Pineapple Wine - The Making Of ...

Claire's birthday is rapidly approaching. It is an irritating time of year to celebrate a loved-one's birth. Christmas has only just left the stage, and now I have to put my mind to further gifts. In bed on Friday night I announced that I would be going into town the following day, 5th January, to buy pineapples for this month's wine. There was an 'ahem' from Claire, so I added "and presents for you, of course".

So, on Saturday I made my way into Leeds and went immediately to find the price of pineapples in Kirkgate Market. There were two stalls selling them at 'two for a pound', which sounded reasonable to me. I started fondling fruit at one of the stalls when I heard a tut behind me. A West Indian woman was frowning. She told me the pineapples were no good - they had evidence of frost (a thin grey sheen on some of the bumps) and I should not buy them. I asked her opinion of the other stall. "Worse". However, I needed pineapples, so I waited until she went away and bought two from each seller.

One of the 'Worse' pineapples

I started the wine on Sunday, 6th January, meaning to use the webcam on my computer to record this process so I could put a video up on this blog. I abandoned the idea when I could find no way of pausing the recording.

Pineapple pieces in the pan

Each pineapple was tasted, and three of the four were fine. The fourth wasn't particularly sweet or flavoursome, but was not actively nasty. I sliced each of the pineapples into circles, discarding only the very top and bottom, but leaving on the skin. The circles were less that a centimetre thick. I quartered each circle, put these in a pan and poured in three-and-a-half pints of water. This was brought to the boil and I simmered it for half an hour. With the help of Claire, a ladle and a colander I poured the liquid over 2 lbs 12 oz sugar and put the pineapple pieces back in the pan. These I covered with 4 pints of cold water, and left them for a few hours, before transferring the liquid into the bucket.

I added a sachet of champagne yeast (SB7 variety), 2 teaspoons of citric acid and a teaspoon each of pectolase and nutrient the following day. It all went into the demijohn on Friday, 11th January, shortly after I had spoken to Rachael (my sister) to wish her luck. She is currently having contractions.

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If you want to see how this wine tasted (and it is worth it) click here