My first hooch

tommy2teas · Feb 1, 2013

Had a bash at the Hooch last night, soooooooooooooo lemonly
cant wait for the finished product
on the right is cordial wine - recipe on this forum somewhere
Fiery Ginger Beer at the back

Gayle · Feb 1, 2013

Just about to put a gallon of this on, sounds yummy

lemon juice was Â£1.20 I think for 500ml, but it's still a cheap drink. Is it easy to get the lemons out of the DJ after fermentation? Should I slice very finely?

chains · Feb 3, 2013

Im deffo getting a gallon of this brewing. used to love hooch!

AutoManics · Feb 12, 2013

I have this bubbling away at the moment, once it's finished bubbling is it just a case of bottling and priming or should it be racked first?

Apologies if this has been covered already. :)

Brewtrog · Feb 13, 2013

Turned out too sour/bitter for my taste, was going to pour it down the drain when a friend suggested making sorbet out of it. Turned out really quite nice.

chains · Feb 13, 2013

Brewtrog said:
Turned out too sour/bitter for my taste, was going to pour it down the drain when a friend suggested making sorbet out of it. Turned out really quite nice.

Got my hooch on yesterday and that's my main worry since in using wine yeast that its going to be too dry and bitter.

Did you try back sweetening at all?

Kudos on tha alcopop sorbet tho, great idea.

Brewtrog · Feb 13, 2013

Got my hooch on yesterday and that's my main worry since in using wine yeast that its going to be too dry and bitter.

Did you try back sweetening at all?

Kudos on tha alcopop sorbet tho, great idea.

I used wine yeast, but I doubled the sugar, and I think I might have thrown in a couple more lemons. I tried sticking a sugar cube into a glass with one of the bottles, but I couldn't be bothered opening it all, back sweetening, and re-priming each bottle, but tasting the sorbet mixture, back sweetening would have worked.

chains · Feb 13, 2013

Brewtrog said:
Got my hooch on yesterday and that's my main worry since in using wine yeast that its going to be too dry and bitter.

Did you try back sweetening at all?

Kudos on tha alcopop sorbet tho, great idea.

Click to expand...

I used wine yeast, but I doubled the sugar, and I think I might have thrown in a couple more lemons. I tried sticking a sugar cube into a glass with one of the bottles, but I couldn't be bothered opening it all, back sweetening, and re-priming each bottle, but tasting the sorbet mixture, back sweetening would have worked.

Cheers for the info, ill just let it ferment dry then and see how I get on. And if all else fails ill be asking you for sorbet recipes lol

Brewtrog · Feb 13, 2013

And if all else fails ill be asking you for sorbet recipes lol

make a simple syrup, half sugar - half water, then boil that down to half the volume (e.g. to make 500ml it'd be 500g sugar 500ml water, then boiled down to 500ml), equal amount of hooch (e.g. 500ml), put in the freezer, stir every half hour or so till it takes on the consistency of sorbet, it'll take anywhere from 4 hours plus.

chains · Feb 13, 2013

Brewtrog said:
And if all else fails ill be asking you for sorbet recipes lol

Click to expand...

make a simple syrup, half sugar - half water, then boil that down to half the volume (e.g. to make 500ml it'd be 500g sugar 500ml water, then boiled down to 500ml), equal amount of hooch (e.g. 500ml), put in the freezer, stir every half hour or so till it takes on the consistency of sorbet, it'll take anywhere from 4 hours plus.

Thanks very much :thumb:

AutoManics · Feb 13, 2013

AutoManics said:
I have this bubbling away at the moment, once it's finished bubbling is it just a case of bottling and priming or should it be racked first?

Apologies if this has been covered already. :)

Anyone?

tommy2teas · Feb 14, 2013

AutoManics wrote:
I have this bubbling away at the moment, once it's finished bubbling is it just a case of bottling and priming or should it be racked first?

Apologies if this has been covered already.

Anyone?

Once mine finished bubbling I racked into another DJ (clean) just to get all the hooch out without disturbing the sediment and trying not to get bits of floating lemon sucked up the tube. its easier to rack first than trying to syphon straight in to bottles.

You can let it rest in the 2nd DJ over night to let any bits n bobs sink down - I only left mine an hour tho and still got bits of lemon in the bottles lol :hmm:

Look more authentic I think :whistle:

but its up to you - if you dont mind little bits of lemon in your drink.

AutoManics · Feb 15, 2013

tommy2teas said:
AutoManics wrote:
I have this bubbling away at the moment, once it's finished bubbling is it just a case of bottling and priming or should it be racked first?

Apologies if this has been covered already.

Anyone?

Click to expand...

Once mine finished bubbling I racked into another DJ (clean) just to get all the hooch out without disturbing the sediment and trying not to get bits of floating lemon sucked up the tube. its easier to rack first than trying to syphon straight in to bottles.

You can let it rest in the 2nd DJ over night to let any bits n bobs sink down - I only left mine an hour tho and still got bits of lemon in the bottles lol :hmm:

Look more authentic I think :whistle:

but its up to you - if you dont mind little bits of lemon in your drink.

Thanks!

Thisledome · Oct 4, 2013

I'm wanting to give this a bash, but thinking of using honey along with sugar due to the hooch being a sweet flavour anyway. I just suck at the calculations of how much honey to use also should i be deducting that of the sugar?

Bare it in mind i want the sweetness without having to back sweeten it once fermentation completes and hoping for around 6% abv. Cheers in advance guys if anyone wants to help me out on this one.

EddyE · Oct 4, 2013

My (limited) understanding is that honey is 80% as sweet as sugar. So if you need 1KG sugar you would need 1.2KG honey to achieve the same sweetness.

Source: Make your own beer and cider; Paul Peacock. (Making Honeyed Beer, page 103)

Tim_Crowhurst · Oct 4, 2013

EddyE said:
My (limited) understanding is that honey is 80% as sweet as sugar. So if you need 1KG sugar you would need 1.2KG honey to achieve the same sweetness.

1kg of sugar is equivalent to 1.25kg of honey.

To convert from sugar to honey, increase the weight by a quarter. To convert from honey to sugar, decrease the weight by a fifth.

Using honey will make the fermentation go more slowly. This may be desirable, of course.

deano469 · Oct 10, 2013

Cheers for this recipe, been looking for something like this for a while now. First batch went on tonight so will pop back in after the taste test in a few weeks time :thumb:

artyb · Oct 10, 2013

a surprisingly nice drink .. :tongue:

bloody strong too... : cheers:

will do one for xmas...

i think i used 12 lemons and a lime,sugar and yeast
i think 5 gallons was around Â£5

clockhammer · Oct 11, 2013

Need to try this one, sounds good

Big d · Dec 11, 2013

I've found it make a good mojito style drink with ice lime sugar and mint

My first hooch

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