alcohol content question

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OHIOSTEVE

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A friend of the family saw my wine fermenting and commented on how she used to make gallons of wine with her dad. She has his recipe ( which is super basic and simple) but ashe claims that the simple grape/sugar/water and bread yeast recipe created wine in the 40% alcohol range....is that even possible without distilling? OH YEAH, 3 pounds of sugar per gallon then 9 days in primary and strained into bottles.
 
Sound more like brandy than wine. I say no way on 40% without distilling. That's 80 proof - spirits, not wine. Even 20% would be a stretch.
 
It would be distilled to reach that strength. She probably meant 40 proof, most people don't know the difference between % ABV and proof.
 
A friend of the family saw my wine fermenting and commented on how she used to make gallons of wine with her dad. She has his recipe ( which is super basic and simple) but ashe claims that the simple grape/sugar/water and bread yeast recipe created wine in the 40% alcohol range....is that even possible without distilling? OH YEAH, 3 pounds of sugar per gallon then 9 days in primary and strained into bottles.

3lbs sugar per gallon of something that is about 1.050 to start with is about 1.190. I've seen EC-1118 go to 21% on a mead.... so it could probably ferment down to about 1.025, giving a very sweet very alcoholic beverage that is ~40 proof.

On the other hand I've seen bread yeast crap out at about 11%.... which would still be a very alcoholic beverage, but disgustingly sweet, which would probably hide the nature of a concoction like that to taste like ****.
 

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