Prison brew

[Irish]

Hey guys,
New to the forum but been making wine for a while.
A guy I met in the hospital used to be in prison and while chatting he mentioned how they made "hooch" in the big house so I've decided to give it a shot using simular methods they used, just added sterile equipment.

I didn't weigh out any of my ingredients .

Oranges and grapes.
Baking yeast.
Sugar.
Water.

All in an orange juice plastic bottle.

To my surprise it's taken off, smells normal enough ,
I will be interested to see the end result.

anyone else ever tried this method???

Interesting experiment.

 

[BernardSmith]

Hi Irish - and welcome. Anything with fructose, sucrose or glucose (sugars) will ferment and if you have enough flavor-rich fruit you will - as you know - obtain a flavor-rich wine but if the quantity of fruit is small and if the fruit is nearly tasteless, but you have enough sugar, you will make alcohol. So while I agree that making "hooch" is an interesting experiment I am not sure that it will do anything except perhaps give you a buzz - And note, that since adding water to the fruit juice - (and that may have been a necessity in a prison) will dilute any flavor, so my hypothesis is that this wine won't be very tasty...

 

[Irish]

Hey thank you for the welcome and reply,
It's fascinating that those guys n gals in prison can manage to create alcohol. I should have asked him more questions but at the time my mind was a bit distracted.
Surely they have a prison shop of sorts to buy fruit juice.

Well I will add back on the taste, I'm sure like you said it's going to be pretty weak .

My wife thinks it's hilarious having my juice bottle in the living room down close to the heating.....

I'm a bad *** ha ha

 

[CGish]

Pruno threads come up occasionally. Good luck being able to drink the end result.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruno

But it is an experiment a fair number of people attempt, so have fun!

 

[BernardSmith]

I wonder how easy it would be to obtain bread yeast without creating a lock-down? My guess is that most prison hooch would make use of wild fermentation

 

[Irish]

I vaguely recall the guy I spoke to saying he was a cook in the prison so he way have been able acquire items easier that way but I can't be sure.

 

[JohnT]

In a former life, I would be cracking jokes right now. Jokes, like..."do you plan on going further to try and replicate the food they serve along with it?" or "Perhaps you could find those perfect tin cups to serve it out of?" or "do you plan on aging it in the toilet?".

I have grown since joining this forum, so I will NOT be saying those jokes here.

Seriously, though, I do applaud your spirit of experimentation. I would not get my hopes up that you end up with anything drinkable.

 

[Irish]

In a former life, I would be cracking jokes right now. Jokes, like..."do you plan on going further to try and replicate the food they serve along with it?" or "Perhaps you could find those perfect tin cups to serve it out of?" or "do you plan on aging it in the toilet?".

I have grown since joining this forum, so I will NOT be saying those jokes here.

Seriously, though, I do applaud your spirit of experimentation. I would not get my hopes up that you end up with anything drinkable.

Hey johnT ,
Thanks for not cracking the jokes.
That guy did mention that the taste was pretty mean but that in the prison life just having alcohol was great .

Ill probably have my wife taste it first , sharing is caring and all.