Homebrew

I decided to get into making alcohol at home lately – partially because the selection is limited in a Muslim majority nation, partially to save money, partially to learn some wisdom to pass on to other NEETs. It's not easy to homebrew beers here, so I've been sticking to fruit wines and what's virtually kilju (Finnish sugar wine). There are no webpages online that share the information here all in one simple place. The information here comes from many threads across online forums and scattered YouTube videos, compared against more formal resources and personal experience when possible.

Whether you're a NEET, student, or penny-pinching drinker, may this guide find you well.

Sugar + water + airlock + yeast + time + vessel = alcohol. Prepare a sweet cocktail and leave in a warm place for a week or two, and once the yeast multiply enough, it'll start fizzing, and keep fizzing as long as sugar's left. It's almost that simple! Wine yeast will work, but so will bread yeast or even natural yeasts, in a pinch. Table sugar, fruit sugar, honey will work. Glass or plastic work. However, you need to take a bit of care with preparing your vessel, because sugar, water, and warmth are not just good conditions for yeast to grow, but other kinds of bacteria.

If you don't care about the fancy-shmancy stuff, just scroll on down to the heading minimum viable run. You probably already have everything you need to make some cheap stuff that'll get you drunk; worst case, you're $1 or $2 short on supplies. If you're short on cash, everything you need to get started can be bought with food stamps, (for the bread yeast) can be easily swiped, or (for bottled water/sugar packets) can probably be found for free.

The first step is finding a recipe.

• Water bottle w/lid (water+airlock+vessel)
• Bread yeast (yeast)
• Table sugar (sugar)

A fresh, unopened bottle acts fine as a sanitized brewing vessel. Keeping a lid on the bottle very loosely works fine as a ghetto airlock: bugs and other nasties won't get in, carbon dioxide generated by the fermentation can get out. Ideally, you would “start” the yeast before introducing it to your sugar water, by mixing warm water with a little sugar and yeast in a separate vessel, and waiting for it to get bubbling; you would also add some boiled (dead) yeast to the bottle for the yeast to snack on. But this is the simplest viable run.

The recipe will be a little different than other recipes on this page because it shows American units and calculates different scales on your behalf. These bottle sizes were selected because they are commonly available water bottle sizes in America and the rest of the world. The “upper limit” of 8% was selected because it's often cited as a theoretical maximum limit of bread yeast; 6% is like a strong beer. Just use half as much sugar as the 8% for a sugar wine that's more like a light beer (compare 4% and 8%). Go ahead and experiment with ratios and sizes. We recommend starting with the smaller bottle sizes and lower ABV targets because (a) it finishes more quickly, (b) it's more likely to turn out as desired, © there's less waste if it doesn't work out.

Later in this guide, we will show you how to make your own recipes and target different ABVs and talk about different measures for surpassing the 8% ABV limit.

One tablespoon of sugar is approximately 12 grams, so…
4 tbsp ~= 50g, 5 tbsp ~= 60g, 7 tbsp ~= 84g, 8 tbsp ~= 100g….

1. Procure an unopened bottle of water.
2. Remove lid, set it aside.
3. Mix sugar in the right quantity, then (lid on) shake vigorously.
4. Pour out a bit of water/sugar so there's about 3cm/1inch of air in the bottle.
   • This stuff will start building pressure and bubbling once it gets going.
   • If you don't do this, the bottle can explode or otherwise make a gross mess.
5. Add less than a tablespoon of bread yeast.
6. Put the lid back on the bottle and give it a quarter twist or so.
7. Place away from light, somewhere room temperature or warmer.
8. Don't touch it until bubbling stops (1-2 weeks).
9. Place in the fridge for a day.
10. Enjoy your kilju!

Many fruits naturally have sugar in them; famously, grapes (wine) and apples (cider) are used in our context, but pears (perry) and honey (mead) work fine too. The process for making kilju (sugar) was explained in the last section, but it's rarely found outside of Finland. One benefit of the recent rise in the organic products market means that fruit juices without preservatives, i.e. things that kill yeast & prevent fermentation, are becoming more widely available in Western markets. This makes fermenting from pre-made juices easy. Soft drinks such as Gatorade, Red Bull, and Fanta have been known to yield viable hooches, but make sure that any carbonated drinks are properly de-gassed and go flat before starting your run. Syrups, e.g. those used for flavoring coffees and mocktails, may work well.

Homemade alcohol can also be made from grains, such as wheat or rice, which results in beers rather than wines. These involve more work than wines to produce, because the starches must first be broken down into sugars to give the yeast something to ferment. This is done by adding enzymes to a “mash” of grain. You can't make beer with just grain, water, and yeast in the way you can make wine with fruits or berry juice and yeast. Many Asian grocery stores sell yeast balls that make fermenting rice painless. Aside from containing yeast, these balls also contain nutrients for the yeast to grow and the needed enzymes to enable fermentation. Making Western-style beers is a more advanced topic that will probably remain beyond the scope of this article.

Some candy can be boiled down and used to make your wine, if pressing fruit proves to be too much work but you're not satisfied with on-shelf options. Jolly Ranchers, Sour Patch Kids, Twizzlers, candy corn, Peeps, and other kinds of sugared candies have been reported to produce positive results, while random internet commenters advise against making “wines” from chocolates and foods with much dairy content. Little research has been published on this topic.

Balloon airlocks

S-shaped airlock

The simplest possible airlock is using a ready plastic soft drink bottle's original lid, very lightly screwed on, enough that carbon dioxide generated during the fermentation process is released.

A slightly better option is getting a regular latex balloon (for parties and such). With a sewing needle or pin, poke a few holes (2-6) through the deflated balloon. Pull the balloon over the neck of your bottle and secure with rubber bands. The pressure and CO2 gas produced will cause the balloon to inflate during fermentation process, and CO2 will slowly leak out of the balloon without allowing oxygen back in. This is good: after initial fermentation, you don't want oxygen in the wine, as it'll impact the flavor and risk introducing contaminants. A zip-lock bag or even a condom can be subbed for a balloon, in a pinch, but make sure to use rubber bands or find some other means to keep the bag secured.

As an added bonus, you know your fermentation is complete when the balloon deflates. A golden rule: more time always yields better results. If you're not sure if the drink is done, wait to see if the balloon deflates more. With enough age, a cloudy, fully-fermented drink will even clear up: this is due to newer yeast consuming the older yeast.

The most “try hard” option, but one that should be considered, is the use of a proper brewer's airlock. Cheap tapered rubber plugs exist for most vessel sizes, but you may have to order these online for about $5

Pictures sourced from Google Images and r/prisonhooch

5 gallon kilju

A variety of experiments…

Simple.

A future good night.

Cost/scale:

• 20oz water bottle
• 1.5L water bottle
• 2L soda bottle
• 5 gallon water bottle
• Glass carboy

The golden formula:

• 17g of sugar per 1 liter liquid = 1% ABV

Some demonstrations of this principle:

In general, age improves all brews. Sweetness can improve flavor, but artificial sweeteners are generally encouraged – there's no concerns about yeast re-activating, which can lead to unwanted carbonation or stomach distress. At any point, fermentation can be halted with refrigeration for a few days, followed by the clearer top portion of the liquid being siphoned/poured off carefully to retain sweetness and flavor. We generally assume that drinks are allowed to ferment fully, producing as much alcohol as possible with as little sugar remaining as possible. Letting homebrews ferment beyond this point allows yeast to clean up after themselves, resulting in a thicker layer of sediment in the fermenting vessel and a clearer brew to result above.

• Kilju
  • Sugar + water + yeast.
  • 5% ferments quickly with decent flavors; 10% takes longer with worse flavors.
• Cider
  • Apple juice + yeast + sugar (optional)
  • Improve end result with age and/or spices.
  • Aim for 4-9% ABV.
• Mead
  • Honey + water
  • This improves a lot with age especially, and spices to some degree.
  • The flavor is very remarkably like the starting honey, despite not being sweet when fully fermented.
  • Aim for at least 7% ABV or higher.
  • Time ensures the best results.
• Cyser
  • Apple juice + honey
  • Any tips for cider/mead apply just as well here
• Ginger ale
  • After preparing a batch of kilju, add a roughly double amount of ginger to the amount of sugar – shredded very finely or minced.
  • Add a small amount of lime juice (perhaps 2 limes per liter).
  • Brown sugar or molasses improves flavor.
• Kool-aid wine
  • Make kilju. Add kool-aid and artificial sweetener at the end.

• As stated: 17g sugar per liter = 1% ABV. Memorize this rule!
• Siphoning out a large bottle of liquid makes for better results than attempting to pour out the better stuff.
• Higher ABV = less flavor + longer ferment time.
• Longer fermentation means better flavor, even after all the sugar is consumed. Yeast clean up after themselves.
• Buying a new water bottle and fermenting sugar or juice in that is always easier than sanitizing/sterilizing whatever jars or bottles you have laying around the house.
• For larger quantities, yeast nutrient is necessary – whether a crushed vitamin, boiled yeast, tomato paste, or specialty blends.
• Turbo yeast makes products that taste like shit unless they can wait a long, long time.

• r/prisonhooch – the community that inspired this article