Wine made from banana

Banana is a tropical fruit. It is a good source of sugars and fibers which make it a good source of energy. Banana is mainly composed of soluble sugars, starch and other polysaccharides. When consumed, it can reduce depression, anemia, blood pressure, stroke risk, heartburns, ulcers, stress, constipation and diarrhea. It confers protection for eyesight, healthy bones, kidney malfunctions, morning sickness, itching and swelling, improves nerve functions and is said to help people to quit smoking.

Banana has a short shelf-life under the prevailing temperature and humidity condition. This results to wastage of the fruits as a result of poor handling and inadequate storage facilities. Moreover, fermenting banana juice into wine is considered to be an attractive means of utilizing surplus banana, since the consumption of banana wine provides a rich source of vitamins and ensures harnessing of the fruits into a useful by-product.

The wine making process involves a series of simple steps, each of which has to be done correctly for one to achieve good results.

Key steps taken to make banana wine.
1. Selecting the right/suitable banana varieties

2. Harvesting and ripening the banana fruit

3. Peeling and boiling the ripe banana

4. Filtering

5. Addition of other ingredients

6. Fermenting and maturing

7. Packaging and Preservation

Temperature of the final mixed fruit wine ranged from 27°C to 30°C. The pH in the mixed fruit wine was acidic throughout the period of fermentation. The pH ranged from 4.0 to 2.5.

The wine produced had 5% (V/V) alcohol, 0.04% protein, 48° Brix SS, 0.85% TA and 1.4 mg/100ml vitamin C.
Wine made from banana

Banana wine

Anaerobic fermentation of green or cooking banana puree with Saccharomyces cerevisiae produces banana wine.

Overripe banana can also be utilized for wine making, but sugar has to be added to increase soluble solids. Banana wine played a prominent role in the ritual and social events of the major interlacustrine kingdoms of East Africa.

In Africa, the popularity of banana wine has, since the colonial period, given rise to periodic official alarms over the extent to which people concentrate on growing bananas for this purpose rather than as a food stuff.

During the pass millennia, banana wine came to the fore in both east and west Africa. Starches in bananas naturally breakdown into sugars as the fruit ripens, leaving a sweet pulp inside the darkening skin. That makes it challenging to peel and eat an overripe banana but facilitates the production of a fermented alcoholic beverage.

The Haya people of Tanzania have very specific rules governing the consumption of banana wine. A man sip his through a reed drinking tube from  a gourd with a long narrow neck.

Women can drink either form a banana -leaf cup or a short-necked gourd but must not use a straw.
Banana wine

Banana alcohol

Banana wine played a prominent role in the ritual and social events of the major interlacustrine kingdoms of East Africa.

Homemade banana alcohol, although considered illegal is widely produced in many countries in Africa and many-scale farmers depend on this for their income.

The juice from the ripe fruit of varieties known as ‘beer bananas’ is also drunk fresh or fermented to make a beer with low alcohol content and short of shelf life.

Banana wine is used extensively as a basis for distillation in interlacustrine East Africa, and wine produced for this purpose does not have sorghum added to it before fermentation.

In Philippines a large quantity of banana export rejected used for preparation of alcohol. Juice extracted from the ripe fruit was found to contain approximately 126 g/L total sugars.

In production of alcohol from banana peel by subjecting the material to saccharification treatments using either sulfuric acid, steam, under pressure or cellulose.

The fermentation of the juice was carried out with Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. ellipsoideus. The alcohol yield was approximately 150 ml/kg of peel.
Banana alcohol

Banana drinks

The banana is mentioned in the Buddhist Pali texts found in Ceylon, one of these describing, among other things, a heady beverage derived from the banana which the monks would drink on feast day.

Bananas are great mixes. They can be mixed with strawberry, raspberries, cherries, apples, coconut – they adore ice cream, buttermilk, milk, yoghurt cocoa and chocolate.

Ripe bananas are best for virtually every conceivable shake and cocktail and just as with the sweet and savory recipes, the fruit fuses so well in all drinks that the mixes are literally endless.

Banana wine
Banana wine is produced in relatively warm areas, and the juice is considered ready for drinking in two or three days and spoils in around five days.

In several parts of Africa, the fruit of various banana species are crushed to extract a juicy, which is used to produce a fermented beverage.

The use of bananas to produce beverage alcohol is reported in a smaller scale in Nigeria, Benin, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Banana juice
Traditionally, banana juice is extracted using a technology based on physically working the pulp, and this process has been mechanized.

Banana juice has been known to ease the suffering of people who have colitis and heartburn. It is an excellent source of potassium and vitamin A and a number of other beneficial elements.
Banana drinks