I am planning to add bananas to a beer some time soon.

There is a lot of good info in "Homebrew All-Stars" (Drew Beechum and Denny Conn) from Joe Formanek about how he uses bananas in the mash. One thing that surprised me was the large quantity required. He says that you need about 10 pounds (weight with skin on) of fruit to get a noticeable banana character in the finished beer. By my rough calculation, that seems to be about 30 bananas!

But I'm also wondering about putting bananas right into the primary fermenter (post boil).

Can anyone comment on the relative merits of bananas in the mash vs. post-boil?

Edit to answer Denny's question (in a comment below):

Putting the bananas in the mash seems like a good idea, especially if they are less ripe and more starchy. But I guess my general inclination when adding fruit would be to do so after the boil to prevent losing aromatics to the boil. Also, 10 pounds for a 5 gallon batch seems like a whole lot, and so I wondered if one could get more "banana bang for the buck" if the bananas went in post boil.

I am planning to add bananas to a beer some time soon.

There is a lot of good info in "Homebrew All-Stars" (Drew Beechum and Denny Conn) from Joe Formanek about how he uses bananas in the mash. One thing that surprised me was the large quantity required. He says that you need about 10 pounds (weight with skin on) of fruit to get a noticeable banana character in the finished beer. By my rough calculation, that seems to be about 30 bananas!

But I'm also wondering about putting bananas right into the primary fermenter (post boil).

Can anyone comment on the relative merits of bananas in the mash vs. post-boil?

Edit to answer Denny's question (in a comment below):

Putting the bananas in the mash sort of seems like a good idea, especially if they are less ripe and more starchy. But I guess my general inclination when adding fruit would be to do so after the boil to prevent losing aromatics to the boil. Also, 10 pounds for a 5 gallon batch seems like a whole lot, and so I wondered if one could get more "banana bang for the buck" if the bananas went in post boil.

I am planning to add bananas to a beer some time soon.

There is a lot of good info in "Homebrew All-Stars" (Drew Beechum and Denny Conn) from Joe Formanek about how he uses bananas in the mash. One thing that surprised me was the large quantity required. He says that you need about 10 pounds (weight with skin on) of fruit to get a noticeable banana character in the finished beer. By my rough calculation, that seems to be about 30 bananas!

But I'm also wondering about putting bananas right into the primary fermenter (post boil).

Can anyone comment on the relative merits of bananas in the mash vs. post-boil?

I am planning to add bananas to a beer some time soon.

There is a lot of good info in "Homebrew All-Stars" (Drew Beechum and Denny Conn) from Joe Formanek about how he uses bananas in the mash. One thing that surprised me was the large quantity required. He says that you need about 10 pounds (weight with skin on) of fruit to get a noticeable banana character in the finished beer. By my rough calculation, that seems to be about 30 bananas!

But I'm also wondering about putting bananas right into the primary fermenter (post boil).

Can anyone comment on the relative merits of bananas in the mash vs. post-boil?

Edit to answer Denny's question (in a comment below):

Putting the bananas in the mash seems like a good idea, especially if they are less ripe and more starchy. But I guess my general inclination when adding fruit would be to do so after the boil to prevent losing aromatics to the boil. Also, 10 pounds for a 5 gallon batch seems like a whole lot, and so I wondered if one could get more "banana bang for the buck" if the bananas went in post boil.