/poverty/ - Poverty & Thrift

Second step, get your feedstock. Grab whatever fermentable sugars you can find, fruit juices, raw table sugar, cane sugar, beet sugar, (Honey will brew but much slower than other sources of sugar), Anything that is sweet and not artificial is pretty much going to work.

Third step, get a hold of yeast. Bread yeast will work, wine yeast will work, champagne yeast will work, beer yeasts will work. Pretty much the only thing you will want to be picky about (if you have the option) is the type of yeast you are able to get, as it effects the quality of your brew, in alcohol content and in taste. Bread yeast will ferment vigorously when kept warm, (a warmer comfortable room temperature works perfectly), leave high alcohol contents, but make it taste and smell like ass. This is disgusting, if you can't hold your alcohol I would not suggest this strain. Your best bet for sugar-wine, or trash juice, is going to be a white wine yeast, or a champagne yeast, champagne over wine. They both have normal fermentation times, high alcohol contents, and are somewhat temperature stable, they will also make it taste like ass, but all of these are going to, you can't win if you are just using sugar, but they won't suck as much ass as bread yeast will. Beer yeasts have variable fermentation times, alcohol contents, temperatures, and tendencies. I don't know much about them, but they are generally more expensive than wine or champagne or bread yeast.

Fourth step, mix. Grab the largest pot you have, and mix your sugars into water. The amount of sugar you add is somewhat non-relevant as unless you control the yeast type, temperature, and types of sugars, you will never be able to predict how much your yeast will eat. I will elaborate after I finish. So you've mixed your sugars and water, not to the point of syrup, now turn your burner on high, and bring it to a boil for 5-10 minutes. This kills bacteria, foreign yeasts, helps to boil off chlorine, and will totally dissolve the sugars. Unless you put too much in. Let it cool to the point where you can put your hand in it comfortably, liquid too hot will kill your yeast. Bring it to just above room temperature, (70 degrees fahrenheit, or within 10 degrees of it) and vigorously stir it, you are trying to "whip" oxygen into the batch. Then, pour it into your container. If you have only a small pot or pan, then do it in batches.

Fifth step, pitch your yeast. Depending on how quick you want this, you can pre-start your yeast. If you have liquid or powder yeast it doesn't matter, just add it to a small portion of your sugar-stew in a separate container, cover with foil or saran-wrap, and keep it from getting cold. Wait until it begins to "fizz" at the top. If you look at the surface of the liquid, tiny bubbles should be popping and giving it a seltzery appearance. Or you may just get loads and loads of yellowy foam. It depends on how active your yeast strain is, how warm you kept it, and how much sugar is in the liquid. This can take anywhere from a night to two days. Once you have either done this or skipped that step, just add the yeast into your sugar brew and stir.

Congrats, you just made sugar wine. Place your container in a dark area, cover the opening of your bucket, carboy, jug, piece of trash, bathtub, or drinking squash, and try and keep it warm and away from mold or rotting things. Its a good idea to place a tarp or mat under you container for the first few days, depending on your yeast strain and temperature, you may have it foam over during the beginning of fermentation. (Bread yeast really likes to do this). This can take anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks, what you will need to do is watch the surface of the liquid to check for the "Seltzer" Sort of bubbles popping on top. When they stop showing up your brew has either had a malfunction, or is done. Under warm, favorable, and clean conditions the yeast should have eaten up as much sugar as it can and converted it into alcohol. If your brew is left very sweet and not alcoholic, you either added the yeast while it was too hot, got bunk yeast, or didn't use sugar. If it is left sour and non-alcoholic, you didn't clean it well enough, or let it sit in contact with open air, and it started to turn the alcohol into vinegar. If it is slightly sweet and very alcoholic than you did a great job, continue using the amount of sugar you used, as well as the yeast you used. If it is weakly alcoholic and not sweet than you didn't use enough sugar, or added too much water to your sugar. If it is very alcoholic and way too sweet, than use less sugar next time. The amount of sugar your yeast will eat is dependent on a few factors, just keep it warm, clean, sugary, and try and use high-octane yeasts. If it ended up badly, try using less or more sugar next time. This is kind of hard to fuck up. Some yeasts will also just dip out at low alcohol content but leave your sugars, this means you should probably get different yeast, or try keeping it warmer.

Last step. Get hammered. Anyone with questions or tips or comments is welcome to post. General alcohol thread.