pineapple powah

haha okay i didn’t really expect anyone to guess it right so here we go, moment of truth. the yellow stuff isn’t ice cream or pudding or moss-covered egg or mouldy cheese (lol!). it is in fact,

blended pineapple :D and the black stuff on top were tea leaves.

our assignment for chem this term is the lovely art of winemaking :D exciting right! i was so thrilled when i heard about it last year and i’ve been anticipating this term eversince because honestly, i don’t think chem gets any better (or naughtier) than this (: we have to make two 5 litre bathches of wine (which is heaps. read: 10 kilos of fruit), introduce a variable and see how it changes the outcome at the end.

we were given a lot of freedom in deciding what fruit we wanted to use cause it didn’t necessarily have to be grapes. most people chose apples and pears cause they were the safest after having been used in previous years. apparently rock melon turned out to be a disaster, there was like an inch thick of bacteria on the surface. not so good for the teachers who have their rounds of wine tasting at the end of the experiment. anyways we decided on pineapples cause 10 kilos of strawberries is just way too expensive :( regardless, i just recently found out that we’re the only group making pineapple wine so yays for that (:

day 1

the first day was all about blending up the fruits! all pictures from caleb’s cam, i didn’t take any of them. must’ve been about 60 in the span of 2 hours ._.

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everything we used had to be completely sterilised to avoid bacteria growth. everyything meaning the blender and the pails and the knives and the chopping board and our hands. completely sterilised meaning rinsed in bleach and then water and then citric acid and then warm water which is… not so good when you get a papercut :( day two was painful :(

12 pineapples later…

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them stirring the tealeaves into the smoothie which smelt really nicee. so tempting. the tealeaves act as anti oxidants which is important for the fermentation process (i think?)
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grabbing sample for testing
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see what happens when you’re too tall; your head gets cut off in pictures!
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mr winner posing with the bucket haha. those chemicals help break down sugar faster.
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look at laura pushing the knife away lolol.
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you see camwhoring’s practiced anywhere in the world (:
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sigh ignore the height difference T.T

day 2

day 2 was very very crazy! we didn’t have enough time at all so we ended up staying back after school plus we had the hardest time trying to even out the sugar levels of both buckets ._. which resulted in a massive decrease in pictures.

very gross looking pineapple
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day 4

after leaving the yeast to do their thing, we racked our fruit must :D in other words, we got rid of all the gross bits and pulp.

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they look like fruit juice. so pretty <3

when i got to school the next day, i was told that our glass jars exploded and it caused a mess and i got so freaked out. cause it’s known to happen with the built up of carbon dioxide during fermentation. i later found out that it just overflowed and our chem teacher stayed behind that night to clean up and he managed to save our pineapple but was covered knee high in juice ._. i was so so thankful because i honestly think i would cry if the whole thing got destroyed :(

it could still happen… actually no, i shouldn’t think about it! it’s been in the lab for 3 unchecked days cause it’s labour day today so i’m really hoping it’s okay. it’s like my new baby lol i pay it a visit in the lab whenever i can. all that’s left now is more racking every week or so until it becomes clear wine (:

i will defs post the end product, hope you guys had a good weekend!