Courtesy of Raymond Gaddy | Connect Savannah
IN NO TIME at all the Savannah Bananas have proven themselves to be active participants in craft beer. Their debut season they had a well stocked craft beer bar in the stadium, and just a few weeks ago hosted a double-header craft beer festival.
This season the Savannah Bananas are at it again, teaming up with Service Brewing Company to create the appropriately named Savannah Bananas Beer, the official beer of the Savannah Bananas.
These two paired up last year for a very limited release of a similar beer. This year, however, the Bananas and Service are stepping things up and producing enough this year to be canned for local distribution.
In fact you’ll be able to get your hands on The Savannah Bananas beer several ways around town. Let’s talk about the beer first and why you might want to seek it out.
You might guess that any beer related to the Savannah Bananas would have a banana flavor, and in this case you would be right.
“Combining Bananas and great craft beer was meant to be. It’s absolutely delicious and the demand for the beer has been amazing,” says Jesse Cole, owner of the Savannah Bananas.
Typically banana flavors can be added to a beer in two ways. The first is to brew or rest a beer on bananas. This generally adds a nice subtle flavor of bananas, as some flavor is lost in the brewing process.
The second way is to use yeast that imparts a banana flavor. This is a practice used in many Belgian beers and is seen as a defining characteristic in many beers hailing from Belgium or mimicking those beers.
In this case both techniques were used. Service used 360 pounds of real bananas to brew this beer and then fermented it using Belgian yeast.
Despite the double whammy of banana in the brewing process and the hazy, straw color, reminiscent of a ripe banana peel, Service promises that the Savannah Banana Beer is not overwhelmingly banana flavored.
The beer maintains a subtle flavor that will appeal to banana lovers but should not scare away the discerning craft beer, or baseball, lover.
This Savannah Banana Beer is session beer, always a good choice when at the ballpark and promises to be very easy to drink on a hot summer day.
The Savannah Banana Beer will be available at Grayson Stadium when the Bananas season kicks off on June 1 of course, but will also be available in very sharp looking cans at Habersham Beverage Company starting May 8.
Seriously, Service Brewing has stepped up its design game in the last few months and this beer is a great example of the new economical but striking designs Service is now using.
If you want to try the Savannah Bananas Beer prior to first pitch or May 8 you can run by the Service brewing release party this Saturday, May 6 at brewery. The release party will run from 1-4 pm. The party is open to the public (21+ please) but requires a $12 brewery tour (yes, I know but the new laws don’t kick in until September 1).
In addition to a great new beer, Blown’ Smoke will be serving food from their mobile kitchen and A Squad Bake Shop is providing sweets. A beer party isn’t a party without music so DJ OB-1 Benobi will be providing the tunes.
Savannah Banana games are selling out which means a run to Habersham or stopping by the brewery may be your only chance to try the Savannah Banana Beer. In any case you are supporting local beer, a local store, and local baseball. Cheers!