wow affecting people in a funny way am I poisoning my mates?

[Wolverine]

Ok well I've been making wow on a massive scale over the last few months making at least 40 litres a month with asda white grape juice and smart price orange juice
Recipie is straight off the wow how to except I put in a bag of sugar per 5 litres and get 14.3 %
It tastes great and is saving us a fortune but it seems only my and my missus can drink the stuff without getting drunk very quickly and injuring them self
on a few occasions guest have fallen down the Stairs on as little as 3 glasses ad hurt themselves and yesterday a friend who is a big drinker came round on his push bike and had 3-4 large glasses and left cashed into a parked car then fell off and cut his face open and injured his wrist !
the people who are experiencing these effects are no strangers to alcohol and all say it has unusual strength
What other than the alcohol in the wine could be affecting them like this and can it be dangerous.
I do use Youngs fermentation stopper and Youngs 2 part wine finnings.

Slightly concerned now after yesterday and don't want to stop making the wow but it getting a reputation as poison.

 

[PD]

don't make it as strong.......

 

[Wolverine]

I don't think 14.3 I that strong its not unusual for a wine

 

[Mark1964]

you could half the sugar quantity when making it. Usually for 1 gallon its 800g i use 400g to just take the stregnth out. Dont forget these people may be used to shop bought wines. Homebrewed stuff is an ass kicker :thumb:

 

[ScottM]

I've noticed a difference in the way my homebrew affects me. Even though my lager isn't particularly strong (5.7%) I notice it kicking it much sooner than other beers do. It's as if the alcohol is just a little different from that in commercial drinks.

May just be in my head though

 

[liampenn]

I can agree on this. Homebrew defonatly "hits home" quicker. No matter what the hydrometer says! :hmm: :lol:

 

[PD]

quote

I don't think 14.3 I that strong its not unusual for a wine

Then they are drinking too much in one go. give them smaller wine glasses !

 

[Andy.H]

So basically what you're saying is that people keep drinking your 14.3% ABV wine and promptly falling over??




Sounds like it's working perfectly to me :lol:

 

[GeorgeSalt]

My suspicion with homebrew is that sometimes it doesn't taste as alcoholic as the commercial drinks. There's a tendency to brew very dry, which is refreshing but sometimes masks the alcohol to someone only used to drinking supermarket plonk. I've has this suggested to me by friends that have sampled my Raspberry FDW - they just don't notice the alcohol until they stand up!

 

[PD]

they just don't notice the alcohol until they stand up!

yes an age old solution to alcohol. Always drink standing up. Its a lot easier to fall down than stand up. :

 

[oldbloke]

I suspect they're drinking a bit more of it, and faster. Hits you harder.

 

[Springer]

I think OB had hit the nail on the head.
Trouble with homebrewing, beer or wine, is that it is quite easy to produce a lot of very good stuff for little money and it is even easier to drink it. :nono:
It can get to be a problem. :hmm: Drinking sensible is probably where the skill comes in.
S

 

[hillbillycat65]

I think that homebrew has a delayed reaction, I can drink a bottle of wine, feel fine so open another, 1 glass from that and then bang, I seem to have gone from sober to drunk in a second. The amount of times I've woken up on the couch 6 o'clock in the morning thinking what happened. My friend brews beer and he says the same.

 

[adomant]

There are different types of alcohols produced in brewing ranging from very floral in flavour to petrol like. Temperature control has a big bearing on which are produced in fermentation. Comercial drink producers can control temperature to produce the right balance. A lot of the time in homebrew the temperature can vary or be too hot in an attempt to get things ready quicker - this will produce more of the "high octane petrol" alcohols. Reducing fermentation temperature by 2oC can redress the balance.

 

[Gayle]

My friends have been saying to me too that my cider is very strong, that they feel awful the next day after drinking it etc. It could possibly be the brew, but more likely it is the amount of it they drank! One friend tried to blame a pint of homebrew cider for his hangover, it was probably the half-bottle of whiskey and numerous cocktails he had as well.

My cider is probably stronger than they are used to (they seem to be ending up between 6 and 7% abv each time, I should start making them weaker!), and because my friends don't give me time to age them properly, they're maybe a bit rougher than after few months in the bottle would be. I also tend to bottle in litre lemonade bottles and most people can get through one of those in no time at all, and because it's free (for them) they'll drink a lot of them too! I put the abv on the labels now, because at first, people assumed there "wasn't much alcohol" in homebrew :lol:

 

[cf.]

Call your mates a bunch of light weights and add more sugar 14.3 is not that bad

 

[tigerpaws]

There are those who can drink TC and there are those who can't

 

[tonyhibbett]

14.5% is rather high and should be treated with respect. The rate of duty goes into a higher bracket at 15% and there is a reason for that! Adding extra sugar purely to boost the alcohol level creates an imbalance which adversely affects the overall quality. The higher the total alcohol, the greater the methanol and acetone produced.
There is a psychological aspect too. There is a tendency to guzzle wine which is cheap, whereas iif you pay £10 you would tend to drink more slowly and with a meal.
Drinking on an empty stomach accelerates the ingestion of alcohol.

 

[Wolverine]

Well it happened again my latest victim ( I mean guest )
Had 3 beers in the pub and three glasses and fell asleep on my sofa completely out cold couldn't wake him up he was there till 4:30 am he fell asleep at 9 ha ha
No one will dare come round soon !

 

[PD]

beware of alcoholic poisoning...... depending on what some folks have eaten and their constitution 14.5 % can be harmful