TEK - Very cheap, strong alcohol

[matti_2003]

If you have limited funds and want some strong alcohol, the following recipe allows you to make 4 litres of alcopop using stuff available from the supermarket and is very cheap, it is also very strong.


Student Brew (Extra strength AlcoPop £3 for over 4 Litres ready in 1 week)
This has been designed to take into account the students lot. No he/she does not want a tone of brewing equipment but sure a limitless supply high power AlcoPop / CockTail for parties is a must. All ingredients easily available from Supermarkets.

Required for this brew

5 Litre still mineral water
1 Sachet containing wine yeast + yeast nutrients to make 4.5 Litres
(Most big supermarkets will have this, or try your local homebrew shop if not)
1 KG white sugar (You will only need 1/2 of the bag unless you go on to animal strength AlcoPop)
3 Lemmons
Orange or similar concentrate to make up to 4.5 Litres

That's it no other equipment required!
Instructions

Remove about 1/2 a litre of water from the mineral water container leaving 4.5 litres in the container. (This leaves enough space for the fermentation to take place)
Squeeze the oranges into a clean glass. You need to remove any pips or bits of skin.
Pour the juice into the mineral water container.
Add the yeast to the surface of the liquid in the container. (You do not need to stir the yeast in just leave it to float on the surface. It will mix in its own time.)
Leave for a few minutes for the yeast to hydrate
Add 1/2 a bag of sugar (1/2 KG). A bit extra won't hurt it will take a bit longer to brew.
Screw the cap on and agitate to get the sugar to dissolve. (Don't leave the cap on too long as the yeast is working and producing CO2 gas and you do not want the container to pop)

Lightly put the cap on but NOT air tight. Squeeze test the container to make sure it is not air tight.
(If it is air tight it will blow up due to the gas produced by the yeast. You will have 4.5 Litres of sticky mess) In an ideal world you would have a fermentation lock to ensure that the fermentation is done with the air excluded but this is a no equipment brew)
Leave for 7 days to ferment & settle.

Optional step for Animal strength AlcoPop (Add the rest of your Sugar, agitate to dissolve, and leave for at least another 7 days)
When your brew has fully fermented and settled then gently pour the liquid into another vessel or vessels (Glasses, cups...).(Avoid pouring the sediment)
Add your concentrate to the clear liquid in the vessel(s) and drink.
My Animal strength AlcoPop has completed and I sampled it. The brew did take longer than I thought but that because it is over 15% Alcohol and its a bit cooler so the yeast worked a bit slower than usual. I have also just tried the less powerful version "Extra strength AlcoPop" at 7% Alcohol and this was ready within 7 days. The end result from using natural lemons is a cloudy drink. Natural lemonade is also cloudy. I am going to try the above but substituting the lemmons for concentrated lemon juice. This should end up with a clearer end product.

If you want your AlcoPop sparkling then you proceed as per "Extra strength AlcoPop" at 7% Alcohol and transfer the brew after day 7 into 2 litre plastic lemonade / cola containers. These are made of a plastic called PET, which holds pressure very well. Do not fill the PET bottle completely leave about 1.5 inch head room. Add 1 level table spoon (15 ml) sugar to each 2 Litre PET bottle. Screw the cap on and leave at room temperature (16C - 23C). Leave for another 7 days and the brew should be sparkling and should have settled with a small sediment of yeast on the bottom. Transfer your PET bottle to the fridge and cool before you serve. To serve pour or siphon off the brew leaving the sediment behind and then add the concentrate to your brew.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Good informative post for those on the breadline
	Great cheap post :-)
	great recipe, alot of fun!
	Good information post :) oggy

[Sickman]

You would have to be on severely limited funds or be in prison to want to try this, methinks.

[matti_2003]

Not really, lots of people like to drink alcopops and using this method you could produce something similar if not better than that sold in supermarkets and bars. Personally i prefer bitters and lagers though.

[IHrtHalucingens]

Say one used even more sugar and let sit for even longer does this translate to say ~30% alcohol? And you could pretty much make it taste however you wanted it to right? with w/e amount or flavor of concentrate you prefer.

[matti_2003]

Not really, at 30% its nearly as strong as Vodka so would taste very strong. You wouldn't really be able to brew it this strong either. The reason for this is that you are using wine yeast, once there is too much alcohol present the yeast will stop working. The Animal strenghth descibed will taste very strong and most people won't like this so i would just reccomend making the normal strength stuff and drinking twice as much

[IHrtHalucingens]

Hmm taste doesnt make a huge difference to me, i was just wondering. The less i have to drink the better, is how i see it. Shit 4 liters of 15% alcohol for a few bucks is a great thing. Good information i will be trying this soon. Thank you

[WrtngCocaineTutorial]

Originally Posted by IHrtHalucingens

Hmm taste doesnt make a huge difference to me, i was just wondering. The less i have to drink the better, is how i see it. Shit 4 liters of 15% alcohol for a few bucks is a great thing. Good information i will be trying this soon. Thank you

SWIM made his own moonshine when he was 14y. It's really easy. Got 70% at first. Later at 17y, got money to get a real still (not shitty homemade) got info on how to make it clear (active coal). Made 90-some percent , but you have to run it twice through the still, because you need to water the moonshine down to 50 or so percent before you run it through active coal

You can easily make you own still (if you know how to weld etc) or you could buy one on XXX

[matti_2003]

Let me know how it goes

[Forthesevenlakes]

great recipe...swim remembers trying several similar homebrew recipes a while back. in his experience fermenting apple cider by the same method always turned out a little better than orange concentrate, but this doesnt sound too bad and would be cheaper than the store.

[Evilsatan]

Cheers! Very nice tut, detailed, and can't wait to try!

@ Matti, if you really wanted too maybe you could distill it and produce a orange/lemon spirit? Might not be possible but if I remember Chemistry lectures in College correctly you can freeze distill or fractionally distill?

[Forthesevenlakes]

be careful with freeze distillation, it IS possible to leave methanol behind with that process, and methanol can poison you pretty easily.

[Metternich]

has this recipie been tried by anyone?

[FrankenChrist]

Hmm. That looks like the recipe of an SA goon. (if you don't know, you're not worth to know )

If you get drunk on anything homemade like that (if it hasn't been distilled and purified through charcoal several times ) you will feel really feel it in your guts and your head the next day. This is not only caued by remnants of yiest, but also by the sulphite you may need to stop the fermentation process.

If you make alcohol yourself, it is possible that you will have trace amounts of methanol, and fusil oil, which will give the bad taste.

It can be somewhat tricky if you don't have access to reasonably good equipment. Too much oxygen and you'll get acetic acid (vinegar), too little and it'll stink of sulphur. Keep your temperature and acidity levels right.

If you can, siphon it off carefully several times, leaving it to rest and settle in between.

[Nagognog2]

Oh yuck! Just go to the liquor store. That way if you get poisoned (more than you paid for), you'll have someone to sue.

Methanol kills people all the time in third-world nations where homemade booze is popular. Those who survive tend to be blinded for keeps.

[Forthesevenlakes]

Interestingly, a cure for methanol poisoning is...ethanol! Ethanol ties up the alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme in the stomach which would normally metabolize methanol into harmful folic acid.

[zera]

SWIM's roomate brews his own beer. Suprisingly this stuff is not bad tasting at all. Homebrewing is far safer than home distilling though, it's impossible to poison yourself. Though it isn't a cheap option, he's probably spend almost $500 on all the various equipment he has. It's nice though as he only charges SWIM a little over the marginal cost, which comes out to be $.75/12oz, which is cheaper than even the cheapest beer 20 packs, it's of far better quality and has higher alcohol percentage.

I'm convinved if SWIY and a few of your mates are reasonably big drinkers the initial cost of setting up a homebrewing system will pay for itself in a year or two.

[Senor Gribson]

Originally Posted by zera

SWIM's roomate brews his own beer. Suprisingly this stuff is not bad tasting at all. Homebrewing is far safer than home distilling though, it's impossible to poison yourself. Though it isn't a cheap option, he's probably spend almost $500 on all the various equipment he has. It's nice though as he only charges SWIM a little over the marginal cost, which comes out to be $.75/12oz, which is cheaper than even the cheapest beer 20 packs, it's of far better quality and has higher alcohol percentage.

I'm convinved if SWIY and a few of your mates are reasonably big drinkers the initial cost of setting up a homebrewing system will pay for itself in a year or two.

in my experience (yes my own experience, unlicensed brewing is completely legal here in canada) brewing ones own beer is much cheaper than buying it. to start brewing, all one needs is a large bucket and a water seal. both can be purchased for <$40 or made for <$10. of course this is assuming you also have a pot and a stove. if a stove is not readily accessible, an open fire could be used instead. next, the ingredients for a 20L batch of decent quality brew can usually be bought for around $10.

so altogether, one would end up with a batch of beer ranging in quality from piss-water to alexander keiths, depending on the skill of the brewer, for under $50, and $10 for each new batch. once your beer starts to taste good thats damn cheap.

edit: i could also mention the 10cent cost per bottle but they charge you that when you buy beer anyway so it doesnt really matter

[matti_2003]

Hi Zera. Swim homebrews and the cost of the equipment payed for itself after the second batch.

[oggy]

Yes its very cheap, I used to make my own wine and beer. Used to drink too much tho so had to stop.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Leaving your name in reputation is against the forum rules oggy you should know this "Good information post :) oggy...

[matti_2003]

Not sure what they do in the US but in the Uk you can buy "kits". Included in a kit is 1 or 2 cans of malt extract. This is wort from a brewery that has been evaporated under vaccuum so that it can be fit into 1 or 2 cans. Some include a teabag full of hops and they all come with a sachet of yeast.

No boiling is required. You just have to poor the cans into the fermentor with a few pints of hot water and the cold water and pitch the yeast. After fermentaion you can transfer to a pressure barrel or bottles. The quality of these kits have improved dramatically over the past few years and commercial quality beers can be made with minimum effort.

[Nagognog2]

My granddad in Ontario (Canada, ya American scholar putz) brewed beer and distilled rotgut whiskey during the Great Depression. It as about the only way they had food on the table for the family of 6 kids and 2 adults. It was illegal back then - more so if you were an immigrant family. Canada used to be a rather racist nation and immigrant's children weren't even allowed to attend regular schools. It was Catholic-Torture-By-Ruler or bust.

My dad still shudders when he sees a thick, heavy beer bottle. The only way he could get money for candy, or movies, was to wash the hundreds of beer bottles his dads' customers would drop by as part of their contract to buy more potables.

[zera]

Didn't realize how cheaply the homebrewing equipment could be. SWIM's roomate is the type that has to buy the best of the best whenever he gets anything so I could see how he easily blew a lot more money than he needed to.

[FrankenChrist]

Originally Posted by Nagognog2

. ...It as about the only way they had food on the table for the family of 6 kids and 2 adults. It was illegal back then - ...

Same thing with my granddad here in Europe.
The police back then traced the distilleries by looking for snowless rooftops in the winter - a method still used for finding grow-ops.

He also made wine out of any fruit he could get his hands on. It was a hit with the ladies of his generation . He gave me some 30+ year old bottles of rhubarb wine. Think of it as port wine or sherry, only with the taste of rhubarb jam.

I got some some of his old notes and manuals, which helped me make my now long-gone batch of mead.
The stories the guy has... In the middle of WW II he smuggled stuff from and to France. At 16. My grandma told me butter was a popular smuggling item. The women would hide it under their skirts and sometimes it'd run off their legs. The things people have to do out of poverty...

They have always been respectable, hard working, church-going people. He could have made mayor had he wanted to. The "crimes" they did were the only way to make ends meet.

Sorry for the deviation. I felt like adding some perspective.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Interesting post
	awesome story, i really liked reading that.

[matti_2003]

Well as far as equipment goes the very least you will need is a cheap plastic fermenting bin which will cost you the equivelent of 2 pints, a piece of tubing to syphon off and you can use the 2 litre plastic PET coke bottles to store, condtion and serve your beer. They hold the pressure very well.

[Riconoen {UGC}]

Just go buy some baking extract at the store if you're that short on funds. There are much easier ways to get shitfaced than making moonshine in your basement.