Pineapple Beer
Homemade Pineapple Beer is a refreshing South-African traditional drink. Non-alcoholic or leave the Beer to ferment longer to make an alcoholic version
Images and some text updated April 2020
Pineapple Beer is another South-African traditional recipe. I remember my parents (and maybe even my grandparents) making this regularly.
My hubby also grew up with this, but neither one of us have ever made it ourselves until recently.
We had a hot and mostly dry Summer with the temperatures only decreasing now, therefore I tried out lots of homemade recipes for all kinds of drinks.
I came across a recipe for Pineapple Beer, and whilst it did not look right to me, I suddenly remembered this delightful drink from my childhood.
That opened up a whole lot of searching and reading which became very confusing after a while. One thing I can not get the grasp of, is … this might be a beer in the full sense of being alcoholic !
I know what you must be thinking now ! How could our parents (and I’m talking about the majority of South-Africans) give us alcoholic beverages?
Is Pineapple Beer alcoholic or non-alcoholic ?
Simple answer? No, I don’t know. What I do know is that this recipe definitely did not make us tipsy, drunk or even feeling that way in the slightest.
It could very well be that the longer you leave the beer to ferment the bigger the chances are that it may turn alcoholic. I am talking 5 plus days and longer.
Pineapple Beer is not for sale in stores. Except for some home industry shops (and small stores in the country side) we had as kids.
Non-Alcoholic is just fine for us, and it is a delicious, refreshing drink which I will now continue to make.
~~ PIN To Your Favorite Pinterest Board ~~
More Drink recipes you might like:
- Sparkling Mint Lemonade
- Mint and Pomegranate Apple Sipper
- Apple and Ginger Cooler
- Milktart Shooters
- Minty Mojito
Pineapple Beer
Pineapple Beer
Ingredients
- 2 Pineapples leaves chopped off and the peel scrubbed clean
- 24 cups Luke Warm Water 6 liters
- 5 cups White Sugar
- 1 cup Raisins slightly bruised
- 2 ½ t Instant Dry Yeast
Instructions
- Chop the Pineapples, peel and all, roughly
- Place all the ingredients, except the Yeast, in a large, clean plastic container – I used a 10 liter bucket
- Sprinkle the Yeast over – leave a minute and then give the mixture a good stir-through
- Use a piece of Tulle (or something similar) to close over the top of the bucket – secure with string or a rubber band – DO NOT CLOSE WITH A LID – as the mixture will ferment
- Leave in a dark place (cabinet is great) for 72 hours – stirring twice a day
- Strain and bottle the beer, but only put the caps on after 12 hours – keep chilled and serve as is with ice
I made mine similar to this with the exception that I made double the batch, used brown sugar and placed the mixture, in a plastic Jerry can with the lid slightly loose to breath, in the sun for the first day and fermented for a total of 7 days. Yes, mine does let the knees feel it :-D. Making another batch today.
This is great stuff guys
I mixed it with a little Kool Sparkling juice by made Kingsley’s .
Was so refreshing after only 2 days
I just had to taste !
I was not aiming for a kick , just the taste of it .
But I will see after I bottle it .
Next post to follow ?
That’s great Rosie ! And yes, please do let us know how your Pineapple Beer turns out 🙂
Why is mine so bitter
There is a bit of a bitter after taste due to the yeast in the pineapple beer. It should not be over powering though :/
Back in the late seventies, when I was in my early teens, a friend and I, decided that we were going to make ourselves some pineapple beer. We had a rough idea of what to do, so we went ahead and made a batch…we bottled it in some empty coke bottles(they were glass in those days). Now not wanting to get caught by our parents,we decided to hide the bottles under our beds….. after a few days of much anticipation, both our households were woken up in middle of the night with loud explosions!!! Needless to say, we got into a lot of trouble, and our rooms stank of fermenting pineapples for ages afterwards!
I think, fourty odd years later, I’ll take a chance and try again….this time around, I’ll be sure to leave the lids off the bottles!!!
Oh my word, you gave me a good laugh now ! I can only imagine the smell, but one good thing is that you hid the (glass!) bottles under your beds and not in the open where it might have hurt someone 🙂
Made this many many years ago while at Rhodes University. You don’t need to add yeast, there is a natural yeast on the skin of the pineapple. Just leave it in a cupboard for minimum of 5 days. The longer you leave it the more alcoholic it becomes, but probably never more than 5 – 6%
So refreshing 😀
Pineapple beer has always been a traditional summer drink in our house, and it’s so nice to see other people also enjoy this refreshing drink.
Lovely blog 🙂
There is a wonderful pineapple beer called Tepache made in Mexico, made with pineapple, some dark brown sugar, water, cinnamon stick and a few cloves. No need for yeast as the wild yeasts in the peel will have it fermenting in a day.
Hi there, at last someone who knows what I had. I grew up in Port Alfred and pineapples were EVERYWHERE so we used mostly the peels of giants. NOW, I did so 2 days ago but I could not remember if we used boiling water or ordinary tap water. Each had his own bottle. So I poured boiling water over the peels and a lot of sugar. Do you think this was a mistake and will it still be drinkable. That’s all we used to do. The alcohol level were very low probably because even the kids made it. I’m scared now of my own pinapple beer. We never used raisins or yeast. It would fizz by itself??????
I'm Brazilian and my mother used to do it but without the yeast. It really reminded me of her. Thanks for sharing.
Congratulations!! Your recipe has been featured at Tasty Tuesdays 54 on my blog, Lori’s Culinary Creations. Hop on over and grab a feature button and link up your latest culinary creations. Congrats again.
Link- http://bit.ly/1jyG938
Lori
Huge pineapple fan and this looks/sounds fantastic. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
We hope to see you linking up with us, at Tell it To Me Tuesday, next week!
This really does sound good…really need to try this one!
Sounds refreshing! If you left the yeast out, maybe it wouldn't ferment – but would be just as good?
Will it turn out to become pineapple wine? In my home country, Malaysia, they do have a lot of food wine.. including coconut wine. but I have never seen this and also do not know that it is using instant yeast. Thanks for sharing with 4 seasons blog hop. pinned.
Interesting sounds refreshing!
I have never heard of pineapple beer, but now I want to try it! (Does it go with Mexican food? If so, please serve this when Mel and I show up for dinner!)
YUM!!! I had a friend whose Dad made alcoholic ginger beer and non alcoholic and you're right it's to do with the fermenting. Anyway we were about 15 and thirsty on a hot Summers day. We didn't know some were alcoholic and some weren't by the end of the day we were all sick and drunk. Quite funny looking back on it.