Base: My Experience
Altered Recipe:
4 Kg. honey
1 Black Rock Whispering Wheat Extract Kit
4 cups Dark Malt Extract
.2 Kilograms of freshly grated ginger root
14 Bananas (including peels)
2 tsp. Andovin Super Nutrient
1/2 tsp. Irish Moss powder
June 06/03 (Day 1)
Preheated Black Rock Whispering Wheat Beer Kit in hot water. Put 60 oz water to boil. Waited until it was almost boiling. Added 4 cups of Dark Malt Extract (Note: Watch this stuff – it wants to boil over!) Reduced heat to “5” to avoid boil over. Added the softened beer kit. Turned the heat back up to 5 ˝. Added ˝ tsp of Irish Moss. Grated the Ginger Root directly into the pot of beer and malt. Brought wort to the boil. Reduced to “5” again. Added 14 bananas. Some I cut up, some I blended, and others I squished. I got into trouble because the blender wouldn’t work and then broke. While messing around with it I burnt some of the banana mess to the bottom of the pot. This will affect flavour. I blended about 5 bananas and the others were cut up and squished a bit.
Added the Super Nutrient at some point (I think). The yeast caught quickly and went crazy, so it doesn’t matter if I didn’t, but I think I did.
Took Measurements: Temp 45 S.G. 1.056
June 21/03 (Day 16)
Transferred the Braggot into the Carboy. I was not looking forward to this because the wort looks very disgusting and I wasn’t sure how it would taste. I was not entirely incorrect, but it was not as bad as I expected. The taste of the hot ginger spice was a little surprising. I transferred all of the dark liquid portion of the braggot into the carboy (NOTE: Why is it so dark? It is a wheat beer kit, and honey has little color. Is it the dark malt extract or the banana peels turning black, or the fact that I burnt it?). Anyway, there was over 5 litres of unusable (or is it usable?) sludge left over, and I didn’t want to fill the remaining space with all tap water. There is a nice start on the alcohol content, and I don’t want to mess it up. So I took some of the sludge and blended it into as liquid form as I could and poured it on top. I’d say about 60 ounces or so. It made such a mess in the carboy that I decided that was enough, and topped the rest off with 60 oz of tap water.
Now I’m looking at it and thinking about how I lost the “special” banana effect before and how it stayed in the one carboy. How can I keep that effect throughout this batch? Previously I have been thinking that the only way to keep it is to not let it clear, and bottle it before it settles out. But here is a new thought: what if I leave the braggot on the lees for an extended period? Wouldn’t the lees slowly bleed that “special” quality back into the braggot? I know you aren’t supposed to leave a brew on its lees because it introduces off flavors from the yeast culture, but that isn’t all I’ve got going there. There is also the banana culture. I think I will have to let this one age in the carboy for quite awhile, and then let it age again in bottles for the ginger to mellow (it’s quite strong now).
Before transferring and all that other rot I had an S.G of 1.002
June 22/03 (Day 17)
Added 10 oz of water to the carboy now that the foam has settled down a bit.
August 28/03 (Day 84)
That is an extended enough period, I think. Time to bottle. Rinsed, chloricleaned and rinsed again, 70 bottles. I even rinsed the outside of the bottles to get rid of the white stuff that is always left behind when I chloriclean them. I boiled 70 caps to be safe as well.
I boiled 1.3 cups of Corn Sugar in a pot of braggot siphoned off just before filling the Primary. I took an SG reading just before adding this sugar/braggot mix back into the Primary and got 1.002 – same as it was on day 16.
Transfer taste: a bit like strong licorice, but I had mouthwashed just before transfer and I don’t know how much that may have affected my tastebuds. I would like to leave this at least 3 months before drinking, but I know I’m going to try one within 3 weeks. I have to know if any banana peel qualities transferred through to the braggot.
After being very careful not to get the last of the lees into the bottles (I was tempted, but aesthetics won over) I only ended up with 58 bottles of B4-G3-W2. After I finished bottling, I took the lees and bottled it, ending up with 6 ˝ bottles of banana/ginger/yeast mixture, that I have no idea what to do with. I took the ˝ bottle and mixed it with milk and coffee in the blender to make it somewhat palatable, and am drinking it at this time to see if there is any effect like the last time I brewed with bananas and drank the lees. So far I am light-headed a bit, but I think I am just nervous about what might happen. It doesn’t taste too bad, either. I think I could make a milkshake with this stuff for the boys to try, should they be in the mood to experiment.
Final Alcohol Content
1.056 – 1.002 = 0.054 x 105 = 5.67% by Weight; 5.67 x 1.25 = 7.09% by Volume
Final Appreciation
Saturday, October 13th 2007 (4 years after bottling). Very strong licorice taste (how is that possible?). It also has a spicy tingle. There is some of that “special” banana quality present, but not in the quantity that caused the weirdness back when I was doing my initial experiments.
