Pineapple Wine

[K&GB]

Gina and I were strolling through Sam's Club the other day when we came across a big display of Maui pineapples. She mentioned that I had never made pineapple wine, and that was all the encouragement I needed.

I grabbed seven pineapples and hit up Jack Keller's website for a recipe when I got home. I don't have a scale, but I estimate I wound up with seven pounds of fruit after cutting it all up. (Boy did the acid irritate my hands later that evening and the next day.)

I stuffed the pineapple chuncks into a strainer bag and mashed the juice out as best I could. Here's the recipe I adapted.


Fruit- 7 lbs Pectic enzyme- 1 tsp
Sugar- 3-1/2 lbsTannin- 1/2 tsp
Water- 12 pints Yeast Nutrient- 2 tsp
Acid blend- 1 tsp Yeast EC-1118
K-meta- 1/8 tsp


Here's my recipe notes. (please don't laugh too hard.)

Boiled 7 pints water and dissolved 2 lbs sugar. Added to fruit. Added all remaining ingredients except yeast. Used 3 lbs more fruit than recipe called for. Decided must could tolerate more water without becoming too diluted.Boiled another 5 pints of water and dissolved another pound of sugar. Checked SG the next morning and added another 1/2 lb sugar to get 1.086. Checked acid. Only read .4 but unsure if test is accurate due to different type of acid in pineapples. Added another 1/2 tsp acid blend for a total of 1 tsp. Did not perform another acid check at this time. Added yeast morning of 9-7-08.


9-9-08 SG 1.012 transferred to secondary (3-gal carboy) and squeezed fruit juice out of bag. Discarded bag but retained lees.


9-19-08 SG .992 racked off of lees back into primary. Stabilized with 3 campden tablets and 1-1/4 tsp K-sorbate. Degassed for several minutes, then added Super Kleer. Transferred totwo 1-gal jugs,one 750ml bottle and one 375 ml bottle.

 

[Wade E]

Sounds good. Is this a 3 gallon batch? Most recipes call for 3 lbs of fruit so if this is 3 gallon then you are not far from it.

 

[K&GB]

It started as a roughly 3-gal batch, butit ended up as pictured below.

1 day after Super KleerEdited by: K&GB

 

[Waldo]

Looks great.how does it taste at this point?

 

[K&GB]

Waldo,


Not good, but I sniffed and tasted it prior to degassing. Pretty harsh.

I'll rack it again next week and then let it sit a couple of months before tasting and racking again. I'm sure it'll come around.


I plan to back sweeten it later. I remember trying dry pineapple wine at Tedeschi Vineyards on Maui about ten years ago. Didn't much care for it, but their sweet pineapple/passion fruit wine was a big hit. Maui Splash, I think they called it.


Ken

 

[uavwmn]

Ken & GB, yes, it is the Maui Splash. It was my favorite pineapple wine when I was living in Honolulu.

 

[First250]

That's a beautiful color.Makes me wanttostart my own batch, but I don't havetannin. Does anyone know of a substitute for tannin?

 

[Wade E]

White raisins or Welches White grape juice will you the extra body that a Pineapple will need.

 

[K&GB]

UAV,


We were stationed at Kaneohe Bay from '96 to'99. We visited Maui often and took theTedeschi Vineyardswinery tour several times. It was my first winery tour and marked the beginning of my interest/education in wine making. Seems like every time a family member would visit us in Hawaii, I'd rent a plane and fly us over to Maui for the day. I always insisted these excursions included atour of Tedeschi.

The Maui Splash was available on base at K-Bay. It was Gina's favorite. Good times and great memories.

 

[K&GB]

Wade,


Are you saying I should back sweeten with white grape juice, or should I have added it prior to fermentation?


Ken

 

[Wade E]

I was referring to 1st250 looking for a sub. for tannin.

 

[K&GB]

Gotcha, thanks.

 

[Wade E]

If it needs more flavor with the sweetening I would reduce some Dole pineapple juice on the stove to do that.

 

[uavwmn]

Ken & GB, I was working for JICPAC from 95 to 99. Lived over there close to the Oahu stadium.
Unfortunutely I wasn't "into" wine at the time.

But I played alot of golf and softball and Maui was an island we played on a couple of times.


A good Navy retired friend of mine who was a maintenance officer for the P-3's lives on K Bay.
AND K Bay Navy base has an awesome golf course.


sigh........I miss Hawaii.....

 

[K&GB]

I racked the pineapple wine off the lees today and back-sweetened with sugar syrup. Prior to sweetening it tasted pretty awful. Now it tastes...hmm how do I describe it? Flat. Dull. It reminds me of the mandarin orange I made awhile back that I hated. Similar bouquet. Anyway, without doing an acid test, I'm guessing that's what it needs. Which to me seems counter-intuitive. Pineapple gives me ulcers in my mouth if I eat too much and burns my skin if I handle it too much. Seems like it should be very acidic.
I had a glass left over after racking today, so I chilled it and sprinkled a pinch of acid blend in it. That perked it up some. Does anyone know if that's normal for pineapple wine?


Ken

 

[K&GB]

I was looking for this thread today and noticed that I never followed up. This At 8 months old, this wine is absolutely wonderful

and I only have 2 bottles left. So I brought home more pineapples and a can of pineapple juice and whipped up another batch today. This time I pureed the fruit in the blender cause I remember having trouble crushing it last time. This is one I'll probably repeat often.


Ken

 

[Wade E]

Yeh, its a great wine to sip with friends.

 

[Goodfella]

Are you going to change the recipe at all for this time around?

 

[K&GB]

I put in a quart of pineapple juice this time and less water. I also added 3 tsp of acid blend based on my test that showed ~ .5% TA. Oh, and I witheld the tannin this time.

 

[smokegrub]

I have made pineapple wine using Welch's Concentrate. After 18 months in the bottle it tastes great. Tasted young it was horrible.