Just experimenting - basic brewing

[doffcocker]

Hi,

I'm a complete amature in home brewing so please bare with me because so much methodology and terminology is still a mystery to me.

I started experimenting a year or so back, looking into how I could make alcohol in the most simple and basic ways.

So I have basically been dropping a little dried active yeast into bottles of fruit juice (occasionally adding sugar) and leaving for a week or so, or until it tastes completely dry. I also invested in a hydrometer and although I don't fully understand the mathematics enough to get accurate readings, I can at least see that what I make has usually progressed in that it sinks completely where it originally floated.

Obviously this stuff isn't a taste sensation but the novelty for me lies in just being able to produce the alcohol. I'm just not entirely convinced that what I end up with is actually alcohol as such in that when I drink it I don't feel particularly ****** or at least not in the same way I do from a pint at the pub or wine from the shop. I find there's a sort of delayed response - I will typically drink a couple of pints and instead of feeling it straight away, it's only half an hour or so later I start to feel merry/tipsy. Perhaps it's just my imagination, I'm just not entirely satisfied that what I'm making isn't just rancid pop.

I would appreciate any words of advise or reassurance.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

You are making alcohol but there isn't enough sugar in the juice to make it a high percent, have a look at this thread it should answer most of your questions http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=49462

 

[An Ankoù]

Welcome doffcocker. That's exactly how I started nearly 50 years ago. It's not clear whether you want to make wine or beer as we don't usually drink wine in pints, but, if it tastes ok- not vinegary or rancid, then it probably is alright. There's no reason why you can't make a weak version of wine, which you can drink by the pint, out of cartons of grapejuice or other juices. @Dutto introduced me to this and I can't remember what he called it. It's not earth shattering, but it's a good drink on a hot summer's day. If he picks up this post he might offer you a few more details.

 

[johncrobinson]

More sugar will do the trick.
(But not too much or it wont ferment properly)
You need to add about 2 pounds of sugar to each gallon.
But your hygrometer is the ultimate judge aim to get about 12% alcohol to start with.

Have a look at the WOW section on this forum.
PURE juice from supermarkets makes good wine. (MUST be PURE juice NO additives or preservitives check the label.!!!)
Cartons marked "Juice from concentrate" are just fine
You could also try wine kits,These start from one gallon upwards

You will also find you will need to make larger quantities due to the process taking weeks rather than hours
By the time your mates have all had a good sample there wont be much left from a gallon.
I am moving home soon and the new plan is to step up to minimum 5 gallons at a time.

Finally wellcome to the form.

 

[terrym]

I also invested in a hydrometer and although I don't fully understand the mathematics enough to get accurate readings, I can at least see that what I make has usually progressed in that it sinks completely where it originally floated.

Yeast will ferment many sugars to ethyl alcohol. Sugary solutions are more dense than water (i.e greater weight per unit volume), but alcohol is less dense than water. So as the sugars in a solution turn to alcohol by fermentation the solution density slowly decreases, as the alcohol content increases and the sugars decrease. Your hydrometer basically measures the density of the sample and the scale is a representation of how that compares to water. If you dropped your hydrometer into water it would read 1.000 or thereabouts, into neat alcohol less than 1.000, and as you know into a sugary fruit juice more than 1.000.
This may help you to read your hydrometer
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...ic-gravity-using-a-homebrew-hydrometer.60895/

 

[Dutto]

As @An Ankou pointed out ....

If you like sweet and fizzy I suggest that you make a Bourru as follows:

• Use a 1.5 litre water bottle.
• Pour in one litre of Grape Juice (red or white as you prefer).
• Fill the bottle up to 1.25 litre with water.
• Shake in a little bit of dried yeast.
• Stand it somewhere nice and warm for 24-36 hours with the cap loosened.
• When it is fermenting away nicely, put it in the fridge for 24 hours.
• After 24 hours it is nicely chilled, not very alcoholic, sweet, fizzy and ready to drink.

Notes:

1. A bottom fermenting yeast looks better because it minimises the krausen floating on top of the Bourru; but it's just cosmetic.
2. Obviously, because it's still fermenting the Bourru is never clear and you drink the yeast along with the Bourru; so drink it in small amounts until you know what your stomach will stand.
3. When the bottle only has about 1cm in the bottom just pour in some more Grape Juice, add the requisite amount of water, put it somewhere warm and away you go again.

It's a perfect drink for warm days.

In France, the season only lasts two or three weeks and the shops announce the arrival of the "Nouveau Bourru" with great fanfare, and these people know a great drink when they see one!

Enjoy!

 

[doffcocker]

A big thanks for these responses, I'm so glad I decided to post this.

On the back of it, I just have a few more rookie questions I'd like to add out of curiosity:

a ) Assuming I fermented a bottle of pure supermarket apple juice which generally seems to be about 10g sugar : 100ml juice, what sort of %vol would that typically yield? This is what I have been making for a good while, and always assumed it would be somewhere in the 4-5% region. Or is it not that exact a science?

b ) How much is added sugar used in commercial beers and wines? I always liked to think that if I'm drinking cider or wine, most of the time the sugar used in the brew is what has come from the fruit.

 

[johncrobinson]

Between 5-6% .Though I have had apple juice as high as 8% from cartons.

As far as France is concerned there are very strict rules regarding adding sugar (chapitalisation)
The practice is generally frowned upon.
Most commercial wine is fermented with mainly the natural grape sugars
And beers with the mash sugars.same with cider.
Mostly any added sugar is there for consistancy of product
There are many execptions to this of course.But one can say generally there is not a lot of added sugar in comercial products.

Homebrew by contrast epecially country wines are very dependent on added sugar. which in the main ends up as alcohol rarther than sugar per say.

 

[Dutto]

..............

Homebrew by contrast epecially country wines are very dependent on added sugar. which in the main ends up as alcohol rarther than sugar per say.

A good friend of mine lives in Glasgow where two years ago, from his allotment, he had a bumper crop of Rhubarb and decided to make Rhubarb Wine. He got a recipe from t'Internet and immediately said to his wife "That has to be too much sugar." and promptly decided to halve the recommended amount, despite his wife saying "The person who posted that recipe must have known what he was doing."

Whoever had posted the recipe did know what he was doing and my mate's wife made him drink every drop of what turned out to be one of the sourest wines ever made.

My advice for anyone new to the game is "Select a recipe from a reliable source and then follow it to the letter!" otherwise you may be pouring a lot of money, time and effort down the drain.

 

[Nicks90]

Would take the above with a pinch of salt - no pun intended - as all the added sugar is doing is bumping up the alcohol content.
It would have bee sour either way, but instead of being 14%, it might have been 8% abv

As for the OP
If you put yeast in pure fruit juice, you'll get approx 5-7% abv normally. So instead of brewing apple cider, you have been brewing (insert fruit here) cider!

Keep going.

 

[Dutto]

Would take the above with a pinch of salt - no pun intended - as all the added sugar is doing is bumping up the alcohol content.

I'm sorry but you are wrong. I'm also sorry that Roy no longer has any of his wine for you to sample.

I assume that you have never made any kind of "sweet" wine and definitely not made Rhubarb Wine.

To make a wine "sweet" all you have to do is to put more sugar into the recipe than the yeast can cope with. What happens then is that the yeast dies when it can no longer tolerate the alcohol content and the remaining sugar makes the wine sweet.

In Roy's case, the sugar was consumed well before this situation arose and he finished up with a wine that was apparently like drinking rhubarb juice!

 

[johncrobinson]

Well made rhubarb wine is very nice
But there are easier things for a beginners "first brew"

 

[Dutto]

Well made rhubarb wine is very nice
But there are easier things for a beginners "first brew"

I wholeheartedly agree with those sentiments, but the alternative was apparently weeks of Rhubarb Crumble so I can understand Roy's thinking if not his methodology.

 

[Richie_asg1]

Please just buy a simple beer kit that comes with a brew bucket, and follow the instructions. Or a Cider kit, or a wine kit (but takes a little longer). Then you can achieve better results for your effort.

If you carry on and don't like the results you may give up before making anything decent.

 

[Clint]

I would definitely get a hydrometer...you don't want to be guessing on the abv of the stuff you're drinking.