Banana juice

AsharaDayne

AsharaDayne

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This seems like a long shot, but would anyone have an idea how to express banana juice? I did it once, in Thailand, inspired by a Internet article about african Banana beer. I kneaded the bananas with some random grass and, to my surprise, actual juice came out of the fruit mash! Took a lot of kneading, though. I tried to ferment one bottle by tossing rice in... Nothing came of it, but the idea of a banana "beer" has been rattling around in my head ever since.

The traditional way ues some type of grass that I guess has just the right properties to cut up banana cells in just the right way... I'm wondering if there's another, easier way to get the juice of the bananas?
 
I just looked it up and actually found some doable suggestions... Don't know why, I was sure last time around I couldn't find squat.
Anyway, freezing, microwaving and sieving - using amylase - letting sit warm so the endogenous amylase starts working... these could do the trick.

I wonder about recipes. I guess I'd start by fermenting the plain juice to get its baseline, then go from there. *ponder*
 
If you just want to ferment it, you don't have to juice it.
 
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The Brew Mentor said:
If you just want to ferment it, you don't have to juice it.
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If you want to use banana as an adjunct, just macerate the bananas (very ripe) and add to malted barley for conversion. There's not a lot of juice and a lot of starch. The flavor won't come through much. If you want banana flavor, add a can or two of Jumex Strawberry Banana Nectar to a wheat beer.
 
J A said:
If you want to use banana as an adjunct, just macerate the bananas (very ripe) and add to malted barley for conversion. There's not a lot of juice and a lot of starch. The flavor won't come through much. If you want banana flavor, add a can or two of Jumex Strawberry Banana Nectar to a wheat beer.
Click to expand...
I may have to try that with the nectar. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
ive had a bannana wine before it was over 10 years old this lady had some bannana in freezer and some how or another the freezer got shut off anywho to save tossing them she made wine out of the pulp man it was good too.

if i were goung the banana beer route id just wizz the heck out of them into a big soup puree type thing and as JA stuck it in the mash good luck with the sparge lol:).
 
Thanks everyone, but I'm specifically interested in (the results) of fermenting banana juice and the possibilities of perhaps making cool recipes from it... banana mash, banana flavouring or even getting banana flavour in my beer, though valuable tips, isn't exactly what I'm after ;)

I've gotten in touch with FOG winery, will see what they have to say.
 
I make banana wine by boiling bananas and their peels, and then straining it. It makes banana juice, but not likely what you're looking for!
 
Humm, what does it make? As long as it's juice not pulp, it sounds like just the sort of thing...
 
AsharaDayne said:
Humm, what does it make? As long as it's juice not pulp, it sounds like just the sort of thing...
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I think if you did that method and then added it to your beer it should work to make banana beer
Edit that is assuming you are wanting to make a normal beer with banana in it.
 
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Bananas are so starchy I'd think you'd want to mash them....
 
Mashing might do something - some juicing techniques involve heating bananas and keeping them at a certain temp for a while. Though as has been mentioned, there might be clogging issues with a normal mash. And you'd get barley/banana wort rather than banana juice.

@Yooper if your way makes wine, it should make beer. I'm just curious why you boil the peels?
 
Boiling the peels extracts more flavors. Bananas themselves, once the sugar is gone by being fermenting out, aren't all that flavorful.
Bananas are high in simple sugars, which are fermentable, so starch (long chain sugars) isn't a problem.
 
There's really no such thing as "banana juice" any more than there is potato juice. There's just starch and sugar molecules plus a little protein and water with (in the case of bananas) some oils and compounds that lend flavor. I suppose that if you pureed ripe bananas and tried to filter the solids from the liquid, you'd come pretty close.
Or just let bananas sit in a sterile environment and turn into oozy slime that's already naturally fermented and collect the liquid portion of that. The enzyme and yeast that will do the work is in the peel, so you'll want to leave that intact.
 
I'd still mash them as Yooper suggests, with the peels.
 
J A said:
There's really no such thing as "banana juice"
Click to expand...
Yes, there is, the bananas just aren't very forthcoming with it. Knead bananas long enough with some grass like they do in Africa (and like I did), and actual juice comes out - or at least a very juice-like fluid.

@Yooper would you mind giving a broad outline of your method?
 
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Well, I tried a method found through 2 Internet posts: mush, put in vacuum bag, let sit at 55 or 65°C (the entries disagreed on the temp, I chose 59) for 5 hours(!), then strain. I ended up with a mess of banana mush and a little bit of goo/sludge, not the juice I'd expected.
Perhaps the bannies weren't mushed enough, maybe a vaccum is essential, maybe I shoulda used something else for straining...
Anyway, I diluted it with water and plonked it into a 3L beer bottle, with a bit of yeast (rehydrated with a pinchlet of nutrient and a sprinkle of DME).

A few hours later, the goo had split into some clear liquid and a sort of cake-like thing. Attaching a very professional photo of it.
It almost looks like the separation thing worked, but belatedly. Which, if the case, is nice, but that cake is going to be a problem.
 

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