I am looking to make my second batch of mead. The first, a cyser[sup]1[/sup], turned out quite well. I’d like to try a melomel[sup]2[/sup] next. Unfortunately most recipes call for large amounts of fruit – like 10 lbs. This could make the project a bit uneconomical.
I’ve given some thought to available fruits and it occurs to me that bananas are both outrageously cheap and easy to prepare. However, there seems to be a great dearth of banana mead recipes available online. This one is the best I’ve found, but I find it fairly discouraging that the author has never tested it and cannot even spell “banana” correctly. And what’s with leaving the skins on? They can’t have much sugar in them and they aren’t hallucinogenic, no matter what Donovan or The Anarchist Cookbook may say.
Has anyone here attempted banana mead before? Do you have any good recipes to share?
Also, is there some reason more recipes aren’t available? Is there a chemical in bananas that inhibits yeast growth or something?
[sup]1[/sup] apple mead
[sup]2[/sup] mead made with fruit other than apples or grapes
I don’t know about mead but I frequently add banana’s to my Pina Coladas with great success. Hell, try it out and we’ll name it after you. Number’s Banana Ale. I’d try one.
If you have a market conveniently near, try going as they are packing up - sometimes you can pick up boxes of fruit that are overripe very cheaply, stuff that they are not going to be able to sell otherwise and likely have to ditch. Overripe fruit is still just fine for wine or meadmaking. My brother used to make big batches of bananana wine this way.
Don’t have any recipes to hand sorry.
Not to dissuade you,but I’ve had no success with bananas,though heavier gravity batches had more discernable flavour.
Never used the skins,believing the suspected tannins were unneeded and the flavor unwanted.
My usual method is to add fruit as the “wort” (I’m sure that’s not the right term) is descending from a quick boil temperature,thus pasteurising. Secondary additions are better for flavour,I’ve found,though infection risks increase.Yeast inhibition isn’t a problem then,though I’ve never had a problem with yeast in primary 'less I exceed 5lb/gal honey/water,for properly cured honey.
Have a batch in carboy right now,needing bottled.Looks like dog barf.
Color me totally not in love with the banana thing–banana flavor doesn’t work well with fermentation, or with honey either.
On the other hand, if you want to try something economical but amazingly yummy, may I suggest the “wolf peach?” I had some amazing aged melomel some years ago and we were challenged to figure out just what the “wolf peach” ingredient might be–I’d heard the term but couldn’t believe I had the correct fruit, but I did. Wolf peach is another name for the tomato. Use fresh, preferably organic tomatoes that are good and sweet, make sure you keep the seeds out (I’d crush the tomatoes and squeeze the juice through cheesecloth) of the must and use a very dry, neutral tasting honey like orange blossom or clover (star thistle, if you can find it–I’ve never seen it produced outside of the Sacramento Valley) and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the result.
My favorite is pomegranate from fresh fruit, but good luck getting cheap pommies in Oregon! Blackberry is very good and in season it’s very possible to score free fruit as blackberries tend to grow and spread profusely in many states. How about a pyment (honey + grape juice) if you know someone with a Concord or scuppernong vine? Pear cyser, mmm.
Ack, now I’m getting the fever back! Brewing is fun…
I am in no way pimping another board, but there is a brewing board that I read on occasion that is doing something similar to what you’re talking about. Their thread on it is here .
That is a good idea. Thank you for the suggestion. I will see what the local markets have to offer.
Are you compelled to pronounce it “bananana” after you’ve had a couple of glasses?
Aside from the looks, what is wrong with the finished product? Is it just a lack of banana character?
That is quite perverse. I am consequently intrigued. I will consider it.
Pomegranate is going to be prohibitively expensive here. Blackberries might be a possibility.
Aha, thank you for the information. Unfortunately that looks to be more of a strawberry recipe than a banana one. However, if I do find 18 pounds of affordable strawberries I will give it a shot.
From what Carson O’Genic, Sweetums, and SmartAleq have said, a straight banana melomel is starting to look like a bad idea. It’s a shame really. A store here has them on sale for 7 cents a pound.
I was told that honeydew was a terrible idea, that none of the flavor would survive fermentation, that any flavor that did would be bad, and that I should try a standard recipe first. Best mead I’ve ever made was when I ignored all the advice and did it anyway.
I’d do a small batch first, like 3 gallon maybe. Very ripe banana’s chopped and frozen, I sure wouldn’t include the skins and wouldn’t cook them either (I don’t boil my must).
Looking at the recipe you linked, I also wouldn’t include the grape juice - add honey if you feel the OG isn’t high enough.
Doesn’t sound good to me, and the only moonshiner I’ve even known used banana so I’ve an irrational prejudice to start with.
Oh, and as this is but your second batch, let me pass on the words of advice that were repeated to me my first several years - “If you don’t like it, age it some more”
What’s this about fruit?! I thought mead was made from honey! (I did, once, at a science-fiction convention, try a delicious Polish drink called “hrolka” (sp?), which apparently is a blend of mead and hard cider. But that’s not mead, that’s hrolka.)
Yes, as barley and hops define beer, honey defines mead. And as there are hundreds of beer styles, there are also many mead variants. Melomel is the one I’m currently considering.
I haven’t heard of hrolka but it sounds similar to cyser.