DIY juice to Alcohol

Hey guys, found this on Thinkgeek today and I thought it was a great idea. Being at college and all, I miss fermenting things, and then I saw this!

http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/e683/

By doing this I don't have to explain to people why "grain soup" smells so weird when I'm boiling wort in the community kitchen haha.
Now, I did a little research and found out that some people have replicated this process by using wine yeast (the stopper and airlock aren't an issue here). Does anyone have any experience or knowledge about this subject? If so, any advice? I'm gonna go to the brewshop tomorrow and purchase some wine yeast.

At least if it doesn't work the loss is minimal haha.

Sionolann3 said:

Hey guys, found this on Thinkgeek today and I thought it was a great idea. Being at college and all, I miss fermenting things, and then I saw this!

http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/e683/

By doing this I don't have to explain to people why "grain soup" smells so weird when I'm boiling wort in the community kitchen haha.
Now, I did a little research and found out that some people have replicated this process by using wine yeast (the stopper and airlock aren't an issue here). Does anyone have any experience or knowledge about this subject? If so, any advice? I'm gonna go to the brewshop tomorrow and purchase some wine yeast.

At least if it doesn't work the loss is minimal haha.

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While you're at the LHBS, grab an airlock and stopper, then ditch the $10 kit.

Brulosopher said:

While you're at the LHBS, grab an airlock and stopper, then ditch the $10 kit.

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And some decent yeast.

Science causes the yeast in the kit to turn the fructose in the juice into alcohol and carbonation.

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Hahaha, that line is hilarious.

$10 for a hooch kit, they must be making a killing.

That's essentially all an apfelwein is. You take apple juice with no preservatives, maybe add some sugar, and a champagne yeast and you got yourself a powerful batch of hooch. I've got a friend who curses me whenever I bring up apfelwein, but it was his own damn fault for drinking 6+ bottles of 14% brew in one night. It gives a nasty headache.

bovineblitz said:

Hahaha, that line is hilarious.

$10 for a hooch kit, they must be making a killing.

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If they're selling any at all...

Do you think wine yeast would work? Or what type of yeast should I go for, and also, should I add sugars? Would the sugar in the juice be fermentable? Would champagne yeast be the best choice? I don't know much about yeast yet, and I'm kinda new into brewing.
Lots of questions if anyone is interested in answering them.
Thanks

Sionolann3 said:

Do you think wine yeast would work? Or what type of yeast should I go for, and also, should I add sugars? Would the sugar in the juice be fermentable? Would champagne yeast be the best choice? I don't know much about yeast yet, and I'm kinda new into brewing.
Lots of questions if anyone is interested in answering them.
Thanks

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Because of the starting gravity of the juices I would think a wine yeast would be the better choice to get full attenuation. Wine tends to start out at 1.090 or so if I remember right. You can do the same with beer yeast but it will result in a sweeter brew which isn't necessarily bad but will obviously be lower in alcohol content.

Nightshade said:

Because of the starting gravity of the juices I would think a wine yeast would be the better choice to get full attenuation. Wine tends to start out at 1.090 or so if I remember right. You can do the same with beer yeast but it will result in a sweeter brew which isn't necessarily bad but will obviously be lower in alcohol content.

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Beer yeast will eat up all the fruit sugars until its dry or the alcohol gets too high. Its not like using it with beer wort.

You can basically treat it like making soda. Check out the soda making forum. The only thing is that juice bottles can't really hold pressure, so either transfer the juice to a 2 liter or don't seal the top to allow for CO2 to escape (a loose cap or foil over the top works fine).

This tutorial on ginger ale should give you the basic idea... all the flavors and sugars you want are already in the juice so ignore the parts about adding sugar, ginger, and lemon etc, but it's more or less the same after that, especially that you can refrigerate it at any time to keep some sweetness and halt fermentation... of if you so choose you can let fermentation continue until its dry.

I'd just use a cheap yeast, so probably a cheap champagne or white wine yeast that's $0.50-$0.75 a packet.

Also, try making a nice cider - check out the cider forum here at HBT https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/ Lots of good info there. My wife loves it when I make a simple draft style cider with apple juice, pectic enzyme and Nottingham yeast. Easy peasy. Another great source of info is www.makinghardcider.com

bovineblitz said:

Inside the juice, the yeast will begin its sweet, sweet science -it will convert the fructose of the juice into alcohol and carbonation.

Hahaha, that line is hilarious.

$10 for a hooch kit, they must be making a killing.

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yeah this is hilarious. And carbonation? Seriously? With an airlock? Come on man

jrodskreet said:

yeah this is hilarious. And carbonation? Seriously? With an airlock? Come on man

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Well, if it's still fermenting, it'll be a little carbonated. Certainly not like you'd expect out of a beer or a real carbonated beverage though.

I don't plan on bottleing this stuff. I'm honestly gonna just drink it with some friends straight from the bottle haha. After seeing how that works I'll probably fiddle with it a bit more, maybe using an actual carboy (gasp). I gotta keep things small scale, seeing as I'm in a dorm room, and even though my campus allows beer and wine, your not supposed to make your own...

Just make sure the stopper you get fits the 1 gallon jugs of Tree Top.

Just put in the champagne yeast today. Stoked for the progress. I love watching the fermentation process. Little yeasties making all my booze! At the moment I'm making a blueberry ocean spray juice into alcohol juice. Hopefully it will be good. I'll let ya know how it turns out in the next day or two.
excited!

I remember trying this a few times back in college with Welches grape, apple, and cranberry juices. Never came out with anything high quality, but it wasn't bad and it was strong. I always had better luck with the frozen concentrates than the regular bottles (less preservatives maybe?). I just used a balloon with a couple pin-prick holes in it for an airlock and a gallon PET bottle for a fermenter. Not bad if you're just looking for a cheap drunk (better than Boonesfarm or MD2020 or whatever), or just want some novelty "hobo-wine" for sh!ts and giggles.

Eventually I realized making beer wasn't really much more complicated, so I moved onto that instead. I still make cheap "cider" sometimes though this way using unpasteurized/preservative free apple juice.

Good luck on your efforts, and let us know how it turns out.

Does it make a difference if the juice is unpasteurized? This stuff has no preservatives, but it is pasteurized, I suppose that might have some effect?

Pasteurized is fine, all that means is it was heated briefly up to at least 160*F to kill off any bacteria or yeast

Nah, as far as I know the only thing that really matters are the preservatives. I've heard that certain preservatives can really affect fermentation (or prevent it), though I can't really remember which ones to look for/avoid.

The popular preservative, Potassium Sorbate, will prevent fermentation. It's actually used to assist in back sweetening wine....allowing you to add fermentable sugar or juice but preventing the fermentation.....I do it with apfelwine.