OnTap Magazine

FEATURE TEPACHE Recipe courtesy of Nick Grenfell - homebrewer This recipe is based loosely on Mexican Tepache – better known in South Africa as pineapple beer. It was really made in MALTYEAST POODLE WITBIER Recipe courtesy of Paul Freysen, owner of The Kennel Brewery Makes 25 litres; 4.5% ABV; 13 IBUs INGREDIENTS 3.5kg pale malt 2.5kg wheat malt 500g oats 20g crushed coriander 40g orange peel 28g Hallertau Hersbrucker 11.5g SafAle™ WBO6 yeast If you’re new to homebrewing, there’s no better place to start than to contact your local homebrewing club. Most clubs meet at least once every two months, although while lockdown restrictions are in place, the best place to find advice and assistance is on their online forums. the spirit of rebellion rather than out of necessity!  I was not, however, going to use baker’s yeast to produce a complete supermarket special.  INGREDIENTS 4 pineapples 1kg brown sugar 8-9 litres filtered water 2 small cinnamon sticks brewer’s yeast (optional) HOW TO MAKE IT Chop up the pineapples and add the flesh and skins to a fermenter or sanitised bucket. The skins will provide wild yeast for fermentation.  Add the water, sugar and cinnamon. I encouraged the fermentation process by adding a tiny quantity of Kveik Ragnarok yeast (maybe 5ml) that was left in the bottom of a jar after pitching into something else. Ferment at about 20°C for six days – taste from day four onwards to check for desired level of sweetness. If you have it, you could add ½ teaspoon of potassium metabisulphite to stop fermentation. Cold crash for 24 hours, keg and carbonate. Tepache can also be served uncarbonated. The pineapple chunks taste terrible after fermentation so I would not encourage anyone to do anything other than throw them in the bin.  I made no attempt to measure the ABV accurately - the starting gravity from the sugar alone would have been around 1.036.  The fermentable sugars in the pineapple are about 10% by weight which might add 7-8 gravity points.  I stopped fermentation when I was happy with the sweetness level and did not measure the final gravity.  My guess is that it is around 3.5- 4.0% ABV. SA HOMEBREW CLUBS EASTERN CAPE Yeastern Cape Brew Club facebook.com/yeasterncape FREE STATE Free State Fermenters (Bloemfontein) facebook.com/groups/305132382867636 GAUTENG Wort Hogs worthogbrewers.co.za KZN Durban Homebrewers www.durbanhomebrewers.com East Coast Brewers facebook.com/groups/ eastcoastbrewers HOW TO MAKE IT Crush the malt. Mash in at 68 °C for 60 minutes. Sparge with 74°C water until you get to 27 litres (give or take, depending on your boil-off rate). Once wort reaches a rolling boil, add the hops (at 60 minutes). Add coriander and orange peel at flame out. Cool wort down to 28°C. Pitch yeast and let it ferment at 24°C for eight days. BREWER TIPS NORTH WEST Hartbeespoort Brewers facebook.com/groups/ hartbeespoortbrewers WESTERN CAPE Coastal Brewers (St Helena Bay) facebook.com/groups/CoastalBrewers Eden Brewers (Garden Route) facebook.com/edenbrewers Helderberg Brewers facebook.com/groups/helderberghomebrew SouthYeasters (Cape Town) southyeasters.co.za Wijnland Homebrewers Club facebook.com/wijnlandhomebrewers 16 | Winter 2020 | ontapmag.co.za