After stumbling across Miriam's recipe, I decided to try some guarapo de pina.
As per the directions, I put the ginger, the rinds and cores from two pineapples into a 2-gallon jug, added the indicated ammount of sugar (I used the brown, cone-shaped, "mexican" sugar (aka "piloncillo")), filled with water, and loosely capped the jug. A week went by with me pushing down the floaters, but with no yeast activity to be seen. Then on ~day 9, I noticed a little pile of "goo" on the surface of the liquid/pineapple chunks. My first thought was "Oh crap; surface infection." Very carefully, I used a pair of chipsticks to remove the piece of rind that had the pile of goo in it, careful not to get any in the fluid, or on the insides of the bottle. I had no idea if this was the right thing to do, or if it would have any effect, but I recapped the bottle, and stuck it back in the cabinet.
I do not know if it was just coincidence or not, but the next day, fermentation went crazy. Overnight, the guarapo exploded inside my cabinet, making a sticky mess all over the place. In the interest of preventing further messes, or infection, I fitted a vodka-filled airlock on the bottle. For the next two weeks, fermentation was vigorous in the extreme; the guarapo bubbled faster than just-poured champagne. I racked the guarapo off the rinds after is appeared fermentation had stopped (it spent a little under a month in primary), but now it appears there is actually a little fermentation still going on; I hope this won't cause any detriment. But I have a bigger concern; the guarapo smells like urine, and the taste is absolutely FOUL. Totally undrinkable.
Miriam's original guarapo de pina recipe warns that "funky" smells are normal, but this seems to go beyond "funk;" it truly smells like somebody's peed in my guarapo. Infection? Stressed yeasts? Non-brew-friendly yeasts? Or is this a normal phase that I should relax and simply wait out?
Thanks.
edit: Added a few left-out details.
As per the directions, I put the ginger, the rinds and cores from two pineapples into a 2-gallon jug, added the indicated ammount of sugar (I used the brown, cone-shaped, "mexican" sugar (aka "piloncillo")), filled with water, and loosely capped the jug. A week went by with me pushing down the floaters, but with no yeast activity to be seen. Then on ~day 9, I noticed a little pile of "goo" on the surface of the liquid/pineapple chunks. My first thought was "Oh crap; surface infection." Very carefully, I used a pair of chipsticks to remove the piece of rind that had the pile of goo in it, careful not to get any in the fluid, or on the insides of the bottle. I had no idea if this was the right thing to do, or if it would have any effect, but I recapped the bottle, and stuck it back in the cabinet.
I do not know if it was just coincidence or not, but the next day, fermentation went crazy. Overnight, the guarapo exploded inside my cabinet, making a sticky mess all over the place. In the interest of preventing further messes, or infection, I fitted a vodka-filled airlock on the bottle. For the next two weeks, fermentation was vigorous in the extreme; the guarapo bubbled faster than just-poured champagne. I racked the guarapo off the rinds after is appeared fermentation had stopped (it spent a little under a month in primary), but now it appears there is actually a little fermentation still going on; I hope this won't cause any detriment. But I have a bigger concern; the guarapo smells like urine, and the taste is absolutely FOUL. Totally undrinkable.
Miriam's original guarapo de pina recipe warns that "funky" smells are normal, but this seems to go beyond "funk;" it truly smells like somebody's peed in my guarapo. Infection? Stressed yeasts? Non-brew-friendly yeasts? Or is this a normal phase that I should relax and simply wait out?
Thanks.
edit: Added a few left-out details.