Brewing - Easiest drink to ferment at home?

[RoboCodeine7610]

Swim lives in a country where alcohol is outlawed and was looking into some beer and wine recipies which seemed to take pretty long...
Swim was wandering:
What's the fastest drink to ferment with baker's yeast? What alcohol content would it reach? Unfortunately, brewer's yeast and such is outlawed too...
Thanx in advance
Robo.

[tryptamaster]

ok. swim has used bread yeast and sugar water witha ballon seal over the top in a arm are for about a week. about as alcoholic as wine. if u wanna boost r alcohol content swiy cud of course distill it.

[Toma]

My grandmother used to make good quality fruit brandy in her kitchen in her apartment, 40 to 50% alcohol. It is pretty easy to make a rudimentary still, and if you have no other source of booze it would be a pretty good investment. You can ferment fruit in a jar, adding sugar as necessary and then distill the result. You need to be careful though to discard the first part of the distilled alcohol, as it may contain toxic methanol. If you are interested you can find instructions on the net.
But what country do you live in? If you live in a muslim country and you risk getting your dick chopped off for making alcohol it might not be worth it.

[cuddlesthefox]

Swims uncle used to make this alcohol stuff in his loft. It was all to do with copper pipes and came out in little drips but it was fucking strong and tasted like bleach. It also made anyone who drank it shit themselves in the night, apart from swim who shat himself whilst playing Galaxians in an arcade at the famous costal resort of Whitley Bay. Worst of all, swim had white Levi jeans on when fashion dictated that this was cool. The stains never came out, until swim actually bleached the fuckers then they started to degenerate and fall to pieces. Swim never like the jeans really. Swim preferred a pair of handmade green flares with purple "V" sections on the legs that swims Aunty Vera made me before she made advances toward me that were not particularly Auntily. These pants never really were the fashion of the day but swims persistence on wearing them brought flares back into fashion in the mid 90's. Yes that was swim who started that.
The weird thing about the flares was that swims Aunty Vera had made them very tight fitting on the thigh and even made a little "pouch" for swims genitals to go in. Talk about made to measure.
Back to the alcohol, my uncle Harry called it "White Shite" and was arrested by the bizzies for making it. But by that time, the stuff made him so senile and incontinent that the police couldn't cope with cleaning him up and eventually ran out of paper all-in-one suits and sent him home with a caution and never bothered him again. He called the thing that made it a "still" don't know why. He just did. He's dead now. Actually not from alcohol abuse! He was run over by a coal wagon whilst trying to pick up a pound coin someone had superglued to the road. The weird thing is that my uncle Harry was actually a coalman and the coal man driving the wagon was drunk!!!!! Karma police or what!!!! Swim went to the inquest into his death and the coroner said the only thing weird about it was that my uncle was actually wearing a condom at his time of death which was bulging full of semen when he was killed. The coroner said the semen was over 3 days old and no traces of human female jism were on the outside of it, just cat faeces!!!! The dirty old fucker.

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	I'm not waering white levis: But I did (almost) shit myself reading this! Wonderful!
	spreading the love to those who helped on an awesome thread.

[cra$h]

Originally Posted by cuddlesthefox

He called the thing that made it a "still" don't know why. He just did.

It's called a still (I'm assuming) because the process is called distilling, and it's just short-hand, and still is formed. It's what it's internationally known as, and is the term not just used by 'shiners, but by legitimate brewers of all alcohols

[Mammon]

Firstly, you can't just add yeast to a sugar solution because the yeast needs various nutrients to reproduce. You can get turbo yeasts that have the nutrients included in the packet, but apparently (SWIM has never used them) they give some weird flavours. People normally only ferment a sugar solution if they intend to distil it later to get 96% stuff.

A good quick wine is rice and raisin. He's a link to one page with details, but if you just google "rice and raisin wine" you'll get loads of versions.

http://www.yobrew.co.uk/wine.php

There must be someway to get yeast over there - how do they make bread?

it was fucking strong and tasted like bleach. It also made anyone who drank it shit themselves in the night

Sounds delicious, cuddles.

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thanks for helping with a great thread, just spreading the love.

[jon-q]

Swirobo~Bakers yeast can be used in various brew receipies(Rice,Potatoes,apples),although it will affect the finished strength and overall taste of the finished product.
Yeast is simply a type of bacteria/fungi which can be made by swiyou even when Bakers yeast/Brewers yeast is un obtainable.Try this link it's in pdf format but it should give swiyou some ideas.http://www.fastonline.org/CD3WD_40/J...MALL/Yeast.pdf
Regards jon-q

jon-q added 6 Minutes and 35 Seconds later...

Oh yea
Forgot to say "CTfox was you uncle afraid of getting the cat pregnant or did the cat have the clap"

[RoboCodeine7610]

[Quote/]But what country do you live in? If you live in a muslim country and you risk getting your dick chopped off for making alcohol it might not be worth it.[Quote\] HAHAHAHA! You made me laugh my ass off with your post! YEah, swim lives in Saudi Arabia and although as you said you might get you head chopped off for taffiking but they turn a blind eye to homebrewing as long as it's for personal use. So what's wrong with the water and sugar recipie? I mean, swim knows that yeast needs nutrients but the water/sugar recipie has fermented just fine for swim in the past (swim had to throw the whole thing away 3 days later cuz ants crawled all over it). Also, what alcohol % does swiy expect it to have in a week (25C)? And Jamal, Swim DOES have baker's yeast as he specified in his post but he just doesn't have brewer's yeast... P.S: Does anybody know what the hell happened to Darkglobe?

[Potter]

What's wrong with water sugar yeast? Because it is shear laziness that would keep you from adding any number of wonderful fruits, vegetables, grains and herbs to your brew... You could survive off of plain bread and water too, would make for a very dull and sluggish life. A variety of sugars and other chemicals makes the yeasts happy, healthy and productive, you'll get better product.

Airlocks: Screw balloons. Get a jug* with a removable cover, some flexible tubing, a drill the same size, and some thick glue or putty. Drill a hole in the cap, insert one end of the tube an inch or so into the jug, well above the liquid line. seal around the hole and secure the other end of the tube into a glass of water. Instant bubbler. You'll want to cover your jug with gauze for the first few days so if the mash overflows, it can escape, just make sure you have a tray under the jug.

The first booze nobody made was Chicha, a traditional South American brew.
8 bananas
10 ears of corn
1 cup brown sugar (White sugar is best avoided, if possible mix different types of sugar for best flavour, date, palm, brown, turbinido...)
yeast
1.5 gallons of water.

Mix the yeast and sugar in 1 cup warm water for a half hour to get it going.
Chew up the corn into a fine mush, mixing lots of saliva in and spit it into the jug. The enzymes will help break down the complex carbs into sugars the yeast can eat. Do the same with the bananas. Traditionally this is a group activity.
Mix it all together in your jug, let ferment a week, and you have drink.

Experiment! Use local fruits, you've got dates no? You want to talk about old-school booze, date wine is probably one of the earliest drinks created. Tamarind could be neat, but it will need more sugar. Coconuts...not so much, try and avoid fatty stuff, makes for a weird texture.

Acids and tannins will effect the flavour of your product, a bit of citrus, maybe some tea will make a dull product a bit more lively, just don't overdo it.

Keep notes! Write down your recipes and how long you let them go for, try variants, taste test every day. If you have the space, get a bunch of jugs and try various proportions of the fruit, sugar, water mix, this is the best way to get good.

Don't be afraid of failures. If something doesn't work, make note and try again. Cost can be mitigated by looking for wild fruit, or fruit on public lands. There's a recent post on this in this forum, look there for more ideas. Nobody made GALLONS off booze this summer for the cost of sugar and containers. Not all of them were so wonderful, some failed, nobody learned LOTS at very little cost. Bad booze can be added to your garden as fertilizer. Or if you are worried about smell, you can always dump it down your toilet for discreet disposal (DON'T CLOG! small amount per flush ((unless you've got something other then flushing toilets)) )

Yeasts: A lack brewers yeast is hardly a concern where you're concerned. You're not looking to make a Merlot or champagne anyways. Nobody suspects you probably are unable to get bottling equipment for storage and carbonation anyways. Try different brands, see what tastes best. Why not try wild yeasts? Grapes and dates with a thin white layer on the surface (not mold) are covered in yeast! Add those to your mix, skip the yeast and see what happens. Try mixing a batch of fruit and sugars, cover with gauze and just let it sit till it starts to bubble. If you get a good brew going, save a bit, make a second batch and add what was saved from the first round as a starter.

Adding herbs or any of the plants discussed in these forums can do wondrous things to your booze. Potentiaters like Yarrow, ginger, cinnamon, wormwood, sage, nutmeg, passionflower, Syrian rue, broom, henbane#, mandrake#, saffron, hemp... the list goes on. Why not try some coffee for a caffeinated kick, if you could get whole cherries, you might have a wonderfully unique brew going on.

Be creative to find inspiration. Historical studies of food and drink often contain surprising amounts of information not censored by the government. Anthropology journals, medieval cookbooks, even lists of banned plants can reveal all sorts of surprises.

Feel free to PM for more ideas and recipes


Love.
Potter.

*Gallon or larger, you can work smaller amounts, but it makes things a bit touchier and since the time investment is about the same, might as well get some results.

#Both of these are VERY toxic, but traditional admixtures, look around and you can find more info on them

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Some great stuff on home brewing: Keep up the good work!
	great ideas on making some interesting brews!

[Jatelka]

Originally Posted by Potter

Feel free to PM for more ideas and recipes

Ideas and recipes are encouraged in the forum, where they can be appreciated by all!

[RoboCodeine7610]

Well thanks for all your answers but swim already went ahead and is fermenting two liters of hard cider in two 1l glass jugs.
He added 100ml of white table sugar to one(yes, mililiters swim added sugar to an empty baker until it reached the 100ml mark) and 75ml to the second one (he thought 100 might have been too much for baker's yeast to handle).

He used a baloon with 3 pinholes as an airlock since the tube and the water thing sounded too complicated.It's been fermenting for about 2 days now at 17C to 21C.

He was wandering if he could "distill" the cider by freezing or if this was too dangerous (because of the methanol) and if so, what would be the simplest way of distilling it?
Thanks,Robo

[Potter]

Freeze distillation to make "applejack" is risky, how risky, hard to say. When you use heat based distillation you remove the first round of chemicals to distill and the last, keeping only the tasty middle ones. The 'heads' and 'tails' are where you fins bitter flavours, and more important non ethanol alcohols, those that can make you go blind. Freeze distillation concentrates ALL alcohols and can make it easier to ingest the more toxic ones. How much of the 'bad alcohols' are in your booze, hard to say. You might have no issues, might be able to make safe drink for ages, then again, you might one day make a batch and never see another sunrise again.

Nobody's got to say, if putting a whole in a cap and gluing a tube into it, and sticking the other end of the tube in a glass of water, is too hard. This may not be the best hobby to pick up, especially if you are looking into distillation. You do understand nobody was describing a removable cap that came with the jug you have? Or a cork? Not drilling a hole in the glass. Once you make this, you have it forever and can reuse it over and over. This airlock will give you a much safer seal against contamination, especially if you add a few drops of bleach to the water glass.

Take a look at the grain malting tek nobody posted, this will be an excellent way for you to pursue beer making.

Nobody forgot to mention yesterday that both poppy seeds and mustard seeds have yeasts on them. While neither is particularly tasty (and mustard beer may be REALLY awful), you can capture the yeasts by floating a piece of toast covered in said seeds in you fermenter. Some point nobody will have perfected their poppy seed beer, but it's still in development.

Bottles: Since you are more likely then not unable to find a bottle cap machine, take a look around for bottles with this sort of topper.
<img src="http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/grolsch.jpg" />
They should be strong enough to take carbonation, if you can try one out and see what happens. Understand bottles are not made the same, if you made champagne in a wine bottle, there is little doubt that the bottle would explode or at the least the cork would fly off long before you got to drinking it. You MIGHT be able to get away with screw top soda bottles. Might.

Nobody will post some other recipes tomorrow, in a separate post, keep an eye out for them.

[RoboCodeine7610]

Freeze distillation to make "applejack" is risky, how risky, hard to say. When you use heat based distillation you remove the first round of chemicals to distill and the last, keeping only the tasty middle ones. The 'heads' and 'tails' are where you fins bitter flavours, and more important non ethanol alcohols, those that can make you go blind. Freeze distillation concentrates ALL alcohols and can make it easier to ingest the more toxic ones. How much of the 'bad alcohols' are in your booze, hard to say. You might have no issues, might be able to make safe drink for ages, then again, you might one day make a batch and never see another sunrise again.

I've heard this all the time but what I just don't understand why it would matter since,for example 1L of 0.5% methanol and 0.5L of 1% methanol contain the exact same amount of methanol(or other higher alcohols).
But everywhere I've read it says that brewing is perfectly safe, while distilling is not, so why is this?

Nobody's got to say, if putting a whole in a cap and gluing a tube into it, and sticking the other end of the tube in a glass of water, is too hard. This may not be the best hobby to pick up, especially if you are looking into distillation. You do understand nobody was describing a removable cap that came with the jug you have? Or a cork? Not drilling a hole in the glass. Once you make this, you have it forever and can reuse it over and over. This airlock will give you a much safer seal against contamination, especially if you add a few drops of bleach to the water glass.

When I said it sounded too complicated I didn't mean that the procedure was complicated, I meant that it was complicated under swim's current circumstances.

Nobody forgot to mention yesterday that both poppy seeds and mustard seeds have yeasts on them. While neither is particularly tasty (and mustard beer may be REALLY awful), you can capture the yeasts by floating a piece of toast covered in said seeds in you fermenter. Some point nobody will have perfected their poppy seed beer, but it's still in development.

Although that's an exellent idea,believe it or not,poppy seeds are outlawed in here too, hahaha.About the mustard seeds, swim will probably take a look at it if he comes accross them.

Bottles: Since you are more likely then not unable to find a bottle cap machine, take a look around for bottles with this sort of topper.
<img src="http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/grolsch.jpg" />
They should be strong enough to take carbonation, if you can try one out and see what happens. Understand bottles are not made the same, if you made champagne in a wine bottle, there is little doubt that the bottle would explode or at the least the cork would fly off long before you got to drinking it. You MIGHT be able to get away with screw top soda bottles. Might.

Thanx for the info but swim is not planning on making sparkling cider, but if you think that it would be a better idea then swim would appreciate the input.
Thanx again,Robo

[tryptamaster]

ok swim has used bakers yeast and sugar water and it DOES ferment. of course, it doesnt taste that good but swim doesnt really mind it...haha. also he jsut wont sue fruit to to fears or metanol formation. he has heard pechtin will convert to methanol and that woodier substances produce methanol also. is swim right on this?

[Tweak92]

Swim tried the sugar/water/yeast method before and it worked very well...

[dutch-marshal]

you scoop out the yeast afterwords?

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No, swim just transfers the liquid into another container while leaving the leeches at the bottom.

[Tweak92]

No, swim just transfers the liquid into another container while leaving the leeches at the bottom.

[tryptamaster]

swiy dutch marshall, in swims expierince there is soemtimes too much yeast used reulting in a weird yeast gelly substance. putting the solution through jsut about any time of filter will remove this. Then you are left with a very easy very quick and very cheap form of ethanol. and to be honest the taste really isnt thaaaat bad. swim thinks hard alcohol is alot more unbearable.

[tryptamaster]

swiy dutch marshall, in swims expierince there is soemtimes too much yeast used reulting in a weird yeast gelly substance. putting the solution through jsut about any time of filter will remove this. Then you are left with a very easy very quick and very cheap form of ethanol. and to be honest the taste really isnt thaaaat bad. swim thinks hard alcohol is alot more unbearable.

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thx, will try verry soon :P

[Dr_H]

one minor correction to Tweak92, the lees are the spent yeasts at the bottom not "leeches". And a correction to tryptamaster: It was not a question of too much yeast but you were a little impatient. If the water turned gel then you were using WAY too much yeast. Most recipes for wine or beer call for about 1 tsp - 1 tbsp of yeast per gallon. If you wait till the ferment it done: Either the yeast runs out of sugar or the alcohol content goes over the yeasts tolerance zone. The yeasts will at that point die or go into stasis. Either way the mash will clarify at the yeasts settle to the bottom. With bread or bakers yeast you will not get over 6% alcohol content, about half of the average wine but just over the average beer. It will not taste very good but will work. If you use a turbo yeast (you can find these in Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and just about any other place where distillation is legal. The turbo yeast will get the alcohol to around 16%-18%. But like someone above said the product from turbo yeast is generally not drunk prior to distillation.

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Thanks for your input on an awesome thread, just spreading the love.

[RoboCodeine7610]

With bread or bakers yeast you will not get over 6% alcohol content, about half of the average wine but just over the average beer.

Swim thought Baker's yeast had an alcohol tolerance of about 14%, as a matter of fact swim found several guides supporting this...

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thanks for starting an awesome thread, this has been a great time.

[Potter]

If people are interested in making a home still, a google search will come up with a number of sites offering well documented instructions on constructing a wide range of apparatus on any budget.

Key points of concern: No open flames! Not under any circumstances. You use electric heat sources and clear all other sources from a room. This includes pilot lights on range tops (though ovens are probably safe as long as the door is closed and the apparatus isn't on the floor, but best to be safe). No smoking, no candles, no incense.

Make sure your pressure release valve is working. Don't use a rusty pressure cooker, or one with any suspect parts. Make sure to test it with water before using alcohol. If this is your first still, best not to use plans involving making your own valve, there are plenty of simpler plans out there. Yes the pressure cooker is pricey, but it's better then a bomb, hospital, cops, burning down the home, death. Look around, there are plans that don't modify the cooker, so you'll still have it for other applications.

Good thermometer, get a new one, don't skimp.

Evidence: Modified pressure cookers are going to be hard to defend in court. Try and find plans for a still the breaks down after use so there's nothing incriminating left. Don't leave it sitting around the house when not in use. If you are concerned about smell, charcoal fish tank filters, an exhaust fan, dryer tubing, and a cardboard box as a fume hood, can make a passable filter system.

Don't use a radiator, you can not safely clean it and this can be a major source of contamination. Even new ones can have chemicals from manufacturing that can pose a hazard.

Once you're done distilling, the product is likely to be harsh as hell, this can be solved through charcoal filtering (brita or fishtank filter), and aging.

Nobody is only in research stages of this process and hasn't done hands on work, but these are from notes they've received from an old druid, renowned for his work in alcohols.


There is also an alternative to a complex metal still. Picture of a legal novelty still. These are small enough to avoid the law and can be found openly. You won't be able to make hard liquor and homebrewing may not be the wisest as contamination could be an issue. You could probably get a good glassblower or someone in a chem lab to make you one.

Nobody is very much enjoying this thread, let's keep it going.

Love.
Potter.

[jon-q]

If swimmers out there are interested in building alcohol stills,It wouldn't do them any harm if they were to do a little research in to using Alcohol as an alternative fuel for their lawm mowers/weed wackers e.t.c-swiys can even obtain a licence which would allow them to produce <150% proof Alcohol in their sheds perfectly legaly.
If swiys really wanted to take the piss they can even apply for a little tax relief.Lol
On a side note could bakers yeast not just be boosted by the addition of one or two extra nutrients??
Latters Q

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[cra$h]

regarding the open flames, what if the still is outdoors, and a kettle is used? an open flame is hard to avoid with the lack of electricity. Swim's currently looking for a battery powered hotplate, but isn't spending $300 on something he's trying to save money on.


And on another note: Swim is aware that menthanol (sp?) is toxic, and is also distilled, along with a chemical (clarification please?) is toxic at both the begining and ending part of what has been distilled, but is ignorant to how much. And along the same lines, if a gallon of mash is used, how much is expected to be distilled? and how much of that is drinkable?

[RoboCodeine7610]

Swim thinks distilling is way too dangerous and complicated for his interest so right now he's just trying to get as much alcohol as he can just by fermentation.
Any tips on how to achieve this?And how much sugar is too much?

Thanx, Robo