Pineapple Pale Ale Recipe Critique

[davidg410]

Just threw this together. It's 104 degrees outside, so refreshing was on the brain:

Partial Mash - Palo Duro Pineapple Pale Ale

5# American Two-Row
2# Extra Light DME
1# Crystal 60L
1oz Amarillo 60min
.5oz Amarillo 30min
.5oz Amarillo 20min
.5oz Amarillo 10min
.5oz Amarillo 5min
.5oz Amarillo Dry
1oz Hallertau Dry

5 lbs fresh cut pineapple in secondary for 7 days.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[h-bar]

Have you worked with pineapple before?

 

[Chromebrew]

Ive heard bad things about fermenting them... But i love pineapple and would love to encorporate this flavor as well.

My plan is to carb up a Kona Fire Rock PA clone to about 10 and then release the pressure. Then crush up an over ripe pineapple and mix it into the carbed beer. Re pressurize, shake it up and serve.

 

[motorneuron]

Cool idea. I for one haven't actually used pineapple before, although I have been wondering how it would work in a light beer like this. I do have a few questions/notes.

What yeast were you considering here?

I like amarillo as your hop choice.

Bear in mind that the pineapple will add a lot of acidity, and the sweetness will almost entirely dissipate. So consider whether you want a lot of hoppy bitterness alongside the pineapple's acidity. If it were me, I would move virtually every single hop addition to the last five or ten minutes and keep the IBUs low, as I did in my guava pale ale recipe: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f75/guava-belgian-pale-ale-417939/ That worked out well, and I think higher bitterness would have clashed with the acid. Of course, if you want something that is more like an APA, you might not want to move all the hops that late, since it won't be bitter. But bitter+sour in the same beer might not be pleasant.

Looks like pineapple is about 10% sugar by mass: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/2019/2 So keep in mind that 5 lbs of pineapple is about the same as 500g, or about a pound, of sugar. I'm sure almost all of that sugar is simple and will be fermented. Bottom line, it'll up the ABV.

 

[davidg410]

Have you worked with pineapple before?

I've never worked with pineapple, but i'm going to taste daily to make sure i don't get any funk from the sugars fermenting.

I've worked with oranges before and didn't have an issue. We'll see.

 

[davidg410]

Cool idea. I for one haven't actually used pineapple before, although I have been wondering how it would work in a light beer like this. I do have a few questions/notes.

What yeast were you considering here?

I like amarillo as your hop choice.

Bear in mind that the pineapple will add a lot of acidity, and the sweetness will almost entirely dissipate. So consider whether you want a lot of hoppy bitterness alongside the pineapple's acidity. If it were me, I would move virtually every single hop addition to the last five or ten minutes and keep the IBUs low, as I did in my guava pale ale recipe: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f75/guava-belgian-pale-ale-417939/ That worked out well, and I think higher bitterness would have clashed with the acid. Of course, if you want something that is more like an APA, you might not want to move all the hops that late, since it won't be bitter. But bitter+sour in the same beer might not be pleasant.

Looks like pineapple is about 10% sugar by mass: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/2019/2 So keep in mind that 5 lbs of pineapple is about the same as 500g, or about a pound, of sugar. I'm sure almost all of that sugar is simple and will be fermented. Bottom line, it'll up the ABV.

I'm going to use Safale US05. I use it a lot and have good results.

I want some bitterness, so maybe i'll cut the 60 min hops in half and pull those 30 min and 20 min additions closer to the end of the boil.

 

[h-bar]

I'm going to add pineapple to my the secondary of my next batch, and so far I haven't talked to anyone who has actually used it themselves. Trial and error it is, I guess!

 

[sagnew440]

A guy in my brew club makes a pineapple pale. He throws the pineapple in a food processer then strains the pulp out. He only adds the juice. If you keg, that's when he adds it. If you bottle your gonna need to let it ferment out. It makes a tasty beer. Oh yeah, Use the Ripest/Sweetest pineapples you can find. It makes a big difference.

 

[tgmartin000]

Add a little citra too, it'll enhance the tropical flavor.

 

[davidg410]

A guy in my brew club makes a pineapple pale. He throws the pineapple in a food processer then strains the pulp out. He only adds the juice. If you keg, that's when he adds it. If you bottle your gonna need to let it ferment out. It makes a tasty beer. Oh yeah, Use the Ripest/Sweetest pineapples you can find. It makes a big difference.

Do you know how much he uses? The juice from an entire pineapple?

I'm starting to think this is going to give me better results than adding the pineapple to the secondary allowing for more fermentation.

 

[davidg410]

Revised recipe:

5# American Two-Row
2# Extra Light DME
1# Crystal 60L
1oz Amarillo 15min
1.5oz Amarillo 10min
.5oz Amarillo 7min
.5oz Amarillo 5min
.5oz Amarillo Dry
1oz Hallertau Dry

Clarified pineapple (1 whole) puree added directly to keg.

This cut my IBU's in half, down to 30. ABV at 4.5%

 

[motorneuron]

That looks good to me.

Just be aware that adding the puree from the pineapple will add some fermentable sugar--a rough guess is about 100g, or 3.5 oz or so--which will be fermented and increase carbonation of the final beer.

 

[davidg410]

That looks good to me.

Just be aware that adding the puree from the pineapple will add some fermentable sugar--a rough guess is about 100g, or 3.5 oz or so--which will be fermented and increase carbonation of the final beer.

This is going straight to keg, so the yeast should go to sleep before it starts to get after those pineapple sugars.

 

[motorneuron]

Just fyi, that's a dancing banana, not a pineapple. Good point though. Time for another cup of coffee!

 

[davidg410]

I ended up just adding 24 ounces of organic pineapple juice when I kegged. The flavor profile and mouth feel changed changed a ton from day 7 to day 12 on gas. This turned out to be very creamy and very balanced. I'm glad I only went 24 ounces instead of the whole 32 oz bottle, because the pineapple flavor was just enough.

Here's the final recipe:
5# American Two-Row
2# Extra Light DME
1# Crystal 60L
1oz Amarillo 15min
1.5oz Amarillo 10min
.5oz Amarillo 7min
.5oz Amarillo 5min
1 Safale US-05
.5oz Amarillo Dry
1oz Hallertau Dry
24 oz Organic Pineapple Juice - Keg