Banana Sour! Brewing a Sourdough Beer with Angel Yeast WA18
Introduction
Welcome back to DrHans Brewery! Today, we’re diving into our third sourdough beer experiment — and this time, it’s all about banana! Big thanks to Daniel Larsson and the Brew Crew for inspiring the idea: “What if you co-pitch a sourdough starter with brewing yeast?” Challenge accepted.
And a huge shoutout to Angel Yeast for sponsoring this experiment and video! Their WA18 wheat beer yeast helped make this banana-forward sour beer possible. Learn more about Angel Yeast WA18 here.
The Concept: Co-Pitching Sourdough Starter with Angel Yeast WA18
The goal? Mix the wild magic of sourdough with the banana esters of Angel Yeast WA18, a fantastic wheat beer yeast I’ve had great success with in Hefeweizens. The hope was to create a beer that’s both sharply sour and bursting with candy-like banana notes.
Brewing Process
For this experiment, I kept the recipe simple:
Batch Size: 1 Gallon (3.8 Liters)
Ingredients:
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500g Wheat DME (1.1 lbs)
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Active sourdough starter
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Angel Yeast WA18
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3.8 liters (1 gallon) of water
Steps:
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Rehydrate WA18 yeast and feed the sourdough starter.
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Fill the iGulu F1 fermenter with water.
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Pitch both yeasts and add the Wheat DME.
Fermentation Schedule:
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20°C (68°F) for 2 days
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21°C (69.8°F) for 2 days
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23°C (73.4°F) for 7 days
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Cold crash and carbonate naturally or force carbonate to preference.
Fermentation Results
Fermentation took off quickly, thanks to healthy starter and rehydrated WA18. After just a few days, the iGulu F1 was bubbling away. Using the iGulu’s new carbonation updates, I played a bit with force-carbonation — maybe a little too enthusiastically! The beer ended up slightly over-carbed, but with an incredibly tight and fluffy head.
Tasting Notes
Appearance: Hazy light gold with a huge, tight white head.
Aroma: Fresh wheat and a subtle candy-banana aroma — “Skumbanan” vibes, for those familiar with Swedish candy.
Taste: Sharp, clean sourness up front. The banana candy character lingers softly in the background.
Mouthfeel: Medium body with lively, refreshing carbonation.
Lab Doctor’s Analysis
Our Lab Doctor reported a final gravity of 1.012 — slightly lower than previous sourdough experiments. He suggested that the lower FG could be due to not using a medium DME this time or possibly the strong performance of the co-pitched WA18.
For an even stronger banana character next time, the Lab Doctor recommends a two-step pitch: fermenting with WA18 alone for a few days to let esters build, then adding the sourdough starter.
Conclusion
The Banana Sour experiment was a huge success — bright, sour, refreshing, and with a candy-banana twist. Future tweaks might unlock even more banana goodness.
Big thanks again to Angel Yeast for sponsoring this experiment! Check out Angel Yeast’s Brewing Yeasts here.
If you want to try it yourself, you can download the full recipe here:
Recipe Download: Banana Sour Sourdough Beer Recipe PDF
Resources
Mentioned Videos:
New Merch Drop:
What’s Next?
I’m already planning:
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A super bitter sourdough beer
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Dry hopping experiments
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A Tzatziki Beer
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A Pizza Beer
These experiments are only just heating up.
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