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    Home » Recipes » Adults Only! (Boozy)

    Banana Wine Recipe

    Published: Dec 9, 2020

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    Jump to Recipe -

    Originally Posted October 13, 2011. Updated 12/9/20

    A wine glass and a wine bottle are filled with golden banana wine, against a black background.

    This homemade banana wine recipe is NOT a short term project - it really smooths out and becomes a lovely wine after about a year of aging.

    Homemade banana wine is an interesting thing, in a few ways.

    For one, by the time you’re ready to add the yeast to get the product started... well, you’re working with a liquid that just looks revolting. Muddy brown-grey dishwater looking stuff.

    You add the yeast, cross your fingers, and hope for the best.

    Then, the yeast starts acting on it. Oh BOY does it ever! I’ve never seen such violent fermentation before!

    It really is a sight to behold.

    A wine glass and a wine bottle are filled with golden banana wine, against a black background.

    One day, you walk by your carboys, and you think “Hrm. My orange mead looks really yellow for some reason”... and then you realize that you’re looking at your banana batch.

    All of a sudden, that ugly, milky looking mixture clarified at some point. It left you with a gorgeous, brilliantly golden yellow and crystal clear wine.

    ... and it tastes like heavily banana-flavored Everclear! Yes, we’ve termed this “Banana Jet Fuel” for good reason - it comes in at a whopping 20% ABV!

    No worries though - let your finished wine age for about a year after bottling, and you'll be rewarded with a smooth, flavorful wine that packs a punch! The harsh "Everclear" flavor will age right out.

    This recipe is very easy - and very CHEAP - to make. Also, it finishes a unique color, which will make a beautiful addition to your wine rack - or gift.

    Sliced bananas floating in a clear brownish liquid.

    How to Make Banana Wine

    If you haven't attempted making wine before, don't be intimidated! Check out our primer to home brewing:

    - Wine Making At Home, Part 1: Why?

    - Wine Making at Home, Part 2: Equipment to Get Started

    - Wine Making at Home, Part 3: The Brewing Process.

    - Wine Making at Home, Part 4: How to Stabilize and Back Sweeten Wine

    Just a small handful of entries, and you'll be good to go!

    Bananas - whole and sliced - scattered across a cutting board.

    Banana Wine Ingredients

    Bananas

    You’ll want to use fresh, whole, RIPE bananas. Note quit “banana bread” ripe, but definitely heading in that direction.

    The ripeness of your bananas will impact the flavour, sweetness, and ABV of your final wine, so it’s definitely worth holding off a few days, if your bananas aren’t very ripe.

    Remove any stickers, wash the bananas, cut off the ends and discard them, and slice them up - peels and all. There’s a lot of flavour in the peels!

    One last note: The appearance of first few stages of banana wine making can vary WILDLY based on the bananas used.

    Sometimes the liquid will cook up relatively “clear”, like the top left image below. On other occasions - as in the top right photo - it’ll cook up to a very milky mixture.

    A 4 part compilation images, showing various stages from brown liquid to bottled wine.

    It’s all good. As I mentioned before... this wine gets interesting!

    It’s always fun to see which way it’ll start out, and watch the transformation from there.

    Sugar

    While sugar is technically optional when making wine, NOT adding any sugar will result in an INCREDIBLY dry wine.

    When you’re making wine from bananas - much like with any other light coloured, non-grape fruit - you’ll want it to have at least some residual sweetness to it, or it just won’t taste like much. The sugar helps to bring out the banana flavour!

    Sugar is an important part of wine making, and there are a few aspects of sugar to keep in mind:

    Sliced Bananas in a large pot, covered with white and brown sugar.

    Type of Sugar

    In terms of type of sugar, we’ll swap between using plain white granulated sugar, brown sugar, or a mix of them.

    Due to the robust nature of the banana flavour - and how much of it sticks around after fermentation - it can definitely handle the added flavour from a brown sugar.

    I find that brown sugar - either in whole or in part - makes this wine smell and taste a bit more like a baked good, than when it’s entirely granulated white sugar used. It’s a bit of added complexity.

    Conversely, using all white sugar will give you a wine with a “cleaner”, clearer banana taste.

    Feel free to use either type, raw cane sugar, or a mixture of any/all of these.

    Note: If you’re going for the brown sugar for some or all of the sugar, try adding a vanilla bean and a cinnamon stick to your boiled mixture, leaving them in through fermentation!)

    A large pot is full of sliced bananas.  They are puffed up from the cooking processes, and enveloped in steam.

    How to Make Banana Mead

    If you’d like to make a mead rather than a wine, you can swap the sugar out for honey. We’ll usually use 15-20 lbs of honey for this, if made as-is... though we’ll usually make meads in smaller batches. (3-5 lbs of honey for 1 gallon of water used).

    A couple notes:

    - I say “Banana Mead”, as that’s what most people would understand... but mead with fruit is technically called “melomel”.
    So, swapping sugar out in favour of honey would give you a banana melomel. The more you know!

    - In any mead or melomel recipe, you’re going to want to consider the flavour of the honey you’re using. Generally, we recommend using a fairly lightly flavoured honey - a clover or orange blossom honey, for instance.

    Where white sugar is fairly neutral in flavour, honey can be aggressively flavoured, and that can compete with the fruit flavour. When it comes to banana mead, you have more leeway there - the banana flavour is INTENSE, so there’s more room to play.

    Wildflower or buckwheat honey, for instance, are options. Buckwheat in particular goes nicely with banana, and doesn’t overwhelm the flavour.

    Alcohol Content

    Aside from flavour, there’s the matter of alcohol content.

    Your wine’s final ABV will vary wildly dependent on a few things: The initial sugar content of the bananas you use, how much sugar you add, and what kind of yeast you use (more on that in a bit)

    Any amount of sugar will result in a higher alcohol content than making the same wine without sugar added. Sugar - both in the base wine itself, and from the added sugars - is what feeds the yeast, the yeast eats up the sugars and gives off alcohol as the byproduct of that process.

    More sugar = more food = more alcohol... to a point, anyway. About that...

    A wine glass and a wine bottle are filled with golden wine, against a black background.

    Yeast

    The type of yeast you use will impact the alcohol content of the final product.

    Yeast organisms don’t have an *unlimited* capacity to process sugar into alcohol. At some point, the environment they’re living in - the brewing wine - becomes too high in alcohol for the yeast to survive. They die off, the fermentation stops.

    Different types of yeast have different tolerances for alcohol in the environment. That is, some yeast will be able to survive higher amounts of alcohol in the wine, so they’ll continue producing it longer than some other types.

    Some types of yeast will bring you to something like an 8% ABV, while others will let things run wild until close to 20% ABV.

    It’s good to know what you have in mind, when you choose your yeast.

    Note: I’m going to refrain from using brand names in this section, as what’s available varies wildly between suppliers and regions! Ask your local homebrew supply shop for recommendations based on what you’re looking for.

    If you want a sweet wine with a low-ish ABV - without having to back sweeten it (more on that in a bit) - choose a yeast with a lower tolerance for alcohol.

    If you’re looking for a dry wine with a low ABV, choose a yeast with a lower tolerance for alcohol, and don’t use a ton of sugar.

    If you want a sweet wine with a high ABV, use a bunch of sugar with a high-tolerance yeast... and be prepared to backsweeten it.

    If you want a dry wine with a high ABV, use a fair amount of sugar and a high tolerance yeast.

    A pile of fresh bananas rests on top of a scale.

    Scaling This Wine Recipe

    As a note, you can easily scale this wine recipe up or down - in fact, there's a function inside the recipe card itself to do the math for you!

    One note, though: You don't necessarily need to multiply or divide the yeast, but the software doesn't know that. We will use one full pouch of yeast for anything from 1-5x gallons, and then 1 pouch for every 5 gallons beyond that.

    As a related note: The recipe software is definitely geared towards cooking, not wine making. Therefore, you can pretty much ignore all of the info it gives you: The nutritional info is calculated on everything that goes into the wine.

    It does not take into account how much sugar will be fermented out, how much volume is lost to racking, the fact that the fruit pulp is removed before the final product, etc.

    A wine glass and a wine bottle are filled with golden wine, against a black background.

    Back Sweetening Your Homemade Banana Wine

    Sometimes - usually, even - you’ll find that the yeast went a bit too far with their smorgasbord, and you end up with a peach wine that’s not as sweet as you’d like it.

    ... and that’s when you back sweeten it! You can read my How to Stabilize and Back Sweeten Wine post for information on how to back sweeten it.

    More Home Brewing Recipes!

    While you've got your current homebrew fermenting away, why not consider putting a batch of something else on, to occupy your wait time? Here are a few of my other wine, cider, and mead recipes:

    Wine Recipes

    Blackberry Wine Recipe
    Blackcurrant Wine Recipe
    Blueberry Wine Recipe
    Cherry Wine Recipe
    Cranberry Clementine Christmas Wine Recipe
    Cranberry Wine Recipe
    Faux Lingonberry Wine
    Lychee Wine Recipe
    Mango Strawberry Wine Recipe
    Mango Wine Recipe
    Mint Wine Recipe
    Lychee Wine Recipe
    Partridgeberry Wine Recipe
    Passionfruit Wine Recipe
    Peach Wine Recipe
    Stone Fruit Wine Recipe
    Strawberry Wine Recipe
    Ube Wine Recipe
    Watermelon Wine Recipe

    Mead Recipes

    Black Cherry Mead Recipe
    Blueberry-Clementine Mead Recipe
    Blueberry Mead Recipe
    Clementine Mead Recipe
    Pumpkin Mead Recipe
    Wildflower Mead Recipe

    Cider & Miscellaneous Homebrew Recipes

    Hard Apple Cider Recipe
    Home Brew Hard Iced Tea Recipe
    Maple Hard Apple Cider Recipe

    A wine glass and a wine bottle are filled with golden banana wine, against a black background.

    Share the Love!

    Before you drink up, be sure to take some pics of your handiwork! If you Instagram it, be sure to tag me - @CelebrationGenerationCA - or post it to My Facebook Page - so I can cheer you on!

    Also, be sure to subscribe to my free monthly email newsletter, so you never miss out on any of my nonsense.

    Well, the published nonsense, anyway!

    Homemade Banana Wine
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save Recipe Saved!
    4.86 from 76 votes

    Homemade Banana Wine Recipe

    This wine is NOT a short term project - it will be technically potable at first, but really smooths out and becomes a lovely wine after about a year of aging. It’s worth the wait - and is one of the most popular recipes on this blog!
    Prep Time2 hrs
    Cook Time1 hr
    Fermenting and Aging Time455 d
    Course: Drinks
    Cuisine: Home Brewing
    Servings: 4 Gallons (Approx)
    Calories: 10078kcal
    Author: Marie Porter

    Equipment

    7.5 gallon pot (or bigger)
    1 6.5 gallon fermenter bucket and lid
    1 or 2 6.5 gallon glass carboys & stoppers
    1 air lock and stopper
    Siphon, siphon tubing.

    Ingredients

    • 21 lbs RIPE bananas Washed and sliced into thin rings
    • 5 gallons Bottled water You won’t use it all
    • 15-20 lbs White and/or Brown sugar We used white
    • 6 teaspoon Acid Blend
    • 5 teaspoon Pectinase
    • 1.25 teaspoon Wine Tannin
    • 6 teaspoon Yeast Nutrient
    • 4 lbs Golden Raisins
    • 1 packet Wine Yeast We like Red Star “Champagne” for this recipe
    • Potassium sorbate or other wine stabilizer

    Instructions

    • In large stock pot – we used a 7.5 gallon turkey fryer – combine bananas, sugar, and about 4 gallons of water. Heat to almost boiling, mashing and stirring until sugar is dissolved. Continue to heat for about 45 minutes – never allowing it to come to a boil – stirring every few minutes. Remove from heat, add acid blend, pectinase, tannin, and yeast nutrient. Stir well.
    • Place raisins in a freshly sanitized 6.5 gallon fermenting bucket. Carefully strain hot banana liquid into the fermenting bucket, over top of the raisins. Top with water to 6 gallons, and add a few scoops of the banana mush. Cover with sanitized lid and air lock, allow to cool to room temperature (overnight).
    • The next morning, give the mixture a quick stir with a sanitized paddle, and – using sanitized equipment – take a gravity reading. Keep track of the number! (This is an optional step, but will allow you to calculate your final ABV %)
    • Sprinkle yeast into fermenter, cover with sanitized cover and air lock. Within 48 hours, you should notice fermentation activity – bubbles in the airlock, carbonation and /or swirling in the wine must. This means you’re good to go!
    • Let sit for about a week, stirring (sanitized paddle!) Every couple of days or so. It will get black on top. It’ll look awful… and your whole brewing area / basement / garage will smell like banana bread!
    • After a week or so, use your sanitized siphon setup to rack the must into a freshly sanitized 6.5 gallon carboy. (At this point, we ran the raisins and remaining pulp through a juicer and added it to the carboy, but that’s entirely optional. Will give the wine extra body if you do it!)
    • Put the carboy somewhere cool (not cold!), and leave it alone for a month or so.
    • Using sanitized equipment, rack the banana wine off the sediment, into a clean, freshly sanitized 6.5 gallon carboy. (At this point, we added 4 lbs sugar for added sweetness. It probably also upped the final ABV!). Cap with sanitized airlock, leave it alone for another 2-3 months.
    • By this point, you’ll find that your wine has clarified, and looks NOTHING like it did when it started. Enjoy your handiwork. Rack one more time, leave it for another 3 months or so.
    • When your wine has been racked a few times and shows NO more fermenting activity for a month or so (no bubbles in the airlock, no more sediment being produced, you can move on to bottling.
    • Follow the instructions on your selected type of wine stabilizer to stop fermentation. For potassium sorbate, this needs to be done 2-3 days before bottling.
    • Using sanitized equipment, take a gravity reading, then rack the wine into clean, sanitized bottles. Cork.
    • I’m not going to lie – the wine you bottle is going to be pretty harsh. Drinkable, but definitely banana flavored fire water. Put the bottles into the cases they came in and forget about them for a year (or two!) – you’ll have a much tastier wine at the end of the wait!

    Notes

    IMPORTANT:
    Software generates nutritional information based on the ingredients as they start, and is unable to account for the sugars consumed in the fermentation process. As such, the calories, sugars, and carbs are shown WAY higher than reality.
    Additionally, the listed value is for the entire recipe, NOT per serving.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 10078kcal | Carbohydrates: 2606g | Protein: 42g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Sodium: 333mg | Potassium: 11960mg | Fiber: 81g | Sugar: 2257g | Vitamin A: 1524IU | Vitamin C: 222mg | Calcium: 518mg | Iron: 15mg

    Related posts:

    A glass of blueberry wine in front of a pint of fresh blueberries. Blueberry Wine Recipe [Fresh or Frozen] A glass of pale red strawberry wine. Strawberry Wine Recipe A glass of pale peach coloured wine, with 2 fresh peaches at the base of the glass. Homemade Peach Wine Recipe A glass of white wine is shown next to a small bowl of lychee fruit and a can of lychees. Lychee Wine Recipe
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. jen_alluisi

      October 13, 2011 at 6:12 pm

      5 stars
      Perhaps I will just cross my fingers that I will get a gift of some banana wine, which sounds DELICIOUS...but we don't have the space (and if I'm honest, probably not the inclination) to make it ourselves. My mother-in-law likes this kind of thing, though...

      Reply
    2. Julie

      October 15, 2011 at 12:31 pm

      5 stars
      I'd be interested in seeing a recipe converted for smaller batches. At the moment I only have 5 gallon equipment and as much as I like banana, I would prefer to try it first as a much smaller amount, say a growler or so. Though I suppose my lazy ass can do the conversions myself.

      Reply
    3. Jeff

      June 20, 2012 at 6:38 am

      5 stars
      I made my banana wine in my champion jucier. I removed stem and cut in half and put them through jucier then put in water with sugar on stove for 45 min low tempure and stired alot then I put the thick mess through jucier and poof I had great clean stuff beats the muslin all to heck

      Reply
    4. mike

      August 25, 2012 at 7:50 am

      5 stars
      i make this wine frequently i buy up ripe bananas in the super markets its an easy wine to do, good flavor, plenty of body, a very usfull wine

      Reply
      • Rosa

        March 01, 2016 at 10:55 am

        mine went cloudy after bottling. i've made wine since the 80's and am confused as to why this has happened? Any Ideas please?

        Reply
        • Marie Porter

          October 04, 2016 at 11:19 am

          ... No idea. Haven't seen that happen, or heard it happen from anyone else. Maybe some bacteria got introduced at some point?

          Reply
        • Larry Riach

          February 23, 2020 at 8:10 am

          5 stars
          Sometimes adding a little more pectic enzyme will help , it worked for me .

          Reply
        • Kevin

          June 21, 2021 at 7:58 am

          5 stars
          Had the same thing with my first one. Add a bit more pectic enzyme next time, should clear that up. It's called pectic haze. Doesnt hurt the flavor, just look a different direction when taking a sip.

          Reply
      • Teresa

        March 02, 2022 at 4:06 pm

        Can I use my frozen bananas for this recipe?

        Reply
        • Marie Porter

          March 03, 2022 at 2:49 pm

          Definitely!

          Reply
    5. mike

      August 25, 2012 at 7:55 am

      5 stars
      never got to finish above post , a very useful wine for blending to other white wines needing more body,

      Reply
    6. Laurie

      September 01, 2012 at 8:05 pm

      5 stars
      I was given a case of bananas, so I put the whole thing into the deep freeze for a week, then peeled the bananas and have followed your recipe, it smells good right now!

      Reply
    7. robert

      September 28, 2012 at 2:11 am

      Followed the recipe to the letter only thing is, (needing bifocals), I didn't think to look when I was weighing my bananas and instead of lbs, I had kg on the scale, so my 21 pound batch ended up being 40lbs. The supermarket was singing, "Yes, we have no bananas, because robb can't follow a recipe today". Anyhow, since I was using a sankey key to cook in, I just doubled everything else and now I have two fermenters full of banana wine! Christmas presents, yeah, Christmas presents! The sankey keg was great, it was free from a neighbor complete with 12 year old aged beer in it when I cut the top off. 15 gallons of stainless steel with handles. Works better than a turkey pot.

      Reply
    8. robert

      September 28, 2012 at 2:12 am

      5 stars
      What the? I'll try again. accidently doubled the recipe using kg instead of lbs so now I have 13 gallons!

      Reply
    9. Gerald J

      November 07, 2012 at 1:15 pm

      5 stars
      I am deffenatly going to make the Banana wine useing your recipe I have often wondered if one could make banana wine and how would it tast ! So I am going for it THX FOR THE RECIPY AND DIRECTIONS

      Reply
    10. Steve

      December 01, 2012 at 5:53 pm

      5 stars
      I like the idea of a banana wine, and am definitely going to ferment a batch up. A friend just told me he started one.

      Just have a couple questions:

      How ripe is too ripe (or is it, it can only be too green)? In your pics you posted, the bananas skin is just getting spotty.
      One poster said she put bananas in freezer, no doubt this turns these suckers black & are then super ripe. Also she peeled the bananas.

      Are there no off flavors produced with the skin on?
      And some of you run the skins through the food processor or juicer along with the fruit??
      Seems like eliminating the peelings would be the correct thing to do to eliminate the bitters of the peel?? Am I missing something here. Or I guess the other half of that question is: Do the peelings impart favorable things to this wine (fermentables, flavor, what)?

      Has anybody done this recipe EXCLUDING the golden raisins& if so how does it alter the final products flavor or what? It seems like the only reason for them is to punch up the alcohol content.. is that a correct assumption?

      Also for the yeast, I'm leery of the champagne yeast, from my memory that yeast rocks out the fermentation super fast and maybe that's where your getting your higher alcohols that take so long to age out?

      I like the Lalvin & use D-47 for most of my fruit wines & have used Lalvin EC-1118 for an apple butter cyser, due to the higher alcohol content & that yeast handles that quantity of fermentables nicely. EC-1118 processes comfortably to 18% alcohol content, if I kill the raisins, that would probably drop 4 % off the final ABV content & work for this.

      I'd really appreciate any and all feedback on these questions, I'm seriously anxious to get a batch of this started!

      Steve

      Reply
      • Richard

        August 29, 2021 at 10:10 pm

        The skins add to the flavour

        Reply
    11. godfrey

      January 22, 2013 at 6:43 am

      am happy to read this information am interested to start producing banana wine for business can you give me ratios to produce wine in lager volume

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        January 22, 2013 at 6:55 am

        Hi there! Thanks for your interest in Celebration Generation!

        I do make myself available for business consultations in situations like yours, please contact me by email to discuss!

        Blog at celebrationgeneration dot com

        Reply
        • Jo

          January 03, 2021 at 6:48 am

          Hi from Australia, as to why this post may have blown up. There was a police show on tv tonight 1/3/2021 where a man was pulled over for a breath test he blew positive when asked what he had to drink he said banana wine. Im guessing like me not a lot of people have heard of it and have googled banana wine your post is the first to come up.

          Reply
          • Marie Porter

            January 03, 2021 at 11:06 am

            Hello!

            Thanks for letting me know! Whenever something randomly goes wild, it's always interesting to hear about what inspired the surge. Last time, it was a reality TV show talking about a type of eggs benedict... that had my Halifax style eggrolls (??) blowing up.

            Thanks again, hope you guys are staying safe down there!

            Reply
      • Chrissy

        May 17, 2020 at 7:01 pm

        Did you end up making it? Would LOVE to hear your feedback ❤️

        Reply
    12. Donovan

      January 25, 2013 at 1:11 pm

      5 stars
      Great! Cant wait to start this this weekend!

      Reply
    13. Poppington

      July 07, 2013 at 9:33 am

      I basically added about 6 hands of bananas maybe about 50 bananas and a kilo of sugar foolishly I over filled the bucket. I instead of boiling them I used a liquidiser boy did that foam up I had 3 over flows and had to split it between two buckets. The only thing I added extra was about half a bottle of lemon juice. I will let ya know how it went.

      Reply
    14. Dan

      July 23, 2013 at 6:02 pm

      5 stars
      Has anyone tried this mixing half and half with strawberries? I'm boiling bananas as I type. Will follow the recipe till somewhat cooled, then add mashed strawberries. Strawberries don't get boiled. Strawberry wine comes in as one of my favorite wines to make. I,ve never tried banana or any wine or that has to be cooked. But I love strawberries and bananas together, so we'll see.

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        July 23, 2013 at 6:14 pm

        Hi Dan... I'd make the banana and strawberry wines separately, and then mix them later on - would be easier to achieve a desired flavour balance.

        Reply
    15. The Mackem

      August 04, 2013 at 5:25 pm

      ok, I have just syphoned the must into my carboy and in one month syphon from the sediment. At that point you added 4lbs of sugar. If we normally like Chardonnay, how much sugar should i add at that point.

      Reply
    16. hawaiianbrian

      December 04, 2013 at 1:43 pm

      5 stars
      Actually brandy is made from raisins. Also, I freeze my bananas and they don't turn dark. Simmer with the sugar and no yeast. Maybe takes longer. For me it doesn't have to be clear to drink, like apple cider. But I have tasted 20-30 year old banana wine home made. World Class Stuff. hawaiianbrian

      Reply
    17. linuxfueled

      April 04, 2014 at 7:43 pm

      5 stars
      great recipe,

      Worked flawless and the smell is great after 2 months. Let you all know in a year or so how the taste is:)

      Reply
    18. Phil

      July 20, 2014 at 2:15 am

      5 stars
      Actually following this recipe right now. Going to bring it out of the fermentation bucket right now. I just wanted to thank you for the recipe! Been having fun doing it!

      Reply
    19. wtfh

      August 06, 2014 at 6:47 am

      5 stars
      good looking lady making great wine !

      Reply
    20. phil

      October 30, 2014 at 7:35 pm

      5 stars
      This recipe I followed to the t. Finished, bottled wine is amazing, liquid gold. Thank you!

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        November 04, 2014 at 9:45 am

        Enjoy!

        Reply
        • Errol

          October 24, 2022 at 9:07 pm

          Is there anyway to have a much shorter fermentation time?

          Reply
          • Marie Porter

            October 25, 2022 at 6:50 am

            I wouldn't recommend cutting the fermentation any shorter. It really needs the time to do its thing.

            Reply
    21. Tom

      November 03, 2014 at 11:37 pm

      5 stars
      How about making a hard Apple cider using bananas? How would I do this? I assume using frozen bananas as mentioned above but would I still need to add sugar etc? Any ideas would be appreciated. Cider us in carboy waiting Instructuring.

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        November 04, 2014 at 9:47 am

        I'd probably add a fairly small amount of fresh bananas in with the primary cook/fermentation - not sure how it would go if you've already got the apple fermenting?

        Reply
    22. olly

      December 29, 2014 at 7:30 am

      5 stars
      try adding 6lb`s of coconut too,either the shop bought flakes or fresh......makes a beautiful full bodied wine,with exquisite flavour...takes 7 months to mature in the bottle,but i am sure it would be even better after a year or so....

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        December 30, 2014 at 8:34 am

        Ooh, that sounds amazing! We'll have to try it next time we put a batch on!

        Reply
    23. Brent Atkinson

      January 31, 2015 at 6:13 pm

      5 stars
      I find this recipe intriguing but would like to know if this is a sweet or dry wine. Before breaking down your ingredients measurements to fill a 55 litre carboy I'd like to know how it should taste.

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        February 05, 2015 at 10:58 am

        Definitely a sweet wine.

        Reply
    24. Andy

      February 14, 2015 at 10:18 pm

      5 stars
      Hi Marie, I have just started two batches of your banana wine. I generally make crab apple. Have been excited to start this batch. Just stumbled across your recipe and it sounded very good. Thank you for sharing it and I will let you know how it comes out.

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        February 15, 2015 at 6:31 pm

        Awesome! I look forward to hearing about it!

        Reply
    25. Rila

      February 27, 2015 at 4:58 pm

      I doubt this wine came out anywhere near 20%! Red Star Champagne yeast only has an alcohol tolerance of 13-15%.

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        March 11, 2015 at 12:09 pm

        *shrug* doubt all you want, but it comes out consistently right around 20%. Why not try it and see for yourself?

        Reply
        • Rila

          May 12, 2015 at 12:41 pm

          OK, I believe you. I just can't figure out how it can come out higher than the tolerance of the yeast ;).

          Reply
          • Marie Porter

            May 20, 2015 at 6:03 am

            I'm guessing the tolerances aren't *super* accurate, and probably under-promise due to variability in batches?

            Reply
    26. All Home Brew Supplies

      April 14, 2015 at 1:20 am

      5 stars
      Banana wine is one of my favorite flavors. I'd never tried a formulation for this at home yet, and Im yearning to brew some.

      Reply
    27. Isaac Agyare

      July 02, 2015 at 3:00 pm

      5 stars
      I am excited about this blog. I have a farm 100 acre farm with mangoes, coconut and bananas. My intention is to go into commercial tropical fruit wine making, how do I start?
      where do I get my supplies, equipment and ingredients. Any short course or books needed?

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        July 22, 2015 at 7:53 am

        I have no real experience with commercial wine making, so I am the wrong person to ask. Have you tried contacting a winery to see if they'd be willing to give you some pointers?

        Reply
    28. Robert Romney

      July 26, 2015 at 10:32 am

      Started making wild fruit wine about five years ago in northern Alberta. Now live on an acerage in southern Costa Rica where we have 20 banana plants which produce large amounts of fruit. What to do with it? Banana bread, sell some, well how about banana wine?

      Reply
    29. Cellars Wine Club

      September 23, 2015 at 9:00 pm

      5 stars
      Wow! That is a clever idea. Banana wine is very interesting, plus the tutorial on how to make it makes it more appealing. A must try recipe!

      Reply
    30. mike

      October 02, 2015 at 4:04 am

      recipe I saw for banana beer involved the village women chewing up and spitting out the bananas into gourds , and leaving those hanging up over the goat hut !

      Reply
    31. Chris

      March 19, 2016 at 3:59 pm

      5 stars
      Hey, trying banana recipe, just racked after fermentation, looking just over 20%, taste so far is a little on the acidy side, doesn't taste harsh al
      At all, I'm sure will sweeten after next racking, just worried about the balance.

      Reply
    32. Jim

      March 24, 2016 at 12:16 am

      5 stars
      So you leave the peel on the banana when you slice it and boil the peel too?

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        March 31, 2016 at 9:29 am

        Yep!

        Reply
    33. Marc Lure

      April 17, 2016 at 7:26 pm

      5 stars
      It looks like so much fun! I hope my batch comes out as good as yours did.

      Reply
      • Bjorn De Boeck

        January 13, 2021 at 9:50 am

        Hi! I have had my wine bubbling for a while with the water lock and it stopped a couple of weeks ago so I'd like to bottle soon. I had a little taste and while there is definitely a good alcohol content, it is pretty sour. Not bitter, sour. The bananas were ripe and I added panela (raw sugar cane blocks). I used my own natural yeast that I use for all ferments. I get a whopping 10% ABV with it and it always gives me great flavor. So, why the sourness??

        Reply
        • Marie Porter

          January 13, 2021 at 12:35 pm

          We've never had that happen. Without having been there, I'd guess it's the yeast used, or that some bacteria got in at some point.

          Reply
    34. Chris

      April 26, 2016 at 2:08 pm

      Help, after about 2 weeks after first raking, looks like something from aliens, clear in spots, but has formations in in????

      Reply
      • Roxanne G

        September 03, 2020 at 10:57 am

        Hi Chris,
        In my demijohn I have the cloudy formations also. I squeezed the liquid out of my cheese cloth and think it's banana that's left behind. I'm trying to get an answer also. The clouds are on top and bottom with clear amber yumminess between. Let me know what you find out!

        Reply
    35. bev

      June 11, 2016 at 1:53 pm

      5 stars
      I made a beautiful batch of banana wine accidentally, just by leaving the bananas in a closed container . I drained and strained then added sugar to the juice, sealed and left foe about three monts to see what would happen. Result, a most delicious tasting licgour. Now I am looking on new ways to compare

      Reply
    36. Bob

      January 24, 2017 at 12:18 pm

      5 stars
      I found a 5 gal. oak barrel at an estate sale and was wondering if I could ferment this wine in it or rack into it at some point for an oak flavor. I've never used a oak barrel with wine any input would be appreciated

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        February 06, 2017 at 6:32 am

        I honestly don't know anything about barrel aging. I would personally be hesitant to use an oak barrel purchased through an estate sale, because I have no idea where it's been, how it's been used, or if it's even watertight.

        Reply
    37. James

      January 24, 2017 at 3:19 pm

      5 stars
      Wow, never realized you could make banana wine. Waiting a year or two to drink it could pose a problem. I assume you could do this with most fruit? Thanks for the recipe, my next mission.

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        February 06, 2017 at 6:31 am

        You can, but the sugar amount and preparation will vary. I have a few fruit wine recipes on this blog!

        Reply
    38. Ash @ The Delightful Home

      February 23, 2017 at 6:29 am

      5 stars
      This looks AMAZING! We tried banana wine once... but must have missed a crucial straining step because ours was a bit cloudy. Will have to give your method a try!

      Reply
    39. Stuart G

      May 22, 2017 at 7:22 pm

      5 stars
      Do we leave peels o when mashing?

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        July 28, 2017 at 7:29 am

        Yup.

        Reply
    40. Michael

      September 17, 2017 at 3:14 pm

      At what temperature is banana wine served?

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        September 24, 2019 at 7:57 am

        We usually serve it at room temp, but I'm guessing it would also be nice chilled

        Reply
    41. Jimmy

      September 24, 2020 at 8:27 pm

      Is there no risk of getting bad bacterias ones opening the bucket and stirring regularly every couple of days?

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        October 19, 2020 at 6:03 am

        I'd hesitate to say "no" risk (to anything!), but as long as you're sanitizing your equipment, it's a very, very low risk.

        Reply
        • Lee Kersey

          April 18, 2021 at 7:12 am

          I am very new at wine and beer making, so, please, forgive the ignorance of my questions while I learn. In the stirring, could I reduce the risk of contamination even further by stirring through the airlock hole with a small paddle? Or, is that just being too cautious? Also, is the stabilization step necessary if all fermentation has stopped before bottling the wine? Thanks for your recipe and any advice you can give me.

          Reply
          • Marie Porter

            April 23, 2021 at 5:44 am

            As long as you're using sanitized equipment - including a freshly sanitized paddle - any reduction would be negligible if there's any at all. I'd be worried about introducing contamination through the airlock hole.

            Yes, stabilization is necessary, IMHO. Even when fermentation has stopped, the act of bottling can agitate it into re-starting fermentation. That's how people end up with exploding bottles!

            Reply
    42. Marshall

      November 15, 2020 at 7:14 pm

      I have been a backyard banana grower for many years, growing Goldfinger and Jamaican Red bananas, in addition to some Grand Nain (store bought kind). I get huge bunches of Goldfinger fruit and am curious if you've either used or heard of others who have used different banana varieties? I am planning on getting a batch started within the next few weeks as the next bunch ripens, but would rather not waste the time if your experience says otherwise. Thank you in advance for your thought. Also, have you tried using brown sugar at any point and if so, how did it affect the flavor?

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        February 04, 2021 at 7:24 am

        I'm in Canada, my experience with bananas is just "bananas", LOL.

        Basically, you're looking for the starch and sugars, so if the other varieties are similar in those ways, I can't see why they'd be any different.

        I'd just make sure there isn't anything weird like "the peel of this variety is toxic" or anything.

        Reply
    43. Kelly D

      February 01, 2021 at 9:40 pm

      In your Banana wine recipe. When you rack the wine for the second time, you stated to add 4 lbs of sugar. My question is ? Do you mix the 4lbs of sugar with water before it is add to the carbon, or do you just add the sugar as is. And if you do add water to the sugar, how much water is needed to be added to the 4lbs of sugar ?

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        February 04, 2021 at 7:13 am

        We added it straight and swirled it in.

        Nowadays we just start with more sugar and backsweeten if necessary.

        Reply
    44. Teresa

      March 03, 2022 at 8:40 am

      I really like how you have put so much information in this post. I just got a batch of bananas off my trees and want to make this wine. My problem is I have to leave for a week. Can I freeze the bananas and start when I get back?

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        March 03, 2022 at 2:48 pm

        Definitely! The peels will turn black, but they're fine.

        Reply
    45. Hunter

      March 21, 2022 at 6:29 pm

      What about initial SG and final SG? Usually we measure it before start and finish to calculate ABV?
      Thanks.

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        March 23, 2022 at 6:16 am

        What about them? They vary wildly by batch, you're welcome to track yours as you go.

        Reply

    Trackbacks

    1. The Beautiful Banana – Wannathink says:
      February 7, 2021 at 1:22 am

      […] or brown when ripe. Bananas are grown primarily for consumption but are also used to make fiber, banana wine, banana beer and as decorative plants in the home and […]

      Reply

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