Fourth batch of tepache, same method as always: pineapple peels, piloncillo, cinnamon, water, cloth over the top. Two days in I lifted the cloth and the whole thing has gone thick and stringy. When I stir it, it trails off the spoon like egg white.
It smells sweet and pineapple-y, no fuzz on the peels, nothing coloured growing. Kitchen has been warm because the oven was on a lot this week. What is the slime, and do I have to pour it away?
That is ropiness, and the warm kitchen is the explanation. Certain bacteria, lactic acid bacteria usually get the blame, produce thick stringy compounds while they work through the sugar, and warmth plus plenty of sugar plus a young ferment is exactly when they get the upper hand.
It turns up in kombucha, water kefir, kvass, even wine and cider. Not unique to tepache and not a sign you did something unusual.
Does it go away on its own if I leave it, or is thick the state it is in now?
Sometimes it breaks down over another day or two. Stir it gently, move it somewhere cooler, and taste it tomorrow. If it is still trailing off the spoon after that, pour it away and start again, because it will not become pleasant.
Keep the peels under the liquid. Anything floating dry on top is where the trouble usually starts.
For next time, the prevention list is short and your batch broke two of it. Ferment at cool room temperature away from the oven and out of sun, and keep it short: tepache is usually two or three days depending on temperature, so taste daily and refrigerate when you like it rather than letting it run.
Clean kit well rinsed, a sensible amount of sugar rather than loading it, peels submerged, and rinse the pineapple rather than scrubbing all the wild yeast off it.
@fuzzy_means_bin · 3d ago
Slime on its own is not the dangerous signal, and your own description already covers the ones that are. Bin it immediately for fuzzy mould of any colour on the surface or the peels, anything pink or black or green or otherwise colourful growing, or a smell that has gone rotten or putrid rather than sweet and sour.
You have sweet pineapple and no fuzz, so this is a texture problem. And genuinely, if you are ever unsure, throw it out. Pineapple peels cost nothing.
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