Home brewing/distilling and wine making
 

Any of you dabble in this?

I've always wanted to make and hoard my own gin, moonshine and blueberry wine but I have no idea where to start. Especially in terms of finding good suppliers or wholesalers of high-quality flavorings and extracts etc.. There seems to be plenty of guides and tutorials online, and various recipes but they all seem a bit too basic in terms of flavor.

I'd guess blueberry wine would be easiest to start with.

I have an airlock that I can put on a bottle of juice with some yeast that'll turn it into champagne in a week. Cherry juice comes out pretty well. Beyond that I've wanted to make my own beer (ideally, some kind of super high abv malty ipa) but haven't had the means or willpower to yet.

Have you tried putting a cat in the airlock? You could throw in a poison capsule.

I know cats have crazy compression abilities but I think that's a stretch.

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...DL9M3VMqVvuHzR

You will have to assume it's both dead and alive till you open the airlock, and until then it's not animal abuse.

mad ting, this is potentially a great thread. Nicely posted.

I just figure it'd be useful to know how to make these things, that way if your life/career ever goes up in flames you can just join a carnival and sell moonshine out of a wagon.

Oooh what other juices have you tried? I bet plum juice would be good. Plum wine/plum sake is amazing, y'all should try it if you haven't.

Yeah, beer seems like it would be quite an ordeal (same with whiskey and bourbon) ..

Can you distill semen?

Maybe if your diet is sugary enough.

Only one way to find out!

Or if you're diabetic?

Dunno about beer but I know of someone who has made cider at home. Seemed easy enough.

Does Kombucha count?

Kombucha my lord, Kombucha
Oh lord, Kombucha

What's wrong with Kombucha? :(

What does kombucha taste like?

Depends what kind of tea and flavors you use. I've actually never drank it plain.

I make my own wine using vegetables grown in my garden. I plan on having a go at making cider soon too. I'm very new to the art (been doing it less than a year) so I've loads to learn but I really enjoy the process and it tastes so much nicer than grape wine in my opinion. Tastes especially delicious on shrooms which is the definitive acid test for me. I highly recommend it.

Interesting, I have never heard of that... It really tastes better than grape wine? Which vegetables taste the best, or do you use a combination of different vegetables?

I've heard of flower wine, which actually sounds wonderful (honeysuckle wine! Ooh or honey mead made with honeysuckle honey.)

Peapod wine is my absolute favourite, but I really like parsnip too. And blackberry. You can pretty much make wine out of any fruit or veg and it's surprising how seemingly bland flavours can be transformed into something quite interesting with only the fermentation process.

Oh, I'd imagine. And really, a lot of off-the-shelf wines are terribly bland (I think people just delude themselves into thinking they're not, honestly) so might as well make it yourself. The idea of peapod wine is delightfully quaint.

I think elderflower+blueberry+honeysuckle wine would be lovely.

(and now I've got Nina Simone's "Lilac Wine" stuck in my head)

Ah, right of course. I bet jasmine tea would be nice.

Have any of you made moonshine before? I am struggling to decide which distiller kit to buy from Amazon. This is the most popular one-- it only holds three gallons, however:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....SR190,246_.jpg

I've been thinking about getting a 5 gallon stainless one like this...

https://www.amazon.com/Alcohol-Moons...FD0ZQQJ4MX101K

Saw a review recently on YouTube featuring the 3 gallon model...



Might go totally DIY and build one from scratch, depending on the total cost of all the parts and time to build.

Yeast (Champagne yeast is meant to be the best)
Water
Fruit juice
Sugar

Makes alcohol apparently.

You can also leave out the juice and leave it unflavored until you want to drink it, then just mix it with whatever you want.

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/produc...FccQGwod2HsKRA

Would that yeast be OK?

Bread yeast will result in a much weaker wine since it can only survive in 7-10% ABV* while wine yeast is bred to survive up to 18% ABV*.

*numbers estimated based on memory

Not worth it then. Would still be pretty cool to try though.

I think champagne yeast is a quid a packet.

This is the yeast I currently use when I'm in the mood to brew up a batch...

Red Star Distiller's Active Dry Yeast

I've been using it mostly to make hard cider but I've also used it with the sugar & water combination. Might try using it in a batch of homebrewed beer when I have the ingredients for a few gallons.

Tbh I am probably going to try it for the bants.

Just seems like a fun thing to do to brew alcohol at home and even better if it doesn't taste bad.

How long does it keep for?

You'll need an airlock.

While brewing or storing?

Brewing.

I'm not sure how long it would keep, though. I usually drink whatever I make within a few weeks or a couple of months. The longest I've been able to keep any, was about 6 months for a few bottles of beer from a 5-gallon batch I made. They tasted quite good as I recall.

Illegal winery busted at Alabama town’s sewage plant

I wonder if it was good $hit?