Pineapple Beer

We’ve been wanting to make pineapple beer for a while now so when Thandi, our cleaning manager, said she regularly makes home-brews for her husband we took the opportunity and got her to help us…. And there’s not much to it- you just need patience… And a few other things of course.

What you need:

2kg sugar
1 pineapple (use with skin-apparently skin contains yeast)
18 liters of clean water
Big container (we used a 20 liter plastic container that has a lid)
Cheese cloth to filter beer
Funnel (we made our own with top of 2 liter Sprite bottle)
Container to store beer in once done – We have a 25 liter one with a tap which is quite convenient

Method

1. Cut a well-washed pineapple into slices. Keep skin on because it is essential in the fermentation process. Pour 2kg of sugar onto pineapple in your large container.

2. Keep the container in cupboard/storage area for 2-3 days. (You’ll see a liquid form after a while.)

3. Add 18 liters of clean water and put back in your storage area for 10-14 days. Don’t open the lid a lot as this introduces new bacteria and can disturb the process…. According to Thandi, an expert in this, if you want pineapple mampoer (which is a really strong alcoholic drink you keep it in the cupboard for a month or more… But we weren’t that daring or that patient.)

4. After 10-13 days remove beer from storage. Take big pieces of pineapple out and filter the beer through a cheese cloth into the clean container.

5. Keep beer cool and serve with ice.

We estimated the beer to be about 3-4% alcohol… We worked this out with how people felt after drinking a glass or two. Antonie said he felt slightly light-headed after 500mls, but Marc said he didn’t feel anything after 1,5 liters. So actually we are pretty clueless about the alcohol content…. It tastes good though and is very satisfying.

“Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.”