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Est. 5th Feb 2021
what, the smell? no, it's nothing special. listen to the bubbles, though. nice ambiance, innit? hm? you want a primer? sure,
you're not gonna need anything special. that's how i do it. strictly using things you can get in convenience store. you can fancify it but there's no real need to.
now sit down, kiddo and let me tell you how this works:
i don't work with real fruit. i mostly work with fruit juices and that's because it's cheap and easy. life's difficult enough, no need to make it any more difficulter than it is. anyway, yeast eats sugar, farts co2 and also makes alcohol. but only when it's not exposed to air. that's important. well, that's it. we want to get a sugary solution with yeast, in dark and without access to fresh air.
Q: that's it?
A: that's it.
Q: so, uh, can you make booze from just sugar?
A: yes, very perceptive, imaginary person. that's called sugar wash and is real. mostly for distilling but it is drinkable as is.
Q: so why bother fruit, then?
A: to make it taste nicer
Q: so, what do we need?
A: good one, let's have a look
if you have any actual questions or reports, hit me up at hrnekbezucha@tilde.team
that should be it, honestly. the hose is for racking (more on that later) and you can get it in pet shops or diy shops or whatever.
okay, safe environment is kinda important. safe for the yeast. i suggest mixing a sanitizing solution in a spray bottle. i use water with a bit of thin bleach and a few drops of dish soap. with that i clean the kitchen and the tools i'm using. if some nasty bug get in the final fermentation jug, it would spoil. it doesn't need to be like surgically clean but clean enough.
also, clean the bottles before use.
if it has sugar in it, it'll ferment. if you happen to be in europe, there are laws in place, limiting preservatives, which could impact fermentation. the safest bet are fruit juices and honey. the first recipe we'll do will be idiot-proof cider. just beware that some things don't ferment too well and the hooch will taste like ass. that's simply part of the process and you should not get discouraged. i'll let you know of my failed experiments as well as successful ones. every experience is valuable.
a butterfly? look, there's no "yeast" emoji, so this is what you get. no refunds.
anyway, you could go to brewer's store and get wine yeast or cider yeast or whatevs, but we're doing it the frugal way - bread yeast. yeah, i know - whaaaat?! but it totally works. the only thing to remember is that you need to bare in mind is that bread yeast isn't made for high yields. lemme explain:
there are two ways fermentation can finish. either the sugar is eaten and the yeast just stops, or there is such a high alcohol content, the yeast starts to die. the first would result in a nice and pleasant hooch. the second would be godawful. especially with bread yeast, which is not exactly meant for alcohol production. so we need to put just enough sugar in it to make enough booze but also not too much for the yeast to start dying. i will give you measurements in recipes and a rule of thumb, so don't worry.
it'll take anywhere between two weeks to two months of brewing, depending on how fermentable it is and what's the surrounding temperature. room temperature is just fine. the warmer, the faster. but the faster it goes, the worse it'll taste, generally.
this is called "prison hooch" for a reason. it took me many, many tries before it finally clicked for me. be willing to fail sometimes. it's fine. it's never dangerous and you're never flushing more than $3 worth of stuff down the toilet. start with smaller batches and experiment.