Alcoholic mixing water - am i missing something

[shearclass]

Ahoy hoy

I was reading a thread about making lemonade and i hada thought. We all know it's difficult to make something sweet and carbonated, as we need to resort to artificial sweetner, or corny kegs.

Can someone point out the drawback of simply fermenting a sugar and water solution, with a pinch of acid, then bottling and priming to carbonate, and then simply using this with orange squash or lemon squash to make alcoholic orangeade or lemonade for our alleged summer period?

any reason why this wouldn't work? Would be more for the missus and for my mam etc, rather than me. I would readily prefer beer or wine. But the odd one might be nice.

 

[shearclass]

Ok I'll just have to try this I suppose!

It's a very cheap experiment (water + yeast + time is my only expenditure) so I am not losing much if it goes wrong i suppose.

 

[calumscott]

I think the stuff you are looking for is Kilju. Scandanavian sugar wine...

...the trick I think will be to be very careful with how you brew. Given that there are no flavouring chemicals in the liquor ANY flavour imparted by the yeast is going to be really noticable.

No reason why it shouldn't work mind.

 

[shearclass]

Given that there are no flavouring chemicals in the liquor ANY flavour imparted by the yeast is going to be really noticable.

Ahh, good point! That's the kind of thing i was wanting. I wonder what eyast is the most bland then, or most suitable for usign as a mixer for fruit juice.

I will google kilju. I have heard it on here, but i thought that was some super strong stuff for soem reason, didn't realsie it was just regular stuff.

 

[Moley]

Forget it, it doesn't work, there's absolutely SFA to get the yeasties excited so it takes a very long time for them to get anywhere, even if you add nutrients and a bit of citric.

The only way it's going to ferment out is if you use one of the Turbo wash yeasts and then charcoal filter.

 

[calumscott]

Given that there are no flavouring chemicals in the liquor ANY flavour imparted by the yeast is going to be really noticable.

Ahh, good point! That's the kind of thing i was wanting. I wonder what eyast is the most bland then, or most suitable for usign as a mixer for fruit juice.

I will google kilju. I have heard it on here, but i thought that was some super strong stuff for soem reason, didn't realsie it was just regular stuff.

I think the basic original idea is in fact to make something ludicrously strong to use a a mixer in juices.

But if you want it nice and clean then you are going to have to put a bit of effort in...

...by which point I think I would be thinking "Hmmm, should have brewed some beer/cider/wine" instead...

 

[Laurin]

You can buy Vodka Kits that rely purely on fermentation and no "the D word". They will reach about 21% ABV.
Or you can also buy just the yeast and make it yourself by adding sugar.

I have never done it before but I will try it soon.

 

[graysalchemy]

If you are using turbo yeasts you have to treat with charcoal and then filter as the yeast produces a whole lot of sh*t apart from alcohol. Drinking them withouit treatment will put you off alcohol for life. :sick: :sick:

 

[Laurin]

I think the VodkaStar by Alcotec is made for producing very clean alcohol. It is based on a wine yeast strain.

I don't have any experience with that but I think this might be slightly different than other turbo yeasts.

 

[graysalchemy]

No its not it has to be treated with charcoal and filtered.

 

[Laurin]

Thanks for the info!
What yeast would you recommend for making things like lemonade etc which shouldn't have too much of a wine taste?

 

[graysalchemy]

A wine yeast would be fine.

 

[brizleciderarmy]

If you are using turbo yeasts you have to treat with charcoal and then filter as the yeast produces a whole lot of sh*t apart from alcohol. Drinking them withouit treatment will put you off alcohol for life. :sick: :sick:

Never has a truer word been spoken or typed .

In the early days i bought an Alcotech 48 turbo yeast and added 8kg of sugar. nice 20%abv industrial cleaner to add squash to.

Industrial strength banana smell and taste. Absolutely disgusting. Only person who appreciated that was my sister who had just returned from holiday at her majesties pleasure. Says it all really.

 

[screamlead]

Do a search for kilju - -i just made some and bottled it!
Basically its water and sugar and yeast with the usual citric and nutrients in it mine dropped perfectly clear and was 9% i diluted ti 4.5 and bottled with a teaspoon of sugar to carbonate.

I also fed it more sugar as per the recipe during fermentation - which took yonks!!
I'll test mine in a couple of weeks and give you the heads up on it :thumb:

 

[Laurin]

Thanks screamlead
What yeast did you use and can you taste it?

 

[screamlead]

I think i used youngs super wine yeast compound - i did!

Here recipe i used
1 x 5ltr bottled water
800g Sugar
Nutrient x 2 t spoons
juice of 1 lemon or citric acid
Youngs super wine yeast compound

Method
Boil up 1.5 litre of water and dissolve sugar into it
Then add 300 ML water to a jug and add 300 ML of cold add nutrients acid and yeast to make starter, Add rest of hot water to DJ and top up to around 4 litre with cold then once starter going add that and top up to neck of DJ.

Ferment out - clear and bottle
You can add more sugar soultion to boost ABV as fermentation slows off - as long as you have room in DJ to do that
Some people add 200ML of flavourings at bottling stage - ie soda stream diet flavours coke etc
I am adding mine 10-20ml once i open a bottle.
Looking at my notes it took around 2 months to finally stop fermenting and drop clear then i racked it off and tested it - it came out at just over 9% i used food dye to colour it so i could see the result in my vinometer.
The original SG was 1050 brix 13 but probably went higher as i added more sugar - hence the 9% finish. Then i diluted with boiled coold water giving me 10 ltrs @ 4.5% and bottled it with a t spoon of sugar per 500 ML bottles.

Its conditioning at the mo' in the warm so will fridge it next week and try it after that. :

 

[Laurin]

Thank You!

 

[shearclass]

I never said i wanted super strength alcoholic water, just 4 - 5 % woudl be good!

I'll look at that kilju stuff.

Cheers

 

[oldbloke]

Thought so. Likely at that strength, if you pick a nice neutral yeast, you won't get much off flavour at all. And you could always buy one of those jugs with a water filter built in and run it through that.
It won't cost you much to check it out, at least.

 

[shearclass]

I'll give it a go, and will feedback if the results!