Pineapple Beer???

[extremejm]

Has anyone ever made a pineapple beer? If so, what would you change if anything and how did you prepare the pineapples?

My neighbor's son enjoys the science of homebrewing and he wanted to know if I would make a Pineapple beer... Always up for a challenge I said "SURE!" but now I'm wondering how it would actually play out. I'm considering taking Jamil's Wheat recipe from BYO and substituting Pineapple for the Apricots.

Can anyone think of good reasons why Pineapple wouldn't mesh with a fairly non-descript wheat?

[markaberrant]

I think you'd have to add a lot to get any impact. I would try 2lbs/gallon. A friend of mine made a pineapple mead, he used 1 whole pineapple, and it was good, but you couldn't even tell there was pineapple in it.

[iahebert]

I'd think go to Trader Joes, buy some good frozen pineapple, like 2 bags worth, and then rack the wheat onto the pineapple in secondary. I did this with a raspberry beer, and it worked out fantastic.

Not sure how the pineapple would work though. Keep us posted!

[extremejm]

How large was the batch of mead? A pineapple is only about a pound.

I'm going to brew the wheat this weekend. I was thinking of starting with 1lb/gal just because pineapple is $4.99/lb... UGH.

I know about Trader Joes because a friend of mine lives in Seattle but we don't have any here in Florida. We've got beaches lined with tan women; does that count? ;)

I'll keep you all informed after I make it. Hopefully it doesn't suck. At $100 for a 10g brew, this is the most expensive brew I've ever made.

[iahebert]

I know about Trader Joes because a friend of mine lives in Seattle but we don't have any here in Florida. We've got beaches lined with tan women; does that count? ;)
HA! I'd say yes. Sounds way better than this crazy Seattle winter.


I'll keep you all informed after I make it. Hopefully it doesn't suck. At $100 for a 10g brew, this is the most expensive brew I've ever made.
Ouch! you're a brave soul for spending that much on some beer. I'll send all the good luck I can your way.

[extremejm]

Any ideas on how to account for the water in the pineapples? If I put in 10 lbs of pineapple that would be a significant portion of water.

Also, I was going to get fresh pineapples, core and cut them, then put them into the secondary a day before hand and add something like potassium sorbate to prevent any further fermentation. Of course does that mean that bottling will be out of the question?

[JayShaw91]

It does mean that bottle conditioning won't work. Your yeast won't like you after the potassium sorbate is added.

[extremejm]

Yeah, I figured that would probably be the case. Do you think that I could get away with less pineapple by adding the PS?

Also, I still don't know about accounting for the extra water in the pineapples.

[jjpm74]

You can get quite a bit of pineapple phenols out of certain strains of brett. That's another possible avenue to explore.

[JayShaw91]

I'd stick with the fruit and not mess with the brett only because it may send the beer in a really different direction than intented.

[Mad Scientist]

Yeah, I figured that would probably be the case. Do you think that I could get away with less pineapple by adding the PS?

Also, I still don't know about accounting for the extra water in the pineapples.

Hmm...puree the pinapple and freeze before brewing. When you do that, you'll have a ballpark idea of how much total volume that the pineapple will take up. Since it is a pretty watery fruit, figure 50 to 60% solids. Adjust your brewing volume for there, so that you are topping up with pineapple puree. I might pasturize though.

[Beer Martin]

I'd scale back to a 5 gallon batch, if I were doing this. I'd hate too see you throw down $100 and end up with something that's detestable (either overly sour, or just off putting). You can always redo it if it turns out well.

Cutting, mashing, and Pasteurizing 10 pounds of pineapple should be a hilarious endeavor. Be sure to take some photos.

Good luck. I hope it works out well. I've been kicking around the idea of pineapples and bananas myself. I'm pretty sure pineapples would work well, but I'm not sure bananas would. Maybe a coconut banana wit? To me it sounds good.

I also have an avocado tree. I haven't even begun to understand how avocado beer would taste.
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[extremejm]

It's been a while but I thought I would update this. The Pineapple Beer came out AWESOME. yes, pasteurizing 10lbs of pineapple was a bit humorous but it worked out very well... so well I won a silver medal in a good sized competition.

Here's what I did.

1. I bought 10 pre-cored/skinned pineapples from Publix (way too expensive.. next time i'll wait until they're in season at 1/2 price)
2. I cut up the cores into pieces and put them in a blender set to puree.
3. I put the puree into a large cooking pot (it was to the very top...) and set a thermometer in there and stirred it frequently until the thermometer read a constant 160.
4. I washed and sanitized the plastic containers that the Pineapple came in so that I could pour the puree into the containers equally. (actually spooned it in)
5. I rinsed the now full containers and put them in the freezer to await the secondary.

Believe it or not, it wasn't that tough, just tedious as I'm a stickler for sanitation.

Once the beer reached the final gravity (and actually I was a little short by .002) I thawed out the pineapple and poured it into a sanitized carboy and racked the beer on top. NOTE: YOU WILL LOSE AN EASY GALLON OF BEER DUE TO THE PINEAPPLE'S INABILITY TO SETTLE OUT.

A secondary fermentation kicked off (albeit briefly) and my final gravity was now SPOT ON. (not sure why but it must have reenergized the yeast to consume those .002 of sugars.

I also cold conditioned it for two weeks prior to kegging (wanted the pineapple to settle out as much as possible)

This was one of the best beers I've made and the biggest ding I got in the competition was that they wanted to see more Pineapple in the finished product (although I think it was plenty).

I'll definitely do this beer again, but I'll definitely wait until the price of Pineapples comes down... :)

Jim

[Mad Scientist]

Whatr was the base recipe?

If you want more flavor in the beer, gives the new Citra hop variety a shot...very tropical fruity.

[splocal]

Nice! I was thinking about doing a pineapple lager that sounds delicious!

[extremejm]

Whatr was the base recipe?

If you want more flavor in the beer, gives the new Citra hop variety a shot...very tropical fruity.

The base was Jamil's base for his Apricot Wheat

9lb 10oz - Breiss Pale Ale (2 row) Domestic
9lb 10oz - Weyermann Wheat German
1.6 oz Pellet Willamette Hops(5%)
Wyeast 50ml 1010 American Wheat (Made a 2000mL starter, decanted to 1600mL)

I think if I had to change anything, it would mainly be the grain bill. I would do 10lbs of wheat, 7 of 2row and throw a couple lbs of pilsner malt in for complexity and head retention. I thought about adding another hop addition at 15 minutes; nothing big, just to give a hint.

[extremejm]

Nice! I was thinking about doing a pineapple lager that sounds delicious!


Thanks, it is! But I warn you now... it WILL go fast. (I hid a keg from my neighbors...)

"Nope, sorry guys, it's all gone..." heh heh heh...