Tepache is Mexican Fermented Pineapple

Tepache is a fermented Mexican drink made from pineapple and spices. I read through lots of recipes and derived this:

1 large pineapple
5 crushed up cloves
10 cups (about 2 1/2 liters) of water
3 cups of piloncillo (brown sugar)
3 tablespoons of canela (cinnamon)

Wash the pineapple and chop it up. Then, grind up the cinnamon and cloves and add them to warm water with the piloncillo (sugar) all together is a container.

I used a carboy bucket and the top has an airlock, but the airlock is not necessary. I just happened to have them handy.

Mix all the ingredients together and put it in a warm place for a couple of days.

One of the recipes I found says:
"Strain the resulting liquid and add the other 4 cups (1 lt.) of water. (Or if you prefer, add 1 cup (1/2 lt.) of ale and let rest another 12 hours.) Strain and add 3 cups (3/4 lt.) of water. Serve cold with ice cubes."

Thanks to Chowhound for some interesting background info and the most geographic and general/historic detail.

"Tepache... what is it? Its a traditional Mexican beverage particularly common on the Central West Coast (Nayarit, Colima, Jalisco) as well as in Mexico City (where there are immigrants from all over), that is made by fermenting pineapple leftovers (rind, core etc.,)."

Stay tuned...we'll let you know how this turns out next week!

The first batch of tepache is done, without beer, and it's delicious. 72 hours of fermentation. The pineapple tastes good, too. I'm going to add some chili power once it chills and see how the it changes the taste. It's just slightly fizzy and it is very sweet. The cinnamon and brown sugar are nice. The cloves give it a unusual, good, exotic flavor. The chili powder will be interesting. I bet it's a little like putting pepper on strawberries. Stay tuned! Here's the wikipedia entry for tepache:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tepache  

If you try making some, please let us know how it turns out and whether the recipe you used was different from this one. Enjoy!