off to a shaky start on pineapple recipe. need advice.

[wyntheef]

I'm using the 6 gal pineapple recipe from this forum and I may have done something wrong, but don't know what unless I'm using the wrong size primary.

I got to the point where you add the remaining water (3.5 gal). I put in 1.5 gal and it's all the way to the top minus an inch. recipe says start with at least a 7.9 gal primary and I'm using the common white plastic beer and wine fermenter. I thought that was a 7.9. Isn't it?
Anyways, the sg checks at 1.60 because I still have 2 gal of water to add.
Is everything going to be ok until I can get a bigger primary to move it all into?

Steve

 

[djrockinsteve]

Probably okay for a day depending upon temperature. As the yeast starts to feed on the sugar it may bubble over. I think you started with a 6 gallon bucket.

I want to do a pineapple but have no more carboys now. Perhaps in a couple months.

 

[Wade E]

It was a little tight in mine but made it and the Pastuer red is a low foamer. Are you sure you weighed the fruit right and are adding only 5 1/2 gallons of water total? Does this say 7,9 on the bottom of this bucket cause some Beer making places sell 6 gallon buckets.

 

[wyntheef]

"As the yeast starts to feed on the sugar it may bubble over"

There isn't any yeast in it yet. Here's a copy of the recipe up to the point that I'm at.


6 Gallon recipe
18 lbs – Cored, Skinned, and Diced Pineapples
8 lbs – White Table Sugar
¼ tsp – K-Meta
6 tsp – Yeast Nutrient
3 tsp – Yeast Energizer
¼ tsp – Liquid Pectic Enzyme
1 tsp - Ascorbic Acid
1 - White Grape Concentrate
1 Sachet – Red Star Pasteur Red
5 ½ Gallons – Water
Pour 1 gallon of warm water in a 7.9 gallon primary bucket or bigger.
Add K-meta, Yeast Energizer, Yeast Nutrient, Grape Concentrate, and Ascorbic Acid and stir well. Put all fruit in fermenting bag and squeeze over primary to extract most of juices and then put bag in primary. Pour the 1 gallon of boiling water with all dissolved sugar over fruit. Fill the rest of the way with remainder of room temp water and check SG, it should have a SG of around 1.085 give or take a little, if more then add a little more water, if less then add a little more dissolved sugar in small amount of water as sugars from fruit can vary a little.

 

[wyntheef]

It was a little tight in mine but made it and the Pastuer red is a low foamer. Are you sure you weighed the fruit right and are adding only 5 1/2 gallons of water total? Does this say 7,9 on the bottom of this bucket cause some Beer making buckets are 6 gallon.

I'm using distilled water in gallon jugs.
I used (7) 2.5 lb packages of pineapple at sams club which actually should be a little light, but I didn't weigh it. I just accepted it would be an accurate weight.

http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=395599

the fermenter is the ropak white plastic. it says '6 gal to ring' which is 3 inches from the top. I just used this fermenter for my 6 gal kit and it was fine.

 

[djrockinsteve]

You should be good for a day till you get a bigger container. Can you gently mix it now then split the must between 2 buckets for now.

How many pineapples do you need to get 18 pounds of cored pealed pineapple?

 

[wyntheef]

By the way Wade, I was going to pm you about the yeast anyways, but since we're here already, the retailer only had red pasteur that was dated Dec. 09. He gave me 2 packs and when I asked about a substitute he gave me a pack of 'cote des blanks' which he said he is good for light fruit wines. Do you think I should use the outdated red or the other, or something else?
I'm still at least a day away from pitching yeast, but I don't think I could get any red pasteur by then.

 

[Wade E]

That might be the differene. Maybe my mistake as thats kind of the way I worded it. I bought 18 lbs of Pineapple and then cored it so I was most likely a little more shy then you are at this point but thays typically the way its done with most recipes. You weigh the fruit as is and then core and peel or whatever needs to be done. You could split some of this into the carboy youll be using, just sqeeze the fruit good so that lots of the juice is on the carboy also.

 

[Wade E]

Cotes Des Blanc is a good yeast also and Id bet it would even work as good or maye even better, The red was what I used as for some reason was all I had at the time I made this and it came out very good but it wsnt a yeast I would have normally choosen for it if I had a choice but since it came out so good I left it as was.

 

[wyntheef]

You should be good for a day till you get a bigger container. Can you gently mix it now then split the must between 2 buckets for now.

How many pineapples do you need to get 18 pounds of cored pealed pineapple?

I thought about using 2 containers, but I don't know if the mixture would be very consistent from one to the other.

I don't know about the pineapples, because of using the ones already cut up.

 

[Wade E]

Youll be blending them back together later anyway so sepearting them now for awhile wont matter.

 

[wyntheef]

That might be the differene. Maybe my mistake as thats kind of the way I worded it. I bought 18 lbs of Pineapple and then cored it so I was most likely a little more shy then you are at this point but thays typically the way its done with most recipes. You weigh the fruit as is and then core and peel or whatever needs to be done. You could split some of this into the carboy youll be using, just sqeeze the fruit good so that lots of the juice is on the carboy also.

Lack of experience rears it's ugly head again.
Sounds like I could be off quite a bit. I'm just wildly guessing at the weight of the leftovers, but 30 to even 50 percent seems possible.

Regardless, the must is in. So, would the best course of action now be to adjust the whole recipe? and if so, would I start with getting the sg to 1.085?
Kinda sounds like the mix could end up anywhere if I don't have a good idea of how much fruit.

 

[Wade E]

Yes, just adjust to 1.085, you wont be that far off. On another note, you should not be usinh distilled water for adding to primary, It has no minerals or 02 as that has been boiled off so you better add nutrient and energizer and aerate that good so that the yeast get some good oxygen.

 

[wyntheef]

Yes, just adjust to 1.085, you wont be that far off. On another note, you should not be usinh distilled water for adding to primary, It has no minerals or 02 as that has been boiled off so you better add nutrient and energizer and aerate that good so that the yeast get some good oxygen.

I didn't know that, but maybe the water won't be a problem. since I still have 2 or maybe even 3 gallons to add, I could use ?? tap water?? I'm on a well. Is that ok? I've been advised against using it before, but I think that was regarding topping up onto an already fermented wine. I use a brita filter for drinking water and it tastes very good. I could use that.

 

[Midwest Vintner]

well water should be ok. you want minerals in the wine to help the yeast ferment and multiply. you should be ok with added it now. i might put a tsp or 2 of nutrient/energizer to give the yeast some help.

 

[Winot]

Wyntheef,

I made a batch of pineapple wine last year - It works well.

In case this helps ... I fermented 3 fruit wines using exactly the same yeast (Red Star - Premier Curvee):

1) An Apricot must
2) A Pineapple must
3) A Strawberry must.

I found that the Pineapple must frothed and foamed much more than the other 2 musts, which seemed to point towards a propensity of pineapple to foam during fermentation. I don't know if any one else has noticed this ?

In my recipe for a 3 gallon batch of Pineapple wine (11.4 litres), I used 4 medium-large pineapples which yielded 4 litres of blended pineapple pulp, to which I added the segments 6 navel oranges.

Scaling this up to a 6 gallon recipe for comparison with what you and Wade used >> I used 4 litres of pineapple pulp for a 3 gallon recipe, so assuming an SG of just over 1 for the fruit pulp, 4 litres of pulp is 4kg(+) or 8.8 lbs(+). So doubling this for a 6 gallon recipe would mean 17.6 lbs (+) pineapple pulp. So am glad to see that the recipe I used has similar fruit content to what you guys have used !

 

[wyntheef]

First off, thanks to all of you for the help.

For better or worse, I downsized the batch. The quantities are off already so I figured the recipe is changing anyways.

Here's what I did in order.
Confirmed sg at 1.06. Pulled the pulp bag out and placed it in another container to make room. Put in 1 gallon of non-distilled water, stirred, siphoned off about 2 gallons of juice to get down below the 6 gallon mark, then started adjusting the sg with sugar dissolved in small amount of water to adjust the sg, then put the pulp bag back in. So, in terms of quantity, the primary is about where it should be at this stage, and I have about 2 gallons of juice left over.

This means that I have 8 gallons of juice from 4 1/2 gallons of water, 12 lbs of sugar and the remainder coming from the pineapple, however the recipe calls for 6 gallons of juice from 5 1/2 gallons of water, 8 lbs of sugar and the remainder from fruit.

It seems to me that the juice to water ratio is heavy on the juice side. Is this ok? Just means more flavor, right?
As far as sugar, it seems like a lot, but does it even matter? Because that's just a result of getting the sg where it should be, as the juice wasn't sweet enough. (meaning I would have had to add more sugar even if quantities weren't off.)

My plan at this point is to add another 3 tsp nutrient and 1 1/2 tsp energizer to the primary, continue with the recipe, and give the 2 gallons of almost ready juice to a friend who makes wine. (simply to stay with a basic 6 gallon batch.)

Comments? Suggestions? Thanks everyone!

Steve

 

[wyntheef]

balancing needed now?

Is there anything I should check before pitching yeast to get this balanced?

 

[Madriver Wines]

Maybe I can answer a couple questions. The filtered water is all I use with the mind set of quality quality quality. The amount of sugar doesnt matter except to get the correct starting SG. Did you settle on using 2 primaries? I have done that a couple times with good results. It all goes into one secondary anyway. Unless I missed something you are ready to pitch the yeast.

 

[Wade E]

I should adjust my recipe section to explain that when i make a fruit wine that t is usually designed to end up as 6 gallons not fall on the 6 gallon mark at the start. When ever making a wine from scratch you should be doing this, hece the fact I dont say fill to 6 gallon mark on primary. I will adjust my area to state this fact. Most of my recipes do fit in a 7.9 bucket but some of them are older and I may have split a coulple like the crab apples, that one I know would not fit in 1 bucket. Anytime you are making 6 gallon batch and using fruit you will be pushing the limits of a 7.9 gallon buckets, more so with fruits that require more lbs per gallon. Sugars will always vary considerable from fresh to canned and even from fresh to fresh. It all depends on when the fruit is picked and the region it is grown in as some areas let the fruit grow longer developing more sugar. If you have the ability to check the acidity then do so or just go by taste.