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Alcoholic drinks from Hawaii

Pineapple wine (Maui Blanc and Asian pineapple wines)

Pineapple wine is pineapple juice fermented with wine yeast into a dry fruit wine. On Maui, MauiWine hand-harvests Maui Gold pineapples, presses them on site and ferments the juice slowly at cool temperatures. In a 2018 lab study in China the juice was sweetened and acidified first, and four wine yeasts fermented it dry in 6 to 8 days.

Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks6 days – 8 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe amounts are from a lab pineapple wine study (China, 2018). The sources used here give no MauiWine recipe.
Fresh pineapple juice, pressed from peeled fruitMauiWine presses its hand-harvested pineapples on site; the lab study pressed peeled fruit with a juice extractor[lin2018][mauiwine]
SucroseTo 22 °BrixAdded in the lab recipe; the juice is also brought to pH 3.8 with citric acid[lin2018]
Sodium metabisulphite80 mg/LThe juice then stands 4 h before the yeast goes in[lin2018]
Activated wine yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae)200 mg/L[lin2018]
Starterdefined-culture (wine yeast)

Total time across the recorded steps: 6 days – 8 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Pineapples are crushed and pressed and the juice runs out

Step 1 of 4
Crush and press the pineapples
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts

Output: pineapple juice.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Pineapple wine is pineapple juice fermented with wine yeast into a dry fruit wine. On Maui, MauiWine hand-harvests Maui Gold pineapples, presses them on site and ferments the juice slowly at cool temperatures. In a 2018 lab study in China the juice was sweetened and acidified first, and four wine yeasts fermented it dry in 6 to 8 days. Made in 4 steps over 6 days – 8 days. The longest step, ferment cool, takes 6–8 days (Lin X 2018) and runs at 22 °C (Lin X 2018). Saccharomyces cerevisiae wine yeasts does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step6–8 daysReported[lin2018]Ferment cool
Temperature22 °CReported[lin2018]Ferment cool
AciditypH 3.9 → 3.8Reported[lin2018]Adjust the juice

What makes this one different

Pineapple wine is made the way a dry grape wine is, with wine yeast, but from pressed pineapple juice that is usually sweetened and acidified first in the lab recipe. Tepache is a Mexican fermented pineapple drink listed separately.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Maui SplashReleased by MauiWine in 1992. Only a few gallons a month were first made, for a single restaurant, and the wine was left sweeter and used like a wine cooler.
  • Hula o MauiA sparkling pineapple wine made by the traditional method (Methode Champenoise), released by MauiWine in 1994 for its 20th anniversary; 100 cases were made.
  • Tepache (Mexico)A different product; Wikipedia lists tepache as a popular Mexican fermented pineapple drink.

Safety

No safety limits specific to pineapple wine were found in the sources used here. In the lab recipe the juice was brought to pH 3.8 and given 80 mg/L sodium metabisulphite 4 h before the yeast went in.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

MauiWine was established in August 1974 by C. Pardee Erdman of Ulupalakua Ranch. In 1975, while its vineyard matured, it made an experimental sparkling pineapple wine that was not meant for sale. Its first pineapple wine, Maui Blanc, debuted in 1977 and is still its bestselling wine.

  1. [lin2018] Lin X., Wang Q., Hu X., Wu W., Zhang Y., Liu S., Li C. 2018, Evaluation of different Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains on the profile of volatile compounds in pineapple wine, Journal of Food Science and Technology 55(10):4119–4130paper
  2. [mauiwine] MauiWine, Pineapple Wines (producer's page)web
  3. [mauiwine-history] MauiWine, Heritage and History (producer's timeline)web
  4. [WP:Fruit wine] Wikipedia, Fruit wine, 'Pineapple wine' (outline only)wiki