Saturday, October 13, 2012

Banana Milk Stout

Brewed a banana milk stout beer beer on 10-13-12.  The beer is a pretty typical stout in terms of grain and I plan to add a pretty typical amount of lactose for a milk stout. Where this beer gets unusual is the use of weihenstaphen wheat yeast and the planned addition of banana's in secondary to give this a bright estery banana flavor to balance the chocolate and coffee of the roast malts.




Updates
11-5-2012
I added approximately 5 lbs. of bananas to this yesterday. Not at home but I'm told this caused a large fermentation which blew off the airlock and put banana pieces all over the place. I'll have to assess the damage and see if this batch can still be salvaged.

11-11-2012
Despite the mess the beer doesn't appear affected and has a nice chocolate covered banana aroma. I moved it to secondary to hopefully clear and finish up eating any banana sugars.  The gravity was down to 1.009 and the taste was somewhat bland and alcoholic, not at all like the smell.  Added 12 oz. of lactose, hopefully a few days and the milk sugar will help this one balance out.

11-23-2012
Beer was looking a little funny but at a gravity now of 1.012 (after the lactose addition) it doesn't appear to be fermenting so I bottled.  Added 2 oz. sugar and 2 oz. lactose.  The beer had a nice chocolate banana flavor and aroma up front but the finish seems highly vegetal (probably due to either unripe bananas or too much time on them).  I'm hoping this flavor fades but I'm not overly optimistic...

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