Why is my tepache not fizzy? Where the bubbles come from

Question

Made tepache three times now and every batch tastes good and is completely still. Pineapple peels, sugar, water, muslin over the jar, three days on the…

second_ferment · Accepted Answer

You are missing a step and it is the whole fizz. Wild yeast on the peels eats sugar and makes carbon dioxide, but in a jar with muslin over it the gas simply leaves. An open first ferment is barely ever bubbly and that is not a fault.

The fizz comes from a second ferment in a sealed bottle, where the gas has nowhere to go. Strain the peels out, bottle it in swing-tops, leave an inch of headspace, and give it twelve to forty-eight hours at room temperature.

rinse_not_scrub · Answer

Two other things that quietly flatten a batch. Scrubbing the peels: the yeast lives on the skin, so rinse the dirt off but do not scrub hard or use hot water. And heavily chlorinated tap water, which slows wild yeast down, so filtered or left-out water helps.

A cold kitchen does it too. Everything still ferments, just much more slowly, and people conclude it failed when it needed another two days.

Why is my tepache not fizzy? Where the bubbles come from

3 answers