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.

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 (for wine) and apples (for cider) are used in our context, but pears (perry) and honey (mead) work fine too. 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. 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.

Some candy can be boiled down and used to make your wine, if pressing fruit proves too much work but you're not satisfied with on-shelf options. Jolly Ranchers, Sour Patch Kids, Twizzlers, 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.

• r/prisonhooch – the community that inspired this article