it with half of batch. Yet I know that in bananas there is latex like sap and I'm still not sure if it was good chose. From the other hand Batch with "juice" is working like insane. I hope that if it's sap it won't be able to come through destilation. Time will show although I'm interested in your opinion.
Good afternoon from Maine. I have had 10 gallons of banana going strong now for a week. I used dady yeast but followed your other directions with cooking some, frying some in butter etc. It's been fermenting strongly still but i'm wondering, should i be stirring this daily and knocking down the cap? It still forms a cap even after a week. Last night i stirred it up knocked it down and this morning it's got a cap again. Just wondering how long i should do this as i use a sterile long paddle but i know opening the cover is dangerous also sometimes. It does have a strong smell of alcohol already :) Thanks, tom.
Banana brandy was the first (and so far only) thing I ever tried to make. And, just like Beaver said, the ferment can go pretty poorly if you're not careful. I actually tried this when I wasn't even drinking age and my father had one extra thing to be pissed about besides the ten pounds of bananas and sugar coating his walls. The ferment expanded, clogged the one-way valve and boy oh boy was the explosion marvelous.
Had this happen to me with a wort i was fermenting. Went to check on it randomly at 3am after a late night snack. My girlfriends woke up to a geyser and me laughing hysterically trying to stop it in the middle of the bedroom
I had an explosion after the wheat that I put on Koji, it’s good that I put it in the shower, and the ceiling height is 3.2 meters, the wheat clogged the water seal, the barrel swelled up and then the water seal blew out in front of me.The fountain was over two meters high. Braga was everywhere
@@ChunkyWaterisReal that gave me a chuckle, i can imagine you sitting there in panic and comming to terms that i will cover the walls in the middle of the night, but i have 1 question. Did the bedroom smell bananas for weeks on end after?
Back in the day, I used to make ginger beer. The carbonation is done by doing a final ferment with added sugar. I misread the recipe and put a tablespoon rather than a teaspoon of sugar in each bottle. These were glass bottles. What I had created were fragmentation grenades with a random fuse time and motion sensitivity. I had them in the laundry and one night, one bottle exploded, causing a chain reaction and exploding several more. I had to use bomb-squad-like protection to disarm (open) the remaining bottles. Then came the fun task of cleaning out the laundry.
@@dongriffiths7237 LMAO! That's funny, sorry that happened though
If you're trying to speed up ripening, after gathering the bananas together and before covering them, throw a green apple or two in there, then cover and wait. The green apples release a huge amount of ethylene gas, which speeds up the progress. Check frequently though, because it works amazingly fast!
Yup. My thoughts exactly.
Usually you want to avoid this when storing bananas....
A passion fruit or an Avocado too will do the magic
Throw the green apple in to wear into a paper bag with bananas into a pot with bananas into a oven with bananas what are you talking about
Thank you Jesse was super cool chatting to you, love the extra cooked banana the butter must have helped the flavor carry.
Glad the product was worth it.
use the spirit to make a super jummy banana cream.
Thank you again
Lekker seeing you on the channel man.......
Can you get to eighty proof(40 percent alcohol easily) ?
Hey wou sê ek erken daai aksent
@@TheRalfZer0 hahaha ,my vriend I speak English very delicious.
Are you a South African?
This makes an AMAZING liqueur if you turn the bananas from the mash into a syrup (with brown sugar) and use that and a simple syrup that's 50/50 brown and table sugar to cut the ABV in half. Literally tastes like you're drinking banana bread!
Yes i am mixed with brown sugar...
Yes. Agreed. Memories of Banana Baked, Roasted, Grilled floods ya taste buddies
Sounds like Tempus Fugit Creme De Banane
Add some melted unsalted butter
I never thought I’d watch Hagrid’s New Zealander cousin make bananas into booze but I’m all about it.
"You'ra wizard hairy."
I am so proud of you. go kiwis. we are them.up the kiwi
They make a cruder form of this in Uganda, the natives spend most of their spare time in a stuporis drunken state......
Y'meen Jissy? I'm just being introduced to this mister, myself.
@@knuckle12356 good aye
I make a fantastic banana rum, us half the cane sugar and molasses and 12 lbs of very ripe bananas. I have also come to the conclusion that rum yeast is just the best yeast for anything using fruit or grains just brilliant. Great vid jesse
What about for wine?
@@KethenGoesHam hi yes it would work, although you might be better with a wine yeast
@@KethenGoesHam I wonder how a champagne yeast would work for that. Mmmm... Chimpanzagne;)
As an interesting side note, many fruit wines like peach wine may taste great but have a VERY watery mouth feel. Adding bananas medium ripe will add enough tannins and other flavor agents that will give the wine a much better backbone or mouth feel not too many as it needs to taste like the base fruit just a thought
It's a common wine makers trick to add banana wine to a wine that you want to fix. I never knew why. This must be the reason. Never thought of the tannins, lol. I made a batch of banana wine to have on hand and ended up drinking it instead, lol. Though banana wine is a long process for good flavor. Over a year in bottle before being palatable. You can drink on bottling day, but it's more like banana rocket fuel then lol. Also, they weren't joking about leaving head room when fermenting. I blew the lock almost daily for the first 3 days til I finally just removed the lock and just covered with cheesecloth lol
I made a banana wine a few years ago from over ripe bananas I had put in the freezer with the intention to make smoothies. The wine was a beautifully delicious option. I've been considering Brandies as of late so this video was perfectly timed. Thanks for the great info
What yeast did you use
@@KethenGoesHam red star yeast, red packet don't remember exactly which one but all should do well
You had me at “freedom units” 😂
“An Unperfect circle” 🤣🤣🤣 brilliant
True story
yeah , except it's legal to do home distillation in NZ and not in the US....so much for freedom.
@@Sugarsail1 it’s legal, as long as you don’t sell it
Facts
Blend them... Great video, and love the collaboration with Beaver, that man's a font of knowledge!
If one is dark, sugary and rummy and the other is fresher and greener then I think a blend of the two might be banging!
I tried this about 10 years ago on a column still but all the awesome banana flavor came out in the foreshots, that part had a beautiful yellow color too. I had read that pre WW2 banana snapps were made with this and you could only drink it in small amounts because of the hangover , I always imagined it as a kind of dessert shot after dinner
Just a small tip. Run the bananas through a meat grinder with the smallest hole die, this will mush them completely and make it lots easier to mix everything. I haven't done this to bananas specifically but I've seen it done to other fruits and you basically get fruit juice with bits out of the grinder. The only way to make it smoother would be to use a mixer or juicer.
Honestly you don't even have to go through that much trouble. Bananas are incredibly soft compared to other fruits, I just throw them peeled into the fermenter with enough headroom, by day 3 they'll have turned to mush by themselves. Just knock the fruit cap down and save yourself some effort.
By late winter/early spring my new laboratory will be finished. I can’t wait to do a banana brandy molasses rum. Hypothetically of course. Spent the last week reading every banana thread on homedistiller.
one of my favorite ones to make .I liked the fact that you used a fat in your fermentation. ( butter) for those that do not know, it helps keep down the head in fermentation. Also Banana brandy foams a lot when distilling it, so I like to think at least part of that carried to the distillation. I made a 2 gallon batch. the extra sugars I used was honey and i put a half teaspoon of non cracked pepper. Good vid man
In Indonesia, especially in Bekonang,mid Java island, this is one of the traditional alcohol drink, the name is "kluthuk", which named same as the banana's variety that we use in local.
Nice one Jesse and Beaver. I’m def going to give this one a ago but as a tasty twist will use Jaggery as the ‘sugar’ component. It has an awesome toffee character that should be a proper retreat.
Hey Jesse congrats on 200k! Your channel has been instrumental in getting me into the craft. Cheers
Yo bro ! I just wanted to say i really enjoy watching your videos on UA-cam ! It really inspired me to discover the awesome world of distilleing and making wicked awesome flavours and awesome creations.
I love the international collaboration! Awesome stuff, my Kiwi brother!!!
I’m excited to watch this. I recently tried adding a few kg of bananas to a Buccaneer Bobs rum and it turned out amazing.
Have you added enzymes/amylase?
@@danieldanielson2650 no I bruise the bananas and let them go black but not off. That converts all the sugars.
Banana is roughly 120g of sugar per kg so just take that amount off your total sugar. And I add the bananas after the clarification step on Buccaneer Bobs amazing method.
Jesse has an excellent video doing the Bob recipe.
Awesome to see the Mrs. I am a layman myself so i can get comfused at times with all the fancyness. You guys make an awesome team.
You just didn't make this video in time! My first run ever was banana brandy, made with Wyeast sweet mead/fruit wine yeast. Mine came out dramatically different from the sounds of things, got kind of a sweet banana upfront ending in a dirt flavor in the wine, but I agree the amount of flavor carryover is crazy. I'm starting my next batch of Nana Brandine tomorrow, the recipe I used for producing the wine is the City Steading banana wine method.
Lalvin EC-1118 is known for quick and vigorous fermentation. This can cause it to loose a lot of the subtle flavors and aromas in your wine.
A better wine yeast to use might be Lalvin D47. When left aging on the yeast I t can add spicy, tropical, citrus notes develop and the wine is said to have a silky persistence. It also aids in the stability of aromatic compounds.
I would have used molasses vs plain sugar. But that's a personal preference. When it comes to tropical booze like rum I always found molasses works well with the flavor profile.
In my experience a run of straight banana no sugar added (I did use enzymes)was a fine spirit that aged into a fine Brandy.
@@freddymeischer2219 yeah bananas have a ton a sugar on their own, same with pineapple :) I bet that banana brandy tasted great!
@@ohmahgawdfilms sweet summer rain...
I mean to say yes banana Brandy mellows into a great tasting spirit. And as far as pineapple,I go to WinCo bulk foods aisle,and I will purchase dried pineapple,and pineapple juice add red star champagne yeast and let me tell you.!!!!!! We are talking "fruit forward!!!!"tasty,tasty mmmmm Mmm good!!! I mean the wash alone is tasty I will sample often when the wash is bubbling at around the 6 or se7an % ABV. And is holding carbonation.yummy!!!
I love adding cooked fruit to my fermentation, I have a black mead going at the moment blackened honey, smoked mandarin and rosemary, with a table spoon of the scorched Manuka woodchips in there aswell. I thoroughly enjoyed this video and has inspired me to consider a small batch brandy for my next fermentation
Aaaand now I'm hungry for Bananas Foster! Awesome project brother. Glad you got BeaverDIY to help out on this one:-)
Now I have to make this again with Rum yeast to see what flavor it gives...
@@BEAVERDIY And perhaps age it on some birch staves?
You know what, make a blend, like seriously!!! Best of both worlds!!! Id buy that blend!
I bet a strawberry/banana version of this would be great.
I've made 'nanner wine before. On my 3rd batch, I mashed in organic sweetened coconut flakes to the tune of two 24 oz bags to around twenty pounds black 'manners. That stuff worked for over 6 weeks! End product was amazing!
just as info, bananas from farms are shipped green, well before they are any good for eating, then in special storage's compartments they fill the air with ethyl alcohol fumes, this ripens the bananas almost instantly... thats why if you dig the bananas from the bottom of the store banana pile, they smell like alcohol or even acetone a bit... maybe you can use the same method to overripe the bananas? that experiment requires another video... just dont ask how i know this ;)
Man I just stumbled across this video after having made a brananady this weekend. Started out with a banana wine matured 1 year but that I wasn’t crazy about. Made about 1.8L at 55% that’s ageing on oak chips. I got banana and earthy tones from mine, but I didn’t cook the bananas, just let em ripen as much as possible, though probably not enough. I’ll definitely try it again but using the tips in this video. Cheers man. Very informative!
That looks like a rad little project and I think I might put it on my own to-do list. I also wonder if putting aside a bit of the stillage for dunder wouldn't help give an extra kick to a simple rum recipe.
I make a home brew banana mead and came across this video. Awesome job first off and ty for the added Ideas from baking to cooking with brown sugar and using rum Yeast. I can't wait to incorporate these and see the difference in the end product.
I can't believe you didn't mix them together and try them...
Right??! No blend??
I definitely think bottling some of each, and then a bottle of blend, would be a really fun spectrum!
I came here to say that exact same thing. Was really expecting him to blend them in the end and trying it out.
You should watch the video again
Good video. Excellent content. Very well produced and easy consuming. Your non threatening demeanor and straightforward information made this video a very refreshing enjoyable experience.
Ugandan WARAGI!!! 😃 I made this last year it turned out good and was fun. The looks I got from the cashier at the store was the best part.
i tried it after watching the Vice video. good spot they did. I miss the old vice.
Hopefully without the methanol! 😂
@@TeslaFactory thank god the treatment for methanol poisoning is good ole regular alcohol. If you consume some methanol with ethanol you should be fine (:
Ayyyyyy! Looking for this comment
@@rajgill7576 with A LOT of ethanol
That's kind of how they do it in Africa from what I've heard. They make it from fermented bananas and I think it's called waragi. Really strong. Really good tasting.
Yep
Well I made your recipe today... Its amazing how things turned out exactly regarding time following your process. I pulled 3.25 liters from this recipe and oh my how yummy it is. I took 50ml from the head for the methane, got the orange flame, then blue and switched to jarring up 9 jars heads to tails. Cant wait to blend it. Ill obviously take some of the distilled mash and start making my dunder and save the tails for the next run. The friends who tasted it loved it and all want me to make more. Right now it is moonshine, but I think maybe I will progress it to a full on rum. Thanks so much for this recipe and the tips! This was my very first run with my still. And it came out so well, but then I probably watched every video you've posted, so I did my share of research. 🙏🙏🙏
Did you peel the bananas after baking?
That was awesome! She definitely helps a bunch! She being your Mrs. keep up the good work yous!
Been wanting to try this out after I saw the vice documentary. I made a jam (fruit preserve) brandy a while ago one batch straight jam another batch jam and roasted oats. I was amazed at how much of the jam flavour came through.
I watched the same VICE Doc and I have been obsessed with making banana brandy ever since .
@@stumped463 haha I knew i couldn't be alone
hey buddy, just wanted to drop a line of thanks. since i found your channel, i got my still back up and running, and it's been great. i started with a limonchello, but my most recent concoction was distilled apple and plum, downproofed with blueberry juice. it's been wonderful to get back into the hobby.
Glad you got back into it man. That sounds freaking tasty!
@@StillIt i've got 40 gal of apple cider brewing rn. i plan to experiment greatly, any recipe tips or tidbits to put me down the rabbit hole? :)
She is saying what most of us think
I love your knowledge
But……
I have a terrible pallet,I don’t taste all the complex flavors you can
But yep…………..
You can taste cheap
Lmao
Love it man
I've made several runs of peach and a run of blackberry, all came out wonderful ! I'll have to try this. I'm ready to try my 1st rum also, so I'll buy extra rum yeast and give it a shot. Thanks Jessee !
Liked because of Freedom Units
I copied with the banana treatment but then I added white sugar & cane sugar into my mash. After fully fermenting to dry I put in some vanilla essence & 1/2 kilo of honey before I distilled it. Some say it's like banana custard others say it's like a banana foster. I say it's just bloody beautiful.
I’m anxious to give it a try. I know that you’ve had contact with George from Bartly and hops, I hope he’s OK cause I haven’t seen any of his videos lately
Keep up the amazing work that you do to make these videos
Anyone know whats up with george? No vids, and no reply to emails... (not like him at all)
@@kimmole1096 agree....perhaps taking a break with other family stuff on the go....hope all good with health etc??
I read a comment on his most recent but not really recent vid, that he’s ok just taking a break
I checked in with Bearded and Bored, he said George was taking a break. Miss him though. Jess and George got me onto this whole hobby! They are my hero’s and our friend in South Africa is belting out great vids as well now!
Great video. I frequently make banana wine and to get bananas to perfect ripeness for wine making I place the bananas - still in their peels in the freezer. The freezing temps turn the banana peels jet black (so no need to apply more energy to heat them in an oven and that process transforms all the complex sugars into simple fermentables). When you remove the bananas to begin fermentation the freezing will have turned those bananas to pulp. On a sidebar issue freezing peeled ripe bananas makes for a DELIGHTFUL frozen snack - banana sorbet without the sugar... DE-Licious.
How much yeast do you use?
He didn't say or include the amount on the description.
Also do you do anything different with your recipe etc?
@@ClickClack_Bam I use lab cultured wine yeasts and I use a pack for 1-3 gallons and use a couple of packs when I am making 5 or 6 gallons. Standard protocol. Home wine makers cannot over -pitch but it is very easy to under-pitch and that stresses the yeast and may allow competing bacteria to infect your must.
Not gonna lie, seeing you doing this kind of content makes me want to start up a still myself lol
Beaver DIY - First word he spoke I realized there's a local accent and now I'm subbed to him. Thanks man!
Love these videos. Appreciate the effort it takes and thanks for giving me yet another thing to try!
I followed your process nearly exactly (I used 71B yeast though) and it came out incredible. So much flavor came through the distilate! I'm using the backset & a little lees as the dunder for a rum. Excited to see how it comes out.
Hi guy, thanks for this great recipe. One question: Does the lb refer to the complete fruit or just the net inside weight ? Thx in advance
Enjoyed watchin this. Listening to the input from Beaver I thought to myself that this dude sounds South African and jip I was right. Nice to know that we South Africans have a very unique accent.
More fruit brandy videos!! Apple, Pear, Plum!!
Edit: If you can find a Frenchman who knows a thing or two about making Calvados, I imagine it would help a ton.
Plum brandy is soooo good!
great job. I can't wait to get a still and try this and other recipes out. enjoy watching you and learning!
Great video, Jesse! EC1118 is a champagne yeast designed for the in-bottle second fermentation. It is by design very neutral in profile. Rum yeast is the better pick here, or even a beer yeast that is designed to produce fruity esters. Cheers!
Yeah, I would have suggested he use 71b-1122 instead of the EC1118 if he could get it... more character...
3:15 another thing you can do to accelerate banana ripening is to include a ripened banana in the bag of green bananas. The ripened stuff releases a gas that triggers and accelerates the ripening process, and you'll get ripe bananas in only a few days.
I probably would have eaten the bananas right out of the fry pan. That looked really good 🤤
Awesome! I believe I had a comment requesting this in the past! (Not that it had anything to do with this, and it could have been on a different channel and I'm just remembering incorrectly)
Either way... I'm EXCITED!!!
In regards to the chunky part of the mash that was discarded, could that be distilled in a double boiler to obtain more flavor?
you guys are very positive people, I watched that with pleasure :)
Glad you liked it :)
I just finished running my banana rum. Super stoked with the results. I was lucky enough to pick up perfect Bananas for $0.09/kg. Yep 9c per kilo. One of the perks livng in Queensland I guess 😂
You got good energy in front of the camera my guy and this sounds super delicious!
all this distilling stuff is just simply too advanced for me as im still trying to figure out regular fermenting, such as that used when making wine / mead. could you do a video making a simple banana (or plantain) mead?
Just don’t distill the mash drink it
I live in American Samoa Islands which are very tropical and lots and lots and lots of bananas everywhere. I have so many bananans growing in my yard I was giving away more then 100lbs a month. Thats why I recently started distilling. I have sugar cane, bananas and sweet potatoes in access. So now I distill all of that. My banana runs are good but not as great as I hoped for. I am going to try your methods of pan frying and baking the bananas too see if that makes the difference. I will let you know how it goes.
Any update on the change of methods?
This makes me really interested for how it could work with other fruits. Oranges, kiwi, cherries, strawberries, etc. This banana brandy sounds epic.
EDIT: Just saw you have a peach one. Hell yeah.
Cherries for sure
Citric fruits won't go well with fermentation, they are too acid
200K subs Jessie! I subbed when you had less than 100.
Cheers Brother!
Did you know that there is much more banana flavor in the peel? I freeze my bananas then after they are black, I thaw them until I can squeeze out all the liquid flavor from the peel. In baking you can get 4x the flavor doing this.
That's actually really cool! In fermentation, I just add the peel straight in. Also adds tannins, which may not be a good idea for distillation, but it's great for mead. Add a Belgian yeast, and you've got banana bread in a glass.
Best descriptions ever!!
Cheers mate
Newbie, ordered a small distill kit. Excited, thanks.
In the Netherlands (and probably Indonesia as well) we have something called Pisan Ambon which I believe they distill from plantains. Before you know it you've finished the whole bottle hahaha
aqui no Brasil, usamos anti espumante nesse tipo de fermentação, pois sobe mesmo, parabéns pelo vídeo!
When I made banana wine the last time I boiled the bananas and banana peels in a brew bag with a lb of brown and a lb of granulated sugar. Then let that brew in a fermenter and pulled the bag out after a few days. However I really like the idea of oven baking and cooking bananas on the skillet and I’ll give that a try on my next go around for bananas.
You don't use the peels because the amount of pesticides they use on the bananas, concentrates in the final product. which is very unhealthy to consume.
It would probably be interesting to taste the fruit wine beforehand to see if there is a big contribution from the yeast and if that carries into the distillate.
Great video as always!
I made the fruit wine before and it was amazing
Just shared your video with a couple of people that enjoy doing a bit of home brewing, and saved it in a private play list as well.
Awesome glad you like it. This is edfinitly a "must try" one.
@@StillIthey there new zealander from marlborough. I just made a raisin sultana currant and caramelized sugar brew. Found a banana in a shopping trolly and threw that in too.
Tried bread yeast and it brewed for a week. Took 3 days to start. Then got stuck so i put wine dregs in and away it went. Then stopped.
Tried turbo yeast but its not for brandy its for stills. The additives taste soooo shit!! My house smells like bananas even though theres only 1 in it
Great work. Congratulations on the 200k too.
Wow haven't been back in a while great to see how it's grown over the past year or two as usual keep up the good work and be very proud
I'm a new viewer, and totally got what she meant by "it tastes cheap".
Me and my roommates used to buy every beer we could find to try as many as possible, and that's one of the descriptions we would use too.
We all understood "it tastes cheap" to mean that it tasted like it was a mass produced, Bud Light/Miller/mostly water beer.
I make a banana wine, but I just cut up the bananas after I peel them. Then I add the peels, water, banana bits, sugar in a large pot and cook it until everything but the peels are cooked down. I put it all in a pail with some EC-1118 yeast after it has cooled. Really wild fermentation!.
I bake 12-15 plantains at 325 degrees fahrenheit with drizzled honey for 45 minutes to bochet the sugars. I then slice them skins and all and add to four large bunches of bananas also sliced with skins. I boil this in large pots with approximately 6 gallons of spring water a for one hour at a low simmer. I let this cool overnight and strain into a bucket with a boil/ mesh bag. I wring out the bag and add white sugar to bring the wash to about 1.135 . I use llavin ec 1118 and let ferment for three weeks in a bucket under airlock. Usually have a blow off tube for the first week. I use a strainer or spatula to remove the fruit cap. I agitate the bucket and let stand for another week. I use an auto siphon to move it to 1gal glass fermenters with airlocks for another 4-6 months and then bottle. It finished at around 17- 18%abv and is a big hit with friends and family.
ripe bananas, moreso than any other fruit, release ethylene gas which speeds up the aging process of fruit. If you want to ripen your bananas quickly you could include the skins from the overripe bananas in the bag
sugar caramelizes at 338f/170c, I'm not sure how the specific sugars inside the bananas change this process, but you might get more caramelization out of the baking step if you raise your temp by 10 or 15c
Sounds like a fun experiment. May have to look into it.
Out of the lalvin yeasts I would say that ec-1118 is the high ABV turbo yeast of the bunch. It is fast and dirty is all. Is does not preserve much of the flavor. For a banana wine I would rather icv-d47. It’s more full bodied, keeps a lot of fruity aromas and throws some nice citrusy and spicy notes with a long ferment. It can go as high as 15% ABV vs ec-1118 at 18-20% ABV.
I have been doing fruit washes spiked with sugar but only using 3kg of fruit and not blending them in the fermenter. I'll have to try increasing the fruit amount in future.
Nectarine is pretty good for flavour carrying over, citrus as well if you want citrus vodkas. I'd probably zest citrus fruits now though and use the juice or fruit flesh and discard the white pith. That's this year's experiments!
I can't distill because I'm American...
But I've made a few banana wines, banana mead, and banana beer.
One of the things I'd highly suggest (that wasn't done here) is to use some clean banana peels too. The peels have a good amount of banana flavor to them.
Pretty cool! Hope to see back in the Americas soon!
Your video made me do ad experiment.
I took an unripe banana and put it in the oven 60 degrees Celsius for an hour to see if the amylases in the banana will convert the starch to sugars, and it did. It didn't taste as a ripe banana but a weird hybrid of sweet and unripe banana. So instead of ripening all of you unripes, you can shove them to the oven for few hours and let it "mesh"
Huh thats a interesting one!
Just put 20L batch down. Smells amazing and will be great to see what flavors come off the pot still.
Anyone done any aging Banana Brandy in oak yet. Interested to know if it would be beneficial to brandy or just leave it white.
Jessie keep up the Kiwi content, great to follow your recipes and tips. As a newbie to distilling and doing gin/rum and now fruit washes.
Looks very doable , I have added this one to the list 👍. Also congrats on the 200k subs 🎉
I want to try this with a Wyeast 3068 or 3638, Solely for the banana esthers they produce. I have had a ton of success fermenting, at higher temps (more esthers), Whit beers without banana and people swear it has banana. A quick aging on coco nibs and it makes for a fun beer. Thanks for the experimentation and recipe ideas, awesome as always!!
Bananas are nice brewed up after caramelising with dark brown sugar I'm just making a mead with caramelised banana it smells and tastes amazing
Oh and I'm thinking of fortifying the mead with some banana rum I made
In Uganda every village has a little old lady who makes Waragi. Also distilled from bananas. Some of it quite nice.
This looks awesome! Watching this makes me wonder though given the caramelized bananas. How would a mix of bananas and molasses come out and what would it taste like?
If you ever doubt how much yeast can drastically affect an alcohol, spend some time with an avid beer brewer!
You can take two identical grain bills, same hops, same boil time. Then pitch two wildly different yeasts, and end up with two wildly different beers!
I know banana brandy very well. Leave it for a months and the flavor develops even more. And in a barrel it’s getting even better.
Nice I dig the run of each yeast good test
Seriously important yet simple question: measures are for peeled or unpeeled Bananas?
I just started to do this recipe and primarily thought of making quadruple batch (80l) and bought 46kg of bananas. To be honest I didn't realize that peels are so heavy. It doesn't come to my mind to question measures earlier because I didn't consider that peel woul be such a big variable. After all I decided to use the mass of peeled fruit, and stayed with a little more than double batch. I would appreciate the answer.
Also, did have one problem with baked bananas. As suggested first I looked for time when they were black and some opened, but it was way more than 25 min. More thought they started to sweeting some juice, and I didn't know if I suppose to use that fogy thing. In taste it was sweet so I did use it with half of batch. Yet I know that in bananas there is latex like sap and I'm still not sure if it was good chose. From the other hand Batch with "juice" is working like insane. I hope that if it's sap it won't be able to come through destilation. Time will show although I'm interested in your opinion.
in my country, i usually called it "gedhang kluthuk" but its distilled with adding a pinch of sugarcane drops(molase)
Ah that would go down very well! What county out of interest?
Good afternoon from Maine. I have had 10 gallons of banana going strong now for a week. I used dady yeast but followed your other directions with cooking some, frying some in butter etc. It's been fermenting strongly still but i'm wondering, should i be stirring this daily and knocking down the cap? It still forms a cap even after a week. Last night i stirred it up knocked it down and this morning it's got a cap again. Just wondering how long i should do this as i use a sterile long paddle but i know opening the cover is dangerous also sometimes. It does have a strong smell of alcohol already :) Thanks, tom.