JohnPhoenix
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- Oct 16, 2013
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Greetings. ( edit: Long post but only 4 questions below so please read.)
I'm a beer drinker. That said I'm also hard up for funds these days so I thought I'd try making my own alcohol cheaper than I can buy a 6 pack or bottle of cheap wine.
I'm Not looking for great taste. I'm Not looking for clarity of bottle. My goal is to produce enough wine that's strong enough to get two adult males drunk as a skunk and I wanna do it in the least time possible. ( and of course this done cheaper than I can buy a 6 pack) Taste and clarity will come later once it is established we can make the strong alcohol we want.
Now our beer is about 4 percent alcohol for a regular American beer like Miller or Budwiser with Coors going as high as 5 percent. That's fine if we would produce a LOT of beer - we drink about 12 beers each to get a good buzz (over 5 hours time) . But we wont be making that much wine so I'll need to make the wine stronger. My goal is to make wine between 12 and 18 percent ABV.
Keep in mind I haven't done anything yet but watch a bunch of youtube videos on home made wine making and read a bunch of internet articles.
I know that using a still for home consumption is illegal in the USA. I came across a definition of spirits that says,
" Spirits distillation is the process of heating a fermented liquid, evaporating off the alcohol as vapor, and then condensing it back into liquid form. "
O.k. but if the liquid that's heated is fermented in the first place - why use a still? I thought the still was to actually make the fermented liquid in the first place. This is confusing.
Is the reason they use the still to concentrate the alcohol and make it stronger ? It looks like that to me from the above definition.
1) Reason why I ask is (for wine making) - isn't freezing the liquid and pouring off the alcohol doing essentially the same thing in a different manner?
2) I have read that to get your wine the strongest use Campaign yeast. It is said you can get it to 18 percent with this yeast and and the right amount of sugar. What is your opinion on this yeast? Is it best for my purposes?
3) I have read that there is a chart that suggests you can get up to 17 to 22 percent alcohol in just about 10 days - for regular beer strength ( 4 percent) only takes 3 days of fermentation. 3 days to sip my first test that will at least give me a beer like buzz if i drink a lot of them - that aint too bad time. In double this time, a week, I should have wine that at least 9 to 10 percent.
At 1:26 in this video you can see the chart.. it's on homebrewingcaps.com someplace but I dont know where. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9OHf7weO9I[/ame]
What do you think of this chart? Is this realistic?
4) Why age at all if I'm not concerned about taste or clarity?
Once the alcohol stops fermenting, isn't that as strong as it's going to get ( without re-fermenting with more sugar and yeast or using the freezer trick) Couldn't I drink this stuff right away - as soon as my hydrometer tells me it's at the percent I want and still get the buzz I want?
FYI, I know I said cheaper than a 6 pack ( or in our case, a 12 or 24 pack LOL) but I know I'll invest in some equipment such as a hydrometer and some of those CO2 caps and rubber grommets. I just want the main ingredients to be cheaper than a 6 pack in the long run. Cheaper anyway than actually buying the beer/alcohol.
I know some fine wine enthusiast may be offended by my desire to make wine of cheap ingredients like store bought juice or even Kool Aid. I don't know what kind of forum this is, that is to say if such an attitude is tolerated here. I just wanna drink the stuff not make love to it.
Looking forward to your answers, thanks.
I'm a beer drinker. That said I'm also hard up for funds these days so I thought I'd try making my own alcohol cheaper than I can buy a 6 pack or bottle of cheap wine.
I'm Not looking for great taste. I'm Not looking for clarity of bottle. My goal is to produce enough wine that's strong enough to get two adult males drunk as a skunk and I wanna do it in the least time possible. ( and of course this done cheaper than I can buy a 6 pack) Taste and clarity will come later once it is established we can make the strong alcohol we want.
Now our beer is about 4 percent alcohol for a regular American beer like Miller or Budwiser with Coors going as high as 5 percent. That's fine if we would produce a LOT of beer - we drink about 12 beers each to get a good buzz (over 5 hours time) . But we wont be making that much wine so I'll need to make the wine stronger. My goal is to make wine between 12 and 18 percent ABV.
Keep in mind I haven't done anything yet but watch a bunch of youtube videos on home made wine making and read a bunch of internet articles.
I know that using a still for home consumption is illegal in the USA. I came across a definition of spirits that says,
" Spirits distillation is the process of heating a fermented liquid, evaporating off the alcohol as vapor, and then condensing it back into liquid form. "
O.k. but if the liquid that's heated is fermented in the first place - why use a still? I thought the still was to actually make the fermented liquid in the first place. This is confusing.
Is the reason they use the still to concentrate the alcohol and make it stronger ? It looks like that to me from the above definition.
1) Reason why I ask is (for wine making) - isn't freezing the liquid and pouring off the alcohol doing essentially the same thing in a different manner?
2) I have read that to get your wine the strongest use Campaign yeast. It is said you can get it to 18 percent with this yeast and and the right amount of sugar. What is your opinion on this yeast? Is it best for my purposes?
3) I have read that there is a chart that suggests you can get up to 17 to 22 percent alcohol in just about 10 days - for regular beer strength ( 4 percent) only takes 3 days of fermentation. 3 days to sip my first test that will at least give me a beer like buzz if i drink a lot of them - that aint too bad time. In double this time, a week, I should have wine that at least 9 to 10 percent.
At 1:26 in this video you can see the chart.. it's on homebrewingcaps.com someplace but I dont know where. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9OHf7weO9I[/ame]
What do you think of this chart? Is this realistic?
4) Why age at all if I'm not concerned about taste or clarity?
Once the alcohol stops fermenting, isn't that as strong as it's going to get ( without re-fermenting with more sugar and yeast or using the freezer trick) Couldn't I drink this stuff right away - as soon as my hydrometer tells me it's at the percent I want and still get the buzz I want?
FYI, I know I said cheaper than a 6 pack ( or in our case, a 12 or 24 pack LOL) but I know I'll invest in some equipment such as a hydrometer and some of those CO2 caps and rubber grommets. I just want the main ingredients to be cheaper than a 6 pack in the long run. Cheaper anyway than actually buying the beer/alcohol.
I know some fine wine enthusiast may be offended by my desire to make wine of cheap ingredients like store bought juice or even Kool Aid. I don't know what kind of forum this is, that is to say if such an attitude is tolerated here. I just wanna drink the stuff not make love to it.
Looking forward to your answers, thanks.
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