I just finished fermenting some inmate brew. What's that, you ask? It's wine, made from stuff you can find at the grocery store. (It's brutally strong - I'm afraid to drink more than one shot of the stuff.)
Disclaimer: Only try this recipe if you are of legal drinking age in your country. I don't endorse underage drinking!
Here's my adapted recipe:
- bottle of two liter juice (real fruit juice, no preservatives)
- packet of traditional bread yeast
- raisins/dates (try to find ones without sulfates)
- 2 cups of sugar
Hardware:
- measuring cup
- funnel
- stir stick
- heating pad (optional, but we are having an odd spring...)
- saucepan
- extra water
Boil all of the hardware for at least five minutes. Open your juice, and pour out about three cups. Stick funnel in top. Throw in the two cups of sugar, and shake until combined. Now take a saucepan, stick some water and some of the raisins or dates you have in it. Simmer until tender - and mash until the liquid is coloured. Drop your fruity liquid into the larger container of fruit juice. Now add the yeast. Shake until combined.
*Loosen the cap to allow the carbon dioxide to escape....* Leave in a cool, dry, and dark place for 5 - 14 days, depending on how fast your yeast goes. If you have having trouble, drop a heating pad underneath for a little while.
Optional Method/Inverting the Sugar:
Got something that's really sour like citrus or pineapple juice? This is hard to ferment because it is so sour that it kills off the yeast quickly. Here's a way to make it work....this process makes it easier for the yeast to digest the sugars!
Boil all of the hardware for at least five minutes. Open your juice, and pour out about five cups. Stick the funnel in the top of the juice bottle. Take about two cups of your juice, and dump it into your saucepan. Drop in and dissolve all of your sugar. Also, add a handful of dried fruit to this mixture, it makes it easier to deal with. Dump your two cups of juice with extra sugar and dried fruit into your main juice bottle. Now cap the mofo and shake the shit out of it. Alright. You are almost done - now drop in your yeast. Shake again to mix. Loosen the cap as normal, and stow away in a cool area.
Finishing the Wine:
Your wine will be cloudy to start off with. You have a choice of either racking it - siphoning it multiple times to many containers to get rid of the sediment or using a fining agent (which helps your wine clear by dropping all the sediment to the bottom of the bottle). I used a combination of both - racking and using a fining agent.
Gelatin makes a good fining agent - but you'd want to use the unflavoured stuff. Here's how to do it: add a tablespoon of gelatin to a cup of cold water. Wait for an hour (this rehydrates the stuff so it melts faster), and simmer it on the stove. It should looks like clear water. Add to your wine, and let sit for a couple more days.
You might want to freeze your wine to kill off any yeast cells. Do this by throwing it in the freezer overnight.
Carbonating the Wine:
This should be done in plastic bottles. You can carbonate your wine in your original bottles - just don't freeze or chill the wine. Add a bit of sugar to the bottom to restart the fermenting process and recap tightly.
If Anything Has Gone Wrong:
You'd smell it - trust me. I had a batch of apple cider go wrong on me - and it tasted bitter and smelt like rotting fruit. I had to dump all of it, because it was making my room smell awful!
*Edit: I just had another batch go south on me. (It's my fault for not cleaning out the bottle enough!) It was supposed to be ginseng wine, but I tasted it, and it was vinegar. (Yes, there are bugs out there that make vinegar instead of wine.) Actually the word vinegar means "sour wine"...so yeah.
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