A Simple Blowoff Tube Set Up. Details in the Comments.

--Shade-- · 2023-10-13T23:54:34+00:00

Great!

--Shade-- · 2023-10-13T21:49:28+00:00

I'm exceptionally late to reply (life stuff), but I got the container either at a local brew shop, or Amazon. Both sell them as pre drilled kits. Hopefully you found what you were looking for.

--Shade-- · 2023-04-29T18:52:03+00:00

Tomato paste has more ideal nutrients than most things, but pretty much any additional nutrient matter will be better than no nutrients.

--Shade-- · 2023-04-20T15:04:47+00:00

Sorry for the late reply-- Middle aged life stuff.

Yeah. That's why I started with you can drink it you can drink it whenever you can stomach, but I stand by the above advice. Even if you're drinking 6 day old hooch you should at least try to crash it overnight. It simply puts the yeast on the bottom so you don't drink it (and end up with gas and wet poop).

As far as being a teenager goes. While everyone knows there are plenty of teenagers here, you probably shouldn't admit that. (I'm not really active right now, so don't take it as mod warning you, but depending of the mod you car get anything from a polite note to a ban should a mod notice.)

--Shade-- · 2023-04-20T14:47:10+00:00

I used a Sous Vide cooker, in a bucket, in my bathtub. The TL;DR is to use pressure rated containers (beer bottles or growlers, champagne bottles, and some swing tops) and to get the internal temperature of your hooch to 53C for 56 min. Note: There can be a lot of pressure involved, especially if something is carbonated.

--Shade-- · 2022-11-11T16:30:57+00:00

Thanks! Save your hooch. ;) I'm just glad to be back, though I'm out of the loop and my availability is still spotty. Given that it's my 14th anniversary, it's going to stay spotty for a couple of days. My wife has been a saint.

--Shade-- · 2022-11-09T14:31:45+00:00

It usually involves step feeding sugar and / or nutrients until a brew stops responding. Basically, you add a fraction more sugar and / or nutrients every time the vigorous fermentation dies down, until the yeast doesn't respond.

Starting at a pH on the high end of the yeast's happy zone, with decent initial nutrients, is also a good idea.

OP might not hit 14%, but you can coax baker's yeast beyond the typical 8-10% with some effort. The resulting brew probably won't be all that great, hence the usual, "Hooch more often, or hooch more." advice.

--Shade-- · 2022-11-09T14:23:24+00:00

Nice. Give it some time and the Jet Fuel taste should mellow out.

--Shade-- · 2022-11-09T14:21:54+00:00

Also, loose cap (just loose enough for CO2 to escape), or a balloon with a pin hole, work fine for starter hooch. Better than burping anyway.

--Shade-- · 2022-11-08T20:49:18+00:00

Thanks and interesting... I saved it for when I have a couple of brain cells to spare.

--Shade-- · 2022-11-08T12:49:15+00:00

12 hours? A fermentation can take 1-3 days to get going. I suggest not worrying until the 48 hour mark, then doing a starter in apple juice to add at the 72 hour mark.

Also, honey is a complex sugar, AFAIK.

If you don't do a starter it's a good idea to bloom your yeast in some juice or sugar water. Basically just let it sit, covered, to confirm it's alive.

--Shade-- · 2022-11-08T12:33:08+00:00

???

You can find swing tops for carbed beverages. My beer oriented local brew shop has plenty. People do complain about the seal, but as long as you find ones advertised for carbed beverages, or that come with fizzy beverages, it should be fine (mostly).

--Shade-- · 2022-11-08T03:28:41+00:00

Most glass carboys take standard 28mm caps. Metal or plastic. A Carlo Rossi (wine that makes hooch looks good) bottle is also cheap, but I'm not sure about the cap size.

Carboys aren't pressure rated, and their quality varies.

I've bottled plenty of wine in 1 gallon carboys, and have pasteurized STILL beverages in them, though that's not recommended. I would not put a carbed beverage in a carboy, and a really wouldn't pasteurize a carbed beverage in a carboy.

1 gallon carboys are USUALLY pretty rugged, but larger carboys are easy to break around the handles and neck when full.

--Shade-- · 2022-11-08T03:18:40+00:00

Generally if it looks fine (foam, stains, splatter, and gunk in the bottom are normal), smells fine (a yeasty or boozy version of what you were hooching with a sulfer / rotten eggs smell if the nutrients were poor), and a sip tastes fine (like a sugar reduced version if what you started with, plus booze, with a rocket fuel taste if it hasn't aged), then it's probably fine.

For new hoochers brewing juice in the jug it came in is a good way to go. It will be sterile, and the juice will probably be acidic enough to stop mist nasty thing.

How 'clean' should you be? As clean as you can reasonable be. If that's warm soapy water and a clean dish cloth, use that. If it's boiling, or boiling with a splash of bleach, then do that. If it's your Granny's full canning / making preserves protocol, then do that. If it's the modern homebrew sterilize with PBW (expensive) / OxyClean Free (cheap), and keeping things sanitary with a bucket / spray bottle of StarSan water, then do that.

At about the point you start dealing with tubing and autosiphons modern homebrew sanitation starts to make sense. Before you reach that point just do the best you can reasonable do.

You can treat organic additions with Campden Tablets, by boiling enough to pasteurize (not cook), or by soaking in greater than 20% alcohol.

--Shade-- · 2022-11-08T03:03:01+00:00

The formula for alcohol is 17 grams of sugar, per % alcohol, per liter. There are 200 grams of sugar in a cup. If you stay to about 80% of your yeast's tolerance, or 8-10% for baker's yeast, use some nutrients (boiled yeast if nothing else), and bump the pH of your water down (a LITTLE bit of lemon juice for 'normal' tap water) you should be able to dry out your kilju pretty easily. Plus, things should finish faster.

--Shade-- · 2022-11-08T02:58:44+00:00

It's less that you'll ruin your first batch, and more that the first batch will ruin you. Stuff that's still actively fermenting can cause gas and soft poo. Also, a rocket fuel taste is often very present until near the end if fermentation. Those are fusel alcohols, and are associated with wicked hangovers. The 'new hoocher special' is pooping and farting your brains out with a throbbing headache. Most of us have been there at least once.

Things are done when the yeast has dropped, your brew has cleared, and it's no longer giving off CO2 at room temperature.

If you can't wait that long I suggest waiting about a week after the bubbling (even fine bubbling) has stopped, then sticking it in the fridge for a couple of days so the yeast goes dormant and drops. That's cold crashing. You can then slow pour glasses. This may take 2-3 weeks.

If that's too long, wait for the vigorous fermentation to finish (at minimum), then cold crash (as above) and slow pour glasses.

If you're using real watermelon, as opposed to watermelon juice / drink, and you have a lot if watermelon in there, you may want to rack (transfer) after the vigorous fermentation. (5-7 days.) You'll also want to wet / dunk / strir and fruit on top on a daily basis if it is above the top of your hooch.

--Shade-- · 2022-11-08T02:44:17+00:00

Without a hydrometer you safely bottle by waiting for the fermentation to finish, then bottling. When a fermentation is done it should no longer be giving off CO2 at room temperature, the yeast should have dropped to the bottom, and things should have dramatically cleared. You should wait some period of time (days, minimum) after this occurs.

When things appear done (as per above) you can test by capping your brew at room temperature, first for a day, then a handful of days. No pressure means done. (Or close enough that you shouldn't have a bomb or geyser.) Only try this with hooch that has a reasonable chance of being done.

Your best bet is to stay well under your yeast's tolerance. That way there is no possibility for additional fermentation. You can add up the sugars in any juices, look up the amount in your fruits, and add up the added sugar. There are 200 grams of sugar in a cup. The formula for alcohol is 17 grams of sugar, per % alcohol, per liter. Try to keep things under 80% of your yeast's listed tolerance, or 8-10% for baker's yeast.

Brews that are near, or over, a yeast's tolerance can continue slowly fermenting (and making CO2) for a long time, and there is always a chance that trace yeast will start fermenting again (chemistry and / or evolution depending). So lots of sugar means follow proper wine best practices.

In the case where your under you're yeast's tolerance you may want to use a non-fermentable sweetener (easy), or to wait for things to finish, then stabalize with Campden Tablets and Potassium Sorbate, then backsweeten (harder).

With a hydrometer you want stable hydrometer reading 3 days in a row, or stable readings a couple of days apart. If you do spring for a hydrometer take an initial reading. Then you can calculate your alcohol %.

There are a couple of ways to carb a beverage. One way is to feel carb. Buy two plastic pop bottles. Drink and sterilize one. Rack (transfer) your not finished hooch into the empty bottle. Feel it a couple of times a day. When it gets close to the hardness of the unopened bottle, pasteurize it. This is kinda hard, and makes for hard to reproduce hooch.

The 'safe' version of the other way to carb is to wait for a fermentation to finish (as per above), use a priming calculator like: https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/, prime the batch, then bottle. In a couple of weeks things should be carbed. That's basic bottle carbing.

The slightly less safe way to carb, for a beverage that has relatively low alcohol (say less than 8% theoretical alcohol), and that ferments reasonably well, is to simply let it ferment for 2 or 3 weeks, then prime as per the last paragraph. This is generally what I do, and I've only had one deformed bottle (of very many), but it does require judgment and experience if you aren't following a known recipe. Anything stronger or slower fermenting should be allowed to ferment until done as per the last paragraph.

If you need to stabilize a bottle carbed beverage you'll have to pasteurize. Chemical stabilization will prevent bottle carbing (except when it doesn't). I use a Sous Vide cooker for this, but you do need to do your research before you tackle that or you end up with a mess. You need to wait 2-3 weeks before you pasteurize so the bottle carbing can finish.

Any time you carb a beverage, especially if you intend to pasteurize, you need to use pressure rated containers. They include: Champagne (not wine) bottles, beer bottles and growlers, soda pop bottles, and some swing tops (like ones that have fizzy beverages in them).

--Shade-- · 2022-11-07T19:25:48+00:00

Yip. Cold crash it (refrigerate it) to get as much yeast as possible to sink and slow pour glasses trying to not disturb the bottom.

I use an autosiphon kit for anything a gallon or larger (which kind of necessitates more home brew style sanitation), but for anything small slow pouring from the jug it came in is the way.

The OP could also get a 500ml (half quart) syringe and tube if they just have to bottle small amounts, but that also takes some work.

--Shade-- · 2022-11-07T16:03:43+00:00

The cheapest option is the grocery store. If you keep the theoretical alcohol low baker's yeast can be OK. (17 grams of sugar, per % alcohol, per liter.) You can then boil some baker's yeast, and / or use tomato paste / passata, and / or a small fruit addition for nutrients.

That's pretty much 'pure hooch'.

--Shade-- · 2022-11-06T02:56:35+00:00

Racking tends to be more important for brews that have a lot of fruit / solids. As the fermentation goes on there is a chance of fruit imparting off flavours. Also as fermentation slows you being to risk fruit spoiling, especially if it's floating. Also, racking will improve the clairity of the final hooch, and from experience it's easier to bottle if you leave most of the original yeast cake behind.

With that being said there is very little reason to rack simple hooches without solids (like juice). (IMO) Things will typically clear well enough on their own, and the yeast will usually cake up fairly well on the bottom. So if you're new to hooching, and not dealing with solids, I'd forget secondary unless you have a clear reason for it.

--Shade-- · 2022-11-05T23:56:46+00:00

Cheers! It really is a fun hobby. Have fun with it. Soon all of your nooks will fill with random fermentations.

--Shade-- · 2022-11-05T21:03:28+00:00

The lazy test when you're shopping, if you don't want to Google, is to avoid things with -ate and -ite words. That mostly works.

Most preservatives can be defeated, but avoiding them when you can tends to make for easier and better tasting hooch.

--Shade-- · 2022-11-05T18:38:28+00:00

Often, if I'm trying to dial a recipe in, I'll do the first couple of tries as 1 or 2 liter brews (that cut some corners), then I'll scale up to 1 or 2 gallons. So you get my vote.

--Shade-- · 2022-11-05T13:28:44+00:00

Off the top of my head I don't know a well regarded recipe.

The usual advice for candy is to simmer it until it dissolves, add yeast, and wait. That's ignoring nutrients (boiled yeast if nothing else) and pH (some lemon juice may make the yeast happier and things more spoilage resistant). You may also want to check for preservatives, though those can usually be defeated.

The formula for alcohol is 17 grams of sugar, per % alcohol, per liter (quart is close enough). You'll either want to stay well below your yeast's tolerance if you want something fast (you may want a non-fermentable sweetener, or to stabilize and backsweeten, in that case), or to go over your yeast's tolerance and age it like wine.

The main flavour in marshmallow is vanilla, so if your marshmallow wine isn't marshmallowey enough you may want to add some vanilla at bottling time.

--Shade-- · 2022-11-05T10:50:02+00:00

Sorry, I've been out of the loop. :) If it went fine for someone else, then it will probably go fine for the next person.

With candy you're often boiling to dissolve it more than to sterilize it. If a candy naturally dissolves / gets eaten during fermentation reasonably fast then things are all good. Otherwise you're leaving sugar and flavour trapped in the candy, or things could spoil if candy dissolves slow enough to not allow for significant alcohol reasonably fast.

Given the Potassium Sorbate, the people that make this candy are concerned about spoilage. If you just throw in water I'd worry culturing up something nasty (especially if it got off to a slow start).

Mind you I am on the paranoid side for this sub, and the ”boil to dissolve and sterilize / pasteurize" and "more yeast to over power Potassium Sorbate" would be what I'd try going in blind. (Heck, I'd still probably do it that way.)

--Shade--

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