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The label on a bottle of Reverend Nat's tepache reads
like something out of the J. Peterman catalog: "During a holiday in
Veracruz I had a chance meeting with a peddler hawking traditional
tepache out of a pub-cart…. Over a few minutes of pictographic
correspondence I felt sanguine in my capacity to re-create that
sumptuous drink upon my return to Portland." On the white sands of the
Gulf Coast, you don't need chance to encounter "pineapple beer," made
from fresh piña, flash-fermented to around 3 percent ABV—just enough to
keep the bad bugs out. Mexicans often strengthen the drink with Tecate.
Nat West, who got the pineapples for this $9 bottle from his "second
cousin's plantation in Costa Rica" and added cane sugar from Michoacán,
suggests two parts of his 3.2 percent ABV tepache to one part lager or
hefeweizen. We did as directed, but suspect the best application is
tepache splashed into citrusy local IPA.
WWeek 2015
