Pineapple wine?

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Unferth

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At one point in the not so distant past, I fermented pineapple juice and apple juice together to a dry, low abv wine/cider (If I recall it was about 7%). To be perfectly blunt, it was horrendous, and aging actually seemed to hurt it. My palate quivers at the mention of it.

I was suspicious, perhaps even downright antagonistic, towards the idea of fermenting pineapples. I even actively campaigned against making pineapple homebrew on this very forum and the cider forum.

More recently, however, I was given a bottle of Maui Blanc: http://store.mauiwine.com/maui-blanc-p4.aspx

I'm having a glass right now and it is, I'm surprised to say, pretty darn good. it is medium bodied, fresh and vaguely reminiscent of a German Reisling, with similar acidity levels. Definitively pineapple nose.

It has to be pretty young; they don't even give the date on the bottle. The gravity is 1.000, but it tastes sweeter than that.

Anyone had luck making pineapple wine?
 
I make Pineapple Wine about 6 times a year. In my opinion, you are correct in the fact it should be drank young. I used canned pineapple juice and raisins for a nutrient, only let it sit in the primary for 5 days, add my sugar in the form of syrup at 1 week intervals, when I splash rack. After I have added all my sugar, I splash rack every two weeks until 2 months have passed. I splash rack this because I am going to drink it young and I don't use any chemicals to stabilize it. The I just siphon it into bottles and refrigerate it. It is one of my favorites, but it can be a little high maintenance at first.
 
I have yet to tackle pineapple wine, but I frequently make tepache. Have a ripe pineapple on my countertop just waiting for my attention.
I did stumble across 4# cans of Dole pineapple at Costco for $3, so I grabbed five of them and will eventually give it a whirl.
 
I make Pineapple Wine about 6 times a year. In my opinion, you are correct in the fact it should be drank young. I used canned pineapple juice and raisins for a nutrient, only let it sit in the primary for 5 days, add my sugar in the form of syrup at 1 week intervals, when I splash rack. After I have added all my sugar, I splash rack every two weeks until 2 months have passed. I splash rack this because I am going to drink it young and I don't use any chemicals to stabilize it. The I just siphon it into bottles and refrigerate it. It is one of my favorites, but it can be a little high maintenance at first.

I always love hearing about your wine making processes, MzAnnie. Do you take readings on this? How much sugar (est.) do you add? Yeast? I'm guessing you ferment it out dry?

This is now on my list!
:ban:
 
I always love hearing about your wine making processes, MzAnnie. Do you take readings on this? How much sugar (est.) do you add? Yeast? I'm guessing you ferment it out dry?

This is now on my list!
:ban:

Oh my word, I am going to get boos from the audience, but here goes. I have a hydrometer, but it gives me a headache to use it. I am allergic to math. I use four to five cups of sugar per gallon of juice depending on taste, in simple syrup (4 cups to 1 pint of water). We like semi-sweet wine, but I did a dry elderberry and it was very tasty. I use Red Star champagne for pineapple. Usually my input is limited as far as the process of wine making goes, because I do it the way my family has done it for years. Although, I have learned alot on this site, I have yet to implement the hydrometer, and other wonderful knowledge that I have gained. As far as fermenting to dry, I go by the "dusting of lees" (I use balloons, not airlocks), but with the pineapple, it gets bottled at two months, because I think it is a rather tempermental wine. It is clear enough for me to drink and it tastes very good. Thank you for the compliment! :)
 
MzAnnie said:
Oh my word, I am going to get boos from the audience, but here goes. I have a hydrometer, but it gives me a headache to use it. I am allergic to math. I use four to five cups of sugar per gallon of juice depending on taste, in simple syrup (4 cups to 1 pint of water). We like semi-sweet wine, but I did a dry elderberry and it was very tasty. I use Red Star champagne for pineapple. Usually my input is limited as far as the process of wine making goes, because I do it the way my family has done it for years. Although, I have learned alot on this site, I have yet to implement the hydrometer, and other wonderful knowledge that I have gained. As far as fermenting to dry, I go by the "dusting of lees" (I use balloons, not airlocks), but with the pineapple, it gets bottled at two months, because I think it is a rather tempermental wine. It is clear enough for me to drink and it tastes very good. Thank you for the compliment! :)

Math using a hydrometer?? It is a measuring tool like a tape measure, not a calculator.

It is simple. Add sugar until you reach 1.090 and you'll have 11.5% alcohol every time.

Also, can you explain how splash racking enabled you to drink earlier? I'm not criticizing you, just trying to understand your method.

I would think, especially if your are not adding any sulfites, you would not want to intentionally expose your wine to large amounts of air.
 
Math using a hydrometer?? It is a measuring tool like a tape measure, not a calculator.

It is simple. Add sugar until you reach 1.090 and you'll have 11.5% alcohol every time.

Also, can you explain how splash racking enabled you to drink earlier? I'm not criticizing you, just trying to understand your method.

I would think, especially if your are not adding any sulfites, you would not want to intentionally expose your wine to large amounts of air.

As far as the math part, I was in construction for 20 years. The hardest part of my job, was reading the tape. It is a dyslexic thing with numbers, I transpose them. It really does give me a headache, you should have seen when my husband and I gutted our house....I measure 500 times and cut 50. :( Fortunately for me, I have other superpowers! :) Spash racking is just how I strain my wine, that is the way I was taught. I don't think it enables me to drink it sooner, because after two months, if there are no lees it goes in to the bottle and into the fridge. I have let some get completely clear, but my husband and I will drink the same wine until it is finished (1 pint a day) then bottle another. I always try and let people know that my method is not for fine wines. Just good drinkable hooch. Not like the Carmel Apple wine I am drinking now, I made the fatal error of using cane syrup and I do not like that taste at all! Although I really like reading how the experts do it, I just like simple. With the pineapple, because it is so finiky, and every thing that I have read about it not turning out, makes me think that it is not a good candidate for aging. I will have to try on my next five gallon batch to use the hydrometer...maybe I'll take a couple of excedrins first! :)
 
Math hurts my head too. That's why god invented homebrew calculators.

Splash racking would eliminate some Co2 in the wine, thus enabling quicker bottling.

I've had some good experience recently with Vintner's Harvest Cy17 Fruit Wine yeast, So I might give this a shot with that yeast.

It seems like a waste to not make pineapple wine there is so much cheap pineapple juice available.
 
Math hurts my head too. That's why god invented homebrew calculators.

Splash racking would eliminate some Co2 in the wine, thus enabling quicker bottling.

I've had some good experience recently with Vintner's Harvest Cy17 Fruit Wine yeast, So I might give this a shot with that yeast.

It seems like a waste to not make pineapple wine there is so much cheap pineapple juice available.

This is my recipe and it should be ready in 2 months, give or take a few days.
3 cans of dole pineapple juice
2 1/2 cups of sugar dissolved in half gallon of distilled water
Let sit overnight before pitching yeast starter.
Rack after 5 days add 2 cups of simple syrup (4 cup sugar dissolved in 1 pint of distilled water)
Rack after a week, add simple syrup to taste, I added 1 cup.
Rack every two weeks until you have hit around the two month period. I know it is a lot of racking, but if it sits on any lees it is NASTY. For some reason I want to think I used raisins in one batch and tasted a little more alcoholy, but it ended up being good. This is not a fine wine by a connisuers' standard, but it is one of my favorites, and the only white wine I make any more.
 
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