Homebrew / Moonshine - Sink vodka appreciation

[Battery Low]

Ginger ale: 100g sugar, 100g shredded ginger, 1 lime's juice per liter

I'm always curious when it comes to "prison wine" style recipies so thought I'd give this a go. Besides, all my fellas kit is loaned out to a friend, and we're stony broke so a cheap "one supermarket run" option is attractive.

I like the fact that the water bottle will already be fairly clean. However I'm a bit worried that my ginger was starting to be a bit "past it" and I should have tried harder to keep everything else clean too.

I tried to rush things as I was also cooking for a hungry child, and waiting until hubs (a brewing autist) was out of the way so he couldn't stop me (added to the "contraband" vibe!) This may have been mistake #2

Mistake #3 is the combo of feeling like I put in too much yeast, maybe closer to 2 tsp? Thankfully its not a fast acting yeast as #4 is a fear I've overfilled the bottle and that it will fountain everywhere. At least I've wedged it in a biscuit tin to catch spills and keep things stable.

I'll let you know how it goes. I love ginger but if I use up my stash trying this, I'll try the apple juice method. I so want this to work, but have my doubts!

 

[Troonos]

I'm always curious when it comes to "prison wine" style recipies so thought I'd give this a go. Besides, all my fellas kit is loaned out to a friend, and we're stony broke so a cheap "one supermarket run" option is attractive.

I like the fact that the water bottle will already be fairly clean. However I'm a bit worried that my ginger was starting to be a bit "past it" and I should have tried harder to keep everything else clean too.

I tried to rush things as I was also cooking for a hungry child, and waiting until hubs (a brewing autist) was out of the way so he couldn't stop me (added to the "contraband" vibe!) This may have been mistake #2

Mistake #3 is the combo of feeling like I put in too much yeast, maybe closer to 2 tsp? Thankfully its not a fast acting yeast as #4 is a fear I've overfilled the bottle and that it will fountain everywhere. At least I've wedged it in a biscuit tin to catch spills and keep things stable.

I'll let you know how it goes. I love ginger but if I use up my stash trying this, I'll try the apple juice method. I so want this to work, but have my doubts!

It's really hard to overpitch yeast. You'll just end up with more lees at the end of fermentation.

 

[Battery Low]

I forced a bit of the initial gas out, and it survived the night without overflowing. It smells fine (just of ginger atm). Looks pretty soupy.

I grated some of the ginger, then chopped most of it due to time issues. Most is at the top. Hoping it doesn't spoil.

 

[Señora Airi]

Gonna start a couple meads for the first time in awhile (a strawberry mead and a blackberry/blueberry mead). I just had a dumb question: would I leave the blackberries and blueberries whole or would I mascerate them a little bit before adding the honey, yeast, and water?

 

[Troonos]

Gonna start a couple meads for the first time in awhile (a strawberry mead and a blackberry/blueberry mead). I just had a dumb question: would I leave the blackberries and blueberries whole or would I mascerate them a little bit before adding the honey, yeast, and water?

Best practice is adding pectic enzyme 1/4 tsp per pound of fruit, then cold macerate (freeze then thaw, repeat if necessary) before adding it to the must.

Make sure you're punching down the fruit at least once a day or more so the top layer doesn't dry out and grow mold.

I recommend the same type of fruit in both the primary and secondary, as each stage extracts different qualities from the fruit.

 

[Señora Airi]

Best practice is adding pectic enzyme 1/4 tsp per pound of fruit, then cold macerate (freeze then thaw, repeat if necessary) before adding it to the must.

Make sure you're punching down the fruit at least once a day or more so the top layer doesn't dry out and grow mold.

I recommend the same type of fruit in both the primary and secondary, as each stage extracts different qualities from the fruit.

Thank you, this is much appreciated

 

[Dfackt0]

Anyone here make Absinthe?
Ive made Absinthe for a while now, my recipe includes Wormwood, Fennel seeds, lemon balm, mint and Nutmeg for that minor delirient feeling, i do not distill it, it becomes too strong to drink, instead i opt for double maceration, adding fresh herbs after a month for a second round
does anyone else here make it? what is your recipe?

 

[Catgirl Tyranid]

Anyone here make Absinthe?
Ive made Absinthe for a while now, my recipe includes Wormwood, Fennel seeds, lemon balm, mint and Nutmeg for that minor delirient feeling, i do not distill it, it becomes too strong to drink, instead i opt for double maceration, adding fresh herbs after a month for a second round
does anyone else here make it? what is your recipe?

Kindly go into as much detail about your process as possible. Preferably with pictures. Also, Nutmeg is a deliriant? ...yep! TMYK!

 

[Dfackt0]

Yes, Nutmeg is a naturally occurring deliriant, eating them whole results in a very unpleasant experience, ive only done it once, and the 2 days that followed, particularly nighttime, was some of the most stressful moments in my life
heres the rundown for my absinthe
I macerate 200 grams of wormwood, 120 grams of anise, 120 grams of fennel seeds, 12 grams of dried mint and 12 grams of lemon balm for 8 days in 2 liters of either grain alcohol or vodka
if i choose to distill it, i take half of it post distillation and i macerate more things in that, this time, heated at about 60C or 140F for an hour, using 2 tea bags worth of mugwort and camellia (Green tea basically), freed from their bags, i also begin boiling another large mug of green tea
after maceration is finished, i combine the two halves back together and reduce the ABV a little with the green tea, this adds a noticeable amount of caffeine and theanine, its a very strange feeling, especially combined with the active ingredient of wormwood, its makes for a feeling of intoxication but i dont feel the loss of my motor skills, the impaired judgement or the general nausea. making this Alcohol more of a Nootropic, a performance enchancer, than anything else
Not to mention, Mugwort is a Oneirogent, meaning it noticeably affects your dreams, I can attest to this
If one chooses to not distill it, straining out the herbs, cutting it in half, adding the aforementioned mugwort and green tea packets for the heated 1 hour maceration period, removing the tea ingredients and combining the halves back together along with reintroducing the herbs and adding more, letting it macerate another 7-8 days
I did omit Nutmeg in this version, but if you were to add it, add it during the same phase you add the tea, you can also add 2-4 grams of hyssop but i dont particularly like the taste

 

[Troonos]

the 2 days that followed, particularly nighttime, was some of the most stressful moments in my life

Please elaborate.

 

[Dfackt0]

Please elaborate.

The active ingredient in Nutmeg is called Myristicin,
i gnawed on like a nutmeg and 3 quarters of a second, i feel like calling the experience a trip is over dignifying
nausea, dizziness, everything felt viscous and like i would melt through the floor like butter in a pan
the nights were horrifying, i once tried to use the bathroom and i had to crawl on my belly because i couldnt get my feet under me, my vision was wracked with head pain and i felt like the floor was sticking to me like glue, and that it would eventually come to life and swallow me whole
I opted instead to piss myself the second night. i thought i would die
nutmeg is considered toxic above 9 grams, or 2 ish tea spoons
sincerely, dont do it

 

[Battery Low]

I grated some of the ginger, then chopped most of it due to time issues. Most is at the top. Hoping it doesn't spoil.

Update. At nearly a week into things, it's slowed down significantly. First time I've not heard clicks and pops as soon as I put my ear close to it. I don't think it's all played out yet.

Looks OK. Still smells OK. Think can detect slight sharper, boozy note in there now.

Hubs is surprisingly board with the prison wine style experiments. Next up we're going to see what happens with honey in the same ballpark of sugar-water ratio as tge ginger beer, and some sourdough starter.

I've read conflicting things about using starter like this so we're just going to dump everything together, probably around 3-3.5 litres in a 5l bottle, 360g jar honey. Give it a good shake and see what happens. It's all cheap ingredients (just using bottom of barrel honey, at <£1 a jar) so it won't be much waste if it's a disaster.

Not sure how much starter to use but think going to add a fair whack to give it a fighting chance. It smells alcoholic pretty often (first starter I've made in years and haven't taken the best care of it if I'm honest) so it definitely seems to contain *something* alcohol-tolerant at least.




Edit, went for approx 4l, dissolved and boiled best part of 3 x 340g honey jars. Once all combined & cool enough added 125ml active starter. No idea how it will go in terms of ferment, flavour or infection but it's fun to see how minimalist we can try to go.

 

[GratsTheat783]

I'm planning on doing mead soon, however some of the recipes I've looked at requires specific types of honey. The Dessert Mead I'm looking at says it needs "heather" honey. Different ones also need specific yeasts like Saternes Yeast, Tokay Yeast, Maury Yeast, etc. It also lists Campden tablets which I've not heard of before. Do these actually matter or can they be used interchangeably? The honey in my local area is blossom honey apparently.

Spoiler: The Recipe

Dessert Mead (sweet)

clover or heather honey - 1.8kg/4lb
hot water - 3.4 litres/6 pints
citric acid - 30 ml - 6 tsp
tannin - 5ml/1 tsp
nutrient - 5ml/1tsp
Tokay yeast - no measurement specified
light brown sugar - 250g/9oz

I followed that mead recipe I posted before (I used general mead yeast and cheap honey I bought from Lidl), but noticed at the end it said to leave the mead for a year once you've bottled it. Is that necessary or just a recommendation? I'll have around 5 bottles of it I'm guessing.

Here's the method.

Spoiler

Mix 3.4L of hot water with 1.3L of honey, 25g citric acid, 5g yeast nutrient, 2.5g tannin until dissolved.
Add Yeast
Put airlock onto demijohn with liquid inside
After 10 days, add half a jar of honey. Put back to brew.
After 10 more days, add the other half with 250g of brown sugar.
Leave for another week.
Bottle and leave for 1 year.

This is from memory, might have forgotten a few things since the book's not on hand.

Also just how sensitive is the brew to outside bacteria? Asking because there was someone else doing it with me who suddenly decided to dip an un-cleansed jug into the pot I had the mix in (it was full right to the top and they were worried about it spilling). Also, there's two bungs for my demijohns, one with a hole to fit an airlock in and one without. Can any be used?

 

[Troonos]

I followed that mead recipe I posted before (I used general mead yeast and cheap honey I bought from Lidl), but noticed at the end it said to leave the mead for a year once you've bottled it. Is that necessary or just a recommendation? I'll have around 5 bottles of it I'm guessing.

Here's the method.

Spoiler

Mix 3.4L of hot water with 1.3L of honey, 25g citric acid, 5g yeast nutrient, 2.5g tannin until dissolved.
Add Yeast
Put airlock onto demijohn with liquid inside
After 10 days, add half a jar of honey. Put back to brew.
After 10 more days, add the other half with 250g of brown sugar.
Leave for another week.
Bottle and leave for 1 year.

This is from memory, might have forgotten a few things since the book's not on hand.

Also just how sensitive is the brew to outside bacteria? Asking because there was someone else doing it with me who suddenly decided to dip an un-cleansed jug into the pot I had the mix in (it was full right to the top and they were worried about it spilling). Also, there's two bungs for my demijohns, one with a hole to fit an airlock in and one without. Can any be used?

"Half a jar" isn't very precise. How big a jar?

Adding acid in primary is unwise. Too low a pH can inhibit fermentation.

And you aren't stabilizing before backsweetening? The yeast is just going to chew up all that extra honey and brown sugar, and you're asking for a dangerous bottle bomb.

Infection is unlikely with obsessive sanitation.

Obviously the bung with the hole is needed, since you're using an airlock.

 

[GratsTheat783]

"Half a jar" isn't very precise. How big a jar?

The instructions didn't say that, but I measured it out using the jars I've got and it would have been about half a jar each week. It needed 1.8kg/4 ounces of honey in total, but specified to only add 1.3/3 ounces at first. I had five jars of 340g of honey and added four of them. 340 x 4 = 1360g. A little bit over, but it will hopefully be fine. I just realised calculating this I'll have to get another jar since I'll be 100g off.

And you aren't stabilizing before backsweetening?

Not sure what that means, but I'm just following what the instructions in the book said.

Here's the full recipe and method transcribed from the book. I made some errors when recalling it, in particular forgetting that the sugar goes in one week after all the honey is dissolved. I also mixed up some of the ingredient amounts with one above (table mead(sweet)) while I was brewing, did 5tsp of citric acid instead of 6 and half a teaspoon of tannin instead of one. Hopefully it won't ruin the brew.

Spoiler: Source: Boots Book of Homewine and Beermaking by Ben Turner 1982

Dessert Mead (sweet)
clover or hot heather honey: 1.8kg/4lb
hot water: 3.4 litres/6 pints
citric acid: 30ml/6tsp
tannin: 5ml/1tsp
nutrient: 5ml/1tsp
Tokay Yeast
light brown sugar: 250g/9oz

1. Dissolve 3lb honey, the acid, tannin and nutrient in the water, cover and leave to cool
2. Add the yeast, pour the must into a fermentation jar, leaving room for the rest of the honey and the sugar. Fit an airlock and leave the jar in a suitable place.
3. After ten days, remove one-third of the must, dissolve half the remaining honey in it and return it to the jar.
4. Repeat this process one week later with the last of the honey and one week later still with the sugar.
5. When fermentation is finished and the mead is clearing, syphon it into a clean jar, bung tight, label and store into a cold place until it is bright.
6. Rack again and store for one year or longer until the strong, sweet mead is mature.

 

[Ass to Ass]

Alcohol converts roughly at 1% per 17g of sugar added per liter and bread yeast can handle up to 12% fine with diminishing returns, flavor-wise, after 6% or so (at least in the short run).

Some rapid rise bread yeasts can go past that, given usage of yeast nutrient. I produced a sugar wash that hit 15% with Fleischman RapidRise.

 

[Troonos]

Not sure what that means, but I'm just following what the instructions in the book said.

Stabilizing is adding potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate to halt yeast reproduction so that when you backsweeten, the yeast doesn't just consume the added sugars and then cause the bottle to explode after bottling.

Honestly, that book looks like it's promoting poor and/or dangerous brewing practices.

 

[kcbbq]

I followed that mead recipe I posted before (I used general mead yeast and cheap honey I bought from Lidl), but noticed at the end it said to leave the mead for a year once you've bottled it. Is that necessary or just a recommendation? I'll have around 5 bottles of it I'm guessing.

Probably, but it somewhat depends on the mead you ended up with. I've had a batch of blackberry melomel where I didn't cook the honey long enough and it took ages to ferment (even after letting it go for a very long time before bottling it still ended up crackling) and it was about 18 months before it stopped tasting medicinal. It was super dry, though, so there really wasn't any sugar to help cover up things. It was eventually really nice and kept for ages, but it was on the more extreme end. It was also made with champagne yeast which lives to fairly high alcohol levels which made things a bit worse on that front. It was amazing two or three years in, it just magically turned awesome. Otoh, that was six and a half US gallon batch (I think 33 bottles in the end).

Sometimes things are ready earlier, but with wine-like fermentations a year is a good estimate, unfortunately. But, everyone tries something from their first batches early. Sometimes it's good enough. It gives us you a sense of what aging does, too. If you keep in the hobby with somewhat regular batches of stuff eventually you have a steady supply of bottles that are more mature.

 

[Troonos]

Probably, but it somewhat depends on the mead you ended up with. I've had a batch of blackberry melomel where I didn't cook the honey long enough and it took ages to ferment (even after letting it go for a very long time before bottling it still ended up crackling) and it was about 18 months before it stopped tasting medicinal. It was super dry, though, so there really wasn't any sugar to help cover up things. It was eventually really nice and kept for ages, but it was on the more extreme end. It was also made with champagne yeast which lives to fairly high alcohol levels which made things a bit worse on that front. It was amazing two or three years in, it just magically turned awesome. Otoh, that was six and a half US gallon batch (I think 33 bottles in the end).

Sometimes things are ready earlier, but with wine-like fermentations a year is a good estimate, unfortunately. But, everyone tries something from their first batches early. Sometimes it's good enough. It gives us you a sense of what aging does, too. If you keep in the hobby with somewhat regular batches of stuff eventually you have a steady supply of bottles that are more mature.

Why are you cooking your honey at all? That's unnecessary unless you're making a bochet style.

 

[Battery Low]

added 125ml active starter. No idea how it will go

Took 2 days but started to get some signs of fermentation, so first hurdle has been crossed.