Pineapple Cider: Aye Aye Captain!

I do not claim any credit for the recipe or the process. The recipe was from the PAA Cider post on Homebrewtalk.com. This recipe was for 1 gallon of cider.

Pour 1/3 of your apple juice into the carboy and add 1/3lbs honey to the juice. Swirl until the honey is all mixed in (there shouldn’t be any honey on the bottom). Add equal parts white and brown sugar to increase the gravity of the cider. Add the pineapple juice to the primary. Pitch the yeast and put airlock/bung in the top. Let sit in primary for 10 days. Then rack to secondary and add pectic enzyme. Let sit for 20 days. Rack again and back sweeten with 1C of brown sugar dissolved in 1C hot water. Let sit for 5 more days and then bottle. It will be really good after a few weeks.

Here is a photo of the cider at the beginning of the primary:

When I racked into the secondary, I decided to combine the two 1 gallon carboys into my brand new 5 gallon carboy. Here is a photo at the beginning of secondary:

I have a list of names I am thinking about for this cider but I will wait until it’s complete to give the official title! Stay tuned for a name and progress photos!

UPDATE: I racked into the tertiary on March 29th and this time it was into the two 1 gallon carboys to make sure I could make room for my next project……keep an eye out! In five days I will be bottling and then about week later it will be ready to drink and to be named! Stay tuned!

UPDATE: Bottling has happened! Eric and I spent our Sunday evening (and my Monday afternoon) prepping and bottling this cider into a total of 13 bottles! I was not expecting this much since my 1 gallon ciders have taken 4-5 bottles. That is why I mentioned that it also took my Monday afternoon. We were expecting 8 bottles total, but were rather surprised when we realized that we would not have enough bottles for all of the cider. So, we only bottled one carboy and left the other one for once I had more bottles and a capper on Monday. Oh well!

Also, I got to taste the cider for the first time! This might seem a little obvious since it is a pineapple cider, but it tastes like pineapple! I wasn’t sure how much power the small amount of pineapple would have and now I know that it provides quite a tart punch!

The glass I tasted. Unfortunately this taste came from the bottom of the carboy where the junk is, but it was still very good! The final product will not be this cloudy.

I can’t wait to taste the fully ready cider in a few weeks! Well, I will actually be tasting my first bottle this week since Mom will be visiting, which is kind of a cheat but I don’t care! I am too excited to taste the full effect! Hopefully then I will have come up with a name! My finalists are as follows with a little bit of background as to why I am considering them:

Poohsticks on Posingford (A.A Milne played Poohsticks with his son on Posingford Bridge in Ashford Forest before it became famous through Winnie-the-Pooh. The original Poohsticks game was played with fir cones, which are really pine cones)

Aye Aye Captain! (Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Spongebob Squarepants!)

Shivers Down My Pine (Play on words)

UPDATE: It tastes fantastic at 6 days in the bottle! I tasted it when Mom was visiting this past week because I wanted to make sure she could enjoy it since it will be too difficult to get it down to her once it is all ready to drink. The pineapple flavor is strong but not overpowering making for a nice sweet and tart combination. All that is left now is to let the bottles sit at room temperature for the next while (hopefully a month) before cold crashing the cider in the fridge before drinking.

Also, I have chosen a name! Aye Aye Captain is the name because it is a line in the Spongebob theme song and Spongebob lives in a pineapple under the sea.

UPDATE 4/20: I have added labels to some of my bottles! A few local friends and co-workers have started asking if they can get a bottle of my different ciders. This was really encouraging and made me super excited but I was not too keen on the idea of giving out my nicer bottles (the swing top) since they aren’t as cheap as normal beer/cider bottles. So I have started collecting bottles that have been drunken out of, cleaned them up, and added some cider to them! And because I would feel bad giving away my product with a strip of blue tape as the label, I purchased a bottle labeling pack recently and now I have put them to good use! So the following are photos of the (good) labeled bottles for Aye Aye Captain!

Front view: shows the cider name, my cidery/brewery name, and there is a little saying around the neck (each cider will say something different). This one says: Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? (And the answer that every 90s kid would yell: Spongebob Squarepants!)

The top of the bottle has the first three letters of my last name. Some day my last name will change, but I will always be a McG!

The back of the bottle tells you specifically what kind of cider it is and when I bottled it. Pretty nifty, if you ask me!

I am still a little unsure as to when I will actually throw the bottles in the fridge to cold crash the yeast and to get ready for my mini distribution. I was thinking of forcing myself to wait until May, but since it’s been over two weeks (the recommended minimum), I might do it sooner even though the recipe recommends months. No, Emma. You must resist!

Stay tuned to see who will win between my self-control and my excitement….

UPDATE 5/9: self-control won! I made it just over one month after bottling before I refrigerated the cider and boy did it pay off! Last night I opened up a bottle and I got a loud POP sound. I poured the cider into a mug glass and enjoyed the mixture between the tart and sweet flavors! 

 
So that’s all for Aye Aye Captain! It was a great success that I look forward to enjoying over the next few months!  

Salute!