My first wine. Going with Pineapple

Hey all. I started brewing beer about 6-7 months ago and me and my fiance have decided to give wine a shot. After much debate pineapple is the winner. I'm going with 5, 1 qt cans of 100% pineapple juice (no preservatives at all), 2 can's crushed pineapple in pineapple juice, will add water sugar to reach the specific gravity of 1.030. Using LD Carlson's Acid Blend and Ascorbic Acid as well as K1-V1116 yeast. After SG drops to 1.025 I'll put it in the secondary and hope for the best.

This is the plan anyway. I've never made a wine but I'm hoping I'm on the right track. Any suggestions, comments, ideas? Am I even in the right ball park?

Thanks for the help! I'll keep it updated as it goes

At 1.03 it would reach about 5%, sounds more like a cider than a wine?

>< lol this is why I ask. What should I be aiming for

newbrew12 said:

>< lol this is why i ask. What should i be aiming for

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1.085-1.095.

I have no idea where I got 1.030... For some reason it's just a number that stuck in my head. Yes, that range is where I'll shoot for. Any other issues with the plan?

Acid blend might be an overkill as well. Pineapple has acid in it already. You can always add it later after tasting.

Ok. I was wondering about that. It's not something that has to be added in a specific point of fermenting?

I always add ascorbic acid when I rack too help prevent oxidation, I would think the pineapples have plenty of vitamin c in them too begin with...

The acid blend is mainly for some flavoring right? Too much could kill the yeast? At least that's what I gather from reading on the skeeterpee as to why we use the slurry. I don't want to make it too acidic with pineapple juice and then more acid... Is that on the right track of thinking?

acid in fruit acts as a natural preservative and anti-oxidant, it doesnt kill yeast but they don't like it. Some fruits like lemons have lots of vitamin C so you need to use yeast nutrient when you brew them too make the yeast healthy. I would do the same with your pineapple wine.

Ok. So yeast nutrient instead of acid blend. Check

Well I've been reading it in a couple posts now and have seen it in multiple recipes. Should ferment with raisins in the primary with the pineapple pulp?

you can add whatever you want to your must as long as it doesn't have man made preservatives in it..

You never made wine before? When making wine you add stuff to like potassium metabisulfate, sorbate, basically to stop fermentation before bottling, to preserve the wine and also to clear the wine. So u might want to look Into that. Also check your ph! And make sure it's where it needs to be. Pineapple diesnt have as much sugar as grapes so you will need to know how much more sugar to get it where it needs to be. I used to work at a big winery. And what we did is use grapes with our fruit wines. Straight up pineapple juice fermented is indeed a wine but will not taste like a pineapple flavored grape wine. And even if u mixed grapes with it you need to know the right type of grade that won't overpower the pineapple such as the concord grape. A sweet white grape is what you want.

Raisins aren't used for flavoring either. They are used in wines for their yeast and fermentation ability. Some Hillbillies throw raisins in their moonshine wort to help ferment.

Your pineapple straight up fermented will produce a pineapple cider. So if ya want throw it in beer bottles with some extra sugar minus the sorbate - you'll have basically a woodchuck pineapple cider.

If u put the sorbate in it'll stop the yeast from consuming anymore sugar and multiplying and therefore be less of a cider and more of a wine.

But give it a go and let us know how it comes out!

P.s. don't forget to rack it and save your yeast patty.

Sounds good! Thanks for the help everyone! I started this tonight. As I type I have water boiling in my kettle. I tested the sg of the pure pineapple juice and it's 1.060. Kinda makes me laugh at my 1.030 statement. I'll test the sg tomorrow after everything cools to room temp. I keep my place at 73 degrees. Is this am ok temp to ferment? Depending on what the sg measures I'll adjust to 1.095. Oh everything I've read says to let cool to room temp. Any reason to not use the equivalent of a wort chiller? That's more of a curiosity than anything. I'm just gonna let everything sit covered overnight to room temp.

73 degrees is fine, I would decrease to 70 degrees when it gets going good...do not chill it, let it be

Ok that sounds good. Letting it cool now. What sg do ya think for racking? 1.015?

Well, yeast is in and now we sit. Starting SG 1.094 as far as I can tell by the hydrometer.

Quick help! Fermenting has rapidly begun. I have it in a 5 gallon pale with a lid for primary. Foam is probably 3 inches thick at the end of day 1. Should I skim some foam out so it doesn't hit the lid? Or can it cause issues with fermenting taking some foam out? I don't want it to foam over as I have a carpeted apartment. Currently it's fermenting in the shower. I also don't want to mess up my future yeast cake :/ any thoughts? Maybe it will settle down over night?

lol just let foam until it calms down....you need a blow off tube and an airlock. but if you want too you can leave the lid off for awhile until it calms down..haha welcome to wine

Well, woke up this morning with no mess. I will have a blow off tube and airlock on the secondary just don't have one on the primary. I was worried last night cuz my beer doesn't foam as much as the wine has and we're only starting day two!

you dont need a blow off tube unless your airlock is getting clogged with foam, as long as you have alittle bit of headspace on your secondary it shouldnt be a problem. most people only use blow off tubes during primary and switch to airlock in secondary.

That's new to me. My whole family makes wine and we never needed to use a blow off hose. Airlocks for both prime and second. Then again we never used pineapples. We get foam but never enough of it to go into the airlock and never had a problem with CO2 blowing it out of the lid either. Might be the type of yeast or too much sugar perhaps ?

I have about 5-6 inches from the top of a 5 gallon bucket so call it 4ish gallons fermenting. It'll go in a 5g sterilized carboy Ive used for beer. Should have enough room. Smelled it today after work... Hope it smells better at the end LOL

The sg was about 1.060 with just juice. Used 6 qts juice. Added water to bring to about an inch below the rim of the bucket. Added enough sugar to bring to 1.095. Sat overnight and after cooling was at 1.15. Removed some of the liquid and added more water to bring it back down to 1.095. Now sitting fermenting away at the levels I said before. It smells like pineapple just not overly fruity. You can definately tell its fermenting when you take off the lid and get a deep whiff.

Haha yes it should. My first time working in the winery (first time making wine) i walked over to one of our smaller fermentation bins to go break up and push the grape cap down into the juice and couldn't believe that was what grapes smelled like.

Just a whole waiting game but a fun one as u notice the sweet smell turn into a more potent zesty scent as the alcohol gets produced.

I'm really looking forward to hearing how this turns out!

BrightSpot said:

I'm really looking forward to hearing how this turns out!

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me too

Me too! Ok cm, that's good to know. Sorry to sound like such a noob thus far lol. would suck to wait so long though only to find out its terrible cuz of simple mistakes. Should I break up the foam and push it down? Or is that just something they did in the winery? The waiting game has officially begun!

1.034 after two days of fermenting. Happy to say the foam has receded and now it's just bubbling away like a carbonated drink.

:rockin::rockin::rockin:

Here goes with another noob question. With the sg dropping so quick, I assume it'll slow down, but is there a certain sg to rack at or is it time. I know the second rack will be to get it off the lees but in my primary fermenting bucket I can't see the lees so that's not a good gauge. I was thinking 1.010 first rack cuz I assume it'll ferment some in the secondary. I'll add campden tablets and top up but I just gotta know when for the first one. Any opinions?

I can't really comment on this because im considering not using plastic on my next primary fermentation, If you wanna rack at 1.010 that would be fine....

Newbrew12,

There is a lot of personal preference when determining when to rack wine. From during fermentation to three months after the end of fermentation and some people think even longer. Shorter time between racking mean less rick of off-flavor due to autolysis but more exposure to potential contamination, oxygen contact, and seems to slow down active ferments due to leaving a large amount of yeast behind in the primary. Longer time in primary gives more yeast the opportunity to ferment and condition the wine, but too long and the yeast may die and autolyze (rot) which can impart off-flavors to the wine. While I have not personally detected autolysis flavor in my wines, my reading indicates that reaching this stage can take several months, generally in excess of three.

Personally, I like to give the yeast time to clean-up any off-flavor products produced during fermentation so I generally don't rack until fermentation has stopped and has had the opportunity to condition with the yeast for a month or so. If I need a yeast cake for another project, like SkeeterPee, I'll rack at the end of fermentation before the wine has cleared so there is still enough yeast in suspension to clean-up the fermentation and the yeast cake left behind is fresh and ready to tackle another fermentation.

A note: dry yeast pitched directly on the must instead of re-hydrating in water or water plus a re-hydration aid (such as Go-Ferm Protect) will have more dead yeast added at the start of fermentation as less yeast survive when hydrating in must. This is due to the inability of the dried yeast to regulate the materials passing through their cell walls.

As for the Campden Tablets at racking, I've seen people who dose at every racking and those who never dose. I dose at every other racking. So if I dose the must when it is assembled, I'll dose on the even racking (second, fourth, sixth, ect...) and if I assemble a must without them I dose on odd racking (first, third, fifth, ect...). I also dose when adding Potassium Sorbate or Sodium Benzoate for stabilization, and prior to bottling.

Thanks for the info whthawk! I'll give it some time before racking I think. I read a lot of places every other rack for tablets too and like you said, I didn't dose when making it so it'll be 1,3 (and if there is one,) 5. I feel the same as when I made my first beer... Impatient and nervous haha only on this you have to wait even longer to find out you screwed it up somewhere along the way. Thanks for the info! It's a big help

Transferred to secondary today. Tasted it and it's actually pretty good so far. A lot better than I thought it would be thus far

Well, checked this morning and no bubbling noticed. I wasn't planning on racking this early, was planning on 30 days. Think I should rack now though since there's no action? About 3/4 of an inch to an inch of less I'd say

Lees*

Would anyone share a recipe for pineapple wine?

Well, we're at 3 weeks and a day as of today. St. Patty's day is this weekend and all of my carboys are taken up. Only one I have is to be used for the transfer to secondary for this wine on Monday. Debating if I should go pick up another carboy from the LHBS. Hmmmmm....

On a note about the actual wine... It's clearing up real nicely. Only the top 3 inches, or so I'd say, thus far is really clear but at least it's progress. I have a good cake on the bottom which is promising because after transfer I'm going to use the cake for some Skeeter Pee. I'm planning on giving this as gifts to the family at my wedding on May 12th. Should be cleared and bottled by then... I hope :cross: I'll just have to be sure to give them ageing instructions or something along with it.