Didn’t have the luxury of stocking up on booze this weekend? Home brewed ginger and pineapple beer are sure to make a comeback as you weather the storm of another alcohol ban until July.
Pres. Ramaphosa yesterday announced the blanket ban on booze as the country slipped back into alert Level Four due to the rising numbers of Covid-19 infections.
KwaZulu-Natal soil scientist and farmer, Morgan Brand says all you need is brewer’s yeast, water, sugar, and fresh chunks of the comeback kid, pineapple, to get your home brewed pineapple beer started.
Do be warned though as you could end up with explosive guts, blindness or worse from your bottles of homemade beer if you are not careful.
It is also important to stay away from high pectin fruits like apples, berries, and citrus he warns. “These fruits contain large amounts of carbohydrates and that is what is going to turn into methanol. “That’s what can make you go blind and hurt you,” he says.
Brand adds that you will know once there is too much methanol in your brew. “The moment you have one glass, and you get a severe headache from that glass, that’s got methanol in it. A toxic brew!” he told Food For Mzansi.
If it hurts you after a small amount, you should know that that will be a strong brew, so be careful.
Pineapple beer recipe
You can make your own pineapple beer by following this simple recipe:
First things first, do sterilise counters, surfaces, and tools that you are going to use.
Ingredients
1kg of sugar
2 pineapples
5g of yeast
7 litres of water
50 ml Molasses (optional)
Large bucket
Method:
Step 1: Disinfect and clean all surfaces and tools used in the process. Morgan uses good old bleach and water for this step.
Step 2: Chop up those pineapples.
Step 3: In a large pot filled with water, boil everything (sugar, molasses, and pineapple!)
Step 4: Simmer down and add the reduction including fruit and syrup to container.
Step 5: Add 5g of yeast to 200ml of water and stir.
Step 6: Stir it up (or in my case, shake it up baby).
Step 7: Find the dingiest corner in your house and let that baby ferment for 7 days until it is ready to be bottled.
Step 8: Sterilize bottles, before bottling pineapple punch. Refrigerate, sip and enjoy.
Do you prefer ginger beer? Make Chef Nono’s ‘ginger beer with a twist’
