Ghetto Homebrew

>>7244977
That's literally it. Sugar, washed out milk jug, yeast, balloon with holes in it. Then just freeze distill it at the end, and add your choice of powdered flavorant.


Or for a few bucks more, you could rig a still. Takes a pot, lid, some copper piping, and some copper mesh. Ours is made with watered flour as a sealant, beer cases as a prop, and a cut open culligan jug with snow in it for the condenser.

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>>7244987
That's really neat, but there's no snow here yet. What about the yeast? Does it matter? From what I've read it effects taste and smell, but as far as potency there seems to be some ambiguity?

I thought I read somewhere more sugar = more alcohol.

>>7244995
Bread yeast gets up to 12% from my experience, but just spend a buck or two getting a packet of higher abv yeast.

>>7244977
I love ghetto homebrewing. I started when I was a sophomore in college and not yet 21... Now I am a professional brewer.

As long as you aren't distilling, just fermenting, you don't need to worry about going blind... there is no methanol made when yeast ferment sugars.

When I started, I used tap water with frozen juice concentrate. table sugar, and baker's yeast. the most complicated thing I did was rehydrate the yeast. Looking back on it, I would suspect it was probably in the neighborhood of 8% ABV range, and tasted like shit.

after that, I upgraded to using a gallon of juice + sugar, instead of juice concentrate + water. this step makes such a big difference in taste, I would probably recommend doing this. if you're feeling crazy you can add fruit (oranges, apples) or spices (cinnamon, vanilla). baker's yeast does the job and you can find it extremely cheap at the supermarket.

if you're willing to spend 5 more dollars on the yeast you could even order a wine or champagne yeast online. they are known to be able to be more resistant to alcohol aka they can get your booze even stronger if you add enough sugar. with these you could probably land in the 10-15% range depending on the sugar.

will answer any questions if you have them

>>7245024
Should I just use 100% pure juice? or is the cheapo shit alright?

>>7245024
Ok, I was reading a short guide on a totse archive and he mentioned that the concentration of the yeast was a key factor in the yield of ethanol. He suggested using a cup of yeast for a 5 gallon batch, how accurate is this?

>>7244977

is that james harden

>>7245024
Also, are there any non trivial benefits to using fruit juice, or any other sort of juice product versus simple sucrose and filtered water as far as yield is concerned?

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>>7245035
It's MC Ride

>>7245031
the better the juice, the better the taste. really you just want to look at the label and pick something with a crazy amount of sugar.

>>7245033
you definitely want to make sure you have enough yeast for a healthy fermentation. it all depends on the type of yeast and the gravity of the batch. Would need to know more specifics.

>>7245039
the benefit is taste. if you aren't worried about that, then no. sugar and water will probably be cheaper. better yeast can get you a higher ABV though so its an investment to consider.

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>>7245041

to be fair, it's an understandable mistake

>>7245051
What is the most 'potent' yeast? Wine yeast exists, but is there some king of all kings strain of yeast?

>>7245057
I usually source my yeast from whitelabs. this is something they carry -- would be ridiculous to get that much sugar in something though

>>7245057
>>7245061

sorry meant to include this link:
http://www.whitelabs.com/yeast/wlp099-super-high-gravity-ale-yeast

says up to 25% ABV which is absurd

>>7245061
>this is something they carry

what is?

also, are you referencing the 10 lbs of sugar in the totse guide?

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>>7245064
Can you explain the concept of 'gravity' to me? I understand that it refers to the density of the booze in reference to water, but why is it a thing? Why not just measure ABV?

>>7245057

champagne yeast is pretty potent and doesn't taste like total dogshit.

you can easily get around 10% abv with it too

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>>7245064
>ferments up to 22%

literally 20 seconds on amazon, I see you linked whitelabs, but this seems cheap as fuck. Is there such a thing as shit yeast? How's this?

http://www.amazon.com/Distillers-Yeast-DADY-bulk-pack/dp/B00SWXNG8A/ref=sr_1_6?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1452240074&sr=1-6&keywords=wine+yeast

>>7245076
gravity is essentially the amount of sugar in a liquid.

to calculate ABV you compare the gravity before fermentation (OG) to the gravity after fermentation (FG) and you can see how much of the sugar was fermented by the yeast.

>>7245061
>source

That's the neck beard word for "buy."

>>7245082
I'm not really familiar with distiller's yeast.

It looks like it would work but I've never heard of that brand so can't speak for the quality.

>>7245082

that is an angry looking otter

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>What kind of material CAN'T I use for the brew bottle?
>Can I sanitize my bottle and equipment with some simple rubbing alcohol, or boiling water?
>Could a bottle remain sanitary as the ABV goes up during fermentation?
>High fructose corn syrup....is it a less useful sugar than pure sucrose? Are there goo and bad sugars to use?
>How can I gauge when the brew is done? Seeing when the fermentation stops is easy, but will leaving it to brew for longer aid in a higher ABV? How long, how much?
>What are some top tier flavors or flavorings that you've used?
>What's 'distillers yeast'? Is it just potent yeast to give a distiller a good product for distillation, or something even further beyond the realm of brewers consciousness?

>>7244977
Google alcotec 24.
Thank me later.

I honestly fucking hate retarded threads like this. Unless you live in a country where alcohol is taxed heavily, homebrewing will not be cheaper or more convenient, even if you're just trying to make the nastiest prison hooch. The equipment/ingredient/time investment is going to add up to more than just buying the cheapest plastic bottle liquor. If you're only in it to get drunk, there are better ways.

The fact that your worrying about going blind from a non-distilled alcoholic beverage shows that you don't even know the most basic science behind fermenting/distilling. You didn't do enough googling.

If you want to get into home brewing for the enjoyment of it, that great. There is plenty of good sources of information out there to get you started.

If you only care about getting drunk, which is seems like you are, don't bother.

>>7244977
Invest in some Star San and a $1 spray bottle. It's relatively cheap considering how much it makes and it'll save you a lot of grief from bad tastes being in your shit.

Look up pruno

Have fun

>>7246040

>pruno

Enjoy your botulism

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6205a3.htm

Buy airlock off of Amazon for 2 bucks.
Get champagne yeast from Amazon.
Mix with Apple juice (the less hfcs and additives the better. )
Let sit in closet for 2 weeks.
Cold crash in fridge, siphon off booze leaving sludge on the bottom.
Pour into bottle, immediately put and keep I. Fridge.

Boom 12% bum cider wine

>>7246177
Oh and don't forget to sanitize the airlock. Don't need to sanitize anything else except maybe siphon since you're using the juice bottle as a carboy

>>7245111
>What kind of material CAN'T I use for the brew bottle?
you don't want to use metals other than stainless steel. they impart their flavor into whatever you're fermenting and will taste horrible. plastic is fine.
>Can I sanitize my bottle and equipment with some simple rubbing alcohol, or boiling water?
yes. boiling water in plastic is probably not a good idea
>Could a bottle remain sanitary as the ABV goes up during fermentation?
yes.
>High fructose corn syrup....is it a less useful sugar than pure sucrose? Are there goo and bad sugars to use?
HFCS will work. you can use pretty much any kind of sugar. the more processed the sugar is, the more unfermentable sugars it will have, so you will have a residual sweetness. the standard in the brewing industry is dextrose (corn sugar)
>How can I gauge when the brew is done? Seeing when the fermentation stops is easy, but will leaving it to brew for longer aid in a higher ABV? How long, how much?
it depends how high ABV you're aiming for. up to ~10% will be done in two weeks. higher than that can take longer. if you want to be certain, you can take samples and use a hydrometer. once the gravity is stable for a couple of days, it's a good sign that fermentation is finished.
>What are some top tier flavors or flavorings that you've used?
as far as hobo wine, I'd recommend fruits. oranges, apples, mangos, grapes, grapefruit, whatever you like. cut them into quarters and throw the whole thing in.
if you use darker fruit juices, spices like vanilla, cinnamon, nutmet, corriander can be good. if you google "joe's ancient orange mead" recipe you can get some good basic info.

>What's 'distillers yeast'? Is it just potent yeast to give a distiller a good product for distillation, or something even further beyond the realm of brewers consciousness?
I'm not familiar with distiller's yeast. I would assume it is just a more alcohol tolerant/highly attenuating yeast. the drawback would likely be flavor