Brewing - The minimum setup for alcohol production

[Mammon]

O.K. much as DF members seem to look down on alcohol one thing that can be said in its favour is that it’s got to be one of the easiest drugs to produce. Every so often threads crop up asking how to make it given the absolute minimum of equipment and ingredients. I thought I’d start this thread to see exactly how thin a person, who obviously isn’t me, can go and still get at least a little tipsy.

I assume that the person in question has access to shops. If it can be done in some kind of Ray Mears (U.K. reference only) survival situation then that’s something we can look at later. Anyway, here’s my starter for one:

Fermentation:

To make booze SWIY needs:

1.) Water
2.) Sugar
3.) Yeast
4.) Yeast nutrient.

1.) Water is obvious, but it helps if it’s slightly acidic. PH 5.5 to 6.5, I’m led to believe is ideal. A person can adjust this using lemon juice, lime juice, etc. Basically, the juice of half a lemon in 4.5L of water should be enough. Maybe more if you have very hard water.

2.) Sugar can have many forms. I’m not a chemist so I won’t embarrass myself trying to elaborate on that. In a minimum setup the average white, granulated sugar is fine. It should, however, be dissolved in water.

3.) Yeast is a tricky one. If we go with my assumption that the theoretical person has access to shops then he (she) can buy bakers yeast. Pretty much everywhere makes bread and the same stuff can be used to ferment. If there is no yeast (say the person only has access to a village Spar) then you can get it off the skin of some fruit (SWIM fermented some plums recently without any added yeast). Grapes, of course, are best for this. Just add the fruit to the wash and let it go. There are other sources but I’m no expert and this is one of the things I hope the wise heads on here can elaborate on.

4.) Yeast nutrient can come in many forms. The best ones SWIM has found are wheatgerm

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81716

and tomato paste. Malt extract is, apparently, is also excellent, although SWIM has never tried it. Again, I hope DF members can add to this list. At the least, everyone who can go to a supermarket should be able to buy some tomato paste.

O.K. So to make the single most basic wash to ferment you could get:


4.5L of water

1kg of white sugar (can also be brown) dissolved in the water.

1tbsp of bakers yeast (add more to ferment quicker – the more you add the less the yeast needs to reproduce). Make sure the sugar solution is between than 30C and 15C in temperature for the whole fermentation. If you add yeast and the temp is much higher it will die on contact.

2 tbsp of tomato paste

Put that lot in a bowl/bucket that is sterile (V. Important) and keep it covered. SWIY MUST let the CO2 that is produced escape. If not you’ll get a wine “bomb” and a load of crap on your carpet. When there are no bubbles it’s done. It should take about 2 weeks. Maybe quicker if there’s a lot of yeast added and the temp is right. Once again: your aim is to let CO2 out and no air in.





Distillation:

O.K. If our unlucky chap has fermented that delicious recipe then he’ll be sitting with a “wine” that can be drunk. It won’t taste good, but we’re talking about the DF here, and guys here put vodka up their ass. Anyway, if he wanted to make it a bit stronger then he (she - would a girl really do this?) could make a basic still and purify it a bit.

Again, we’re not talking about building a reflux still here. We’re only going to assume a little kitchen equipment. It hardly worth saying, but I didn’t come up with this – I got it off the net. This is going to test my descriptive powers but a text diagram at the end should help.

Get a boiling pot and put your “wine” in it.

Get a “stand” and put it in the middle of the boiling pot. The stand has to support bowl and must be heavy enough to not move when the “wine” around it is boiling. It also should be inert. An inverted pyrex bowl should be fine.

On the stand put a bowl that is smaller in diameter than the boiling pot.

Put a wok on top of the boiling pot. It’s hardly worth saying but the wok obviously has to have a greater diameter than the boiling pot and must sit above the collection bowl.

Put ice in the wok and put the whole lot on a hob and heat it to boiling. The idea is that the wine evaporates and then condenses on the cool wok surface. Because of the curvature of the wok the distillate drips down into the collection bowl. When you’re done the bowl holds your primitive moonshine.

Here’s the text diagram to give you an idea of WTF I’m talking about.:

\ /
\--------/

| \--/ |
| || |
|-----|

The thing at the top is the wok. Below it you have the boiling pot, stand and collection bowl.

O.K. so a trip to the supermarket allows SWIM to make the most basic of moonshine. That’s my best so far. I hope the other DF members can better it.

Mammon added 11 Minutes and 41 Seconds later...

It breaks DF rules and everything to post a reply to my own thread, but I can't get that text diagram right. Instead here's a link to the wok-still idea.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2091257_stil...old-items.html

Take care.