Tepache is a deliciously refreshing, effervescent, lightly fermented pineapple drink popular in Mexico. It's lightly alcoholic and makes the most out of the parts of the pineapple typically discarded!
INGREDIENTS Peel & core of 2 ripe organic pineapples (Eat the rest of the fruit!)
1 cup of raw sugar
1-2 sticks of cinnamon
3-4 cloves
Other optional spices (chiles, cardamom, black peppercorns etc)
Filtered water
Dissolve the sugar in about one cup of water. Cut the pineapple skin and core into chunks and place along with your spices into a 1 gallon wide mouth jar. Pour the sugar water over the pineapple and add additional water to fill the jar and cover all of the pineapple. Cover with muslin cloth secured with a rubber band.
Ferment at room temperature for 2-5 days, stirring and tasting daily until desired flavor. It will get fizzy and a little sour after just a few days. Once it tastes good to you, strain out the solids. Transfer into brewing bottles (made from pressurized glass) using a funnel. Leave an inch of head space at the top each bottle. Allow to ferment in your sealed bottle for 12-24 hours then transfer to fridge. Cold storage slows down fermentation activity, but does not stop it. Always open bottles carefully over a sink. Consume within 4 weeks.
NOTE: If your Tepache gets to sour - make pineapple vinegar simply by straining out the solids and letting it remain at room temperature to ferment in your jar with a cloth cover on top. See our Fruit Scrap Vinegar Recipe for reference!
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