Help me make some wine?

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rishikeshkhan

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Hey guys, I am trying to home brew a good alcoholic drink with about 30% (60 proof) alcohol content. I can't get Brewers yeast in my country, so I'm going to use active dry yeast, I have about 50 grams of it. Now how can I make a really simple (but strong) alcoholic drink with just yeast, water and sugar?
 
Well, yeast, water and sugar will make ethanol for sure. It will likely be nasty. It won't be beer or wine...I don't think.

Do you have a hydrometer? What is your setup like? Do you ferment in a closet near luggage?
 
? I don't get you, I plan on fermenting on top of my refrigerator, as I heard the lining of the refrigerator will provide heat to speed up the process. I'm not sure if this is true though, no and what's a hydrometer?
 
No, you should not ferment in a closet. Fermenting hot will produce flavors that won't be all that pleasant. On the other hand, you're making ethanol and that is basically going to taste like ass anyway.

How big is the vessel you plan to ferment in?
 
If I were you I'd just switch to making Sake, I'm going to guess that where you are rice will not be terribly difficult to come by and once you've got the right spores you can keep a culture indefinitely. Not to mention it'll be less likely to taste like the rocket fuel you are trying to make with just sugar, water and yeast.
 
Firstly, we don't condone posting about "hooch". Hooch is booze made simply for the purpose of creating alcohol to get drunk off of. It at least has to have some semblence of wine or cider or SOMETHING. There is no magic to making hooch. Take sugar and water and put yeast in it. Bam, crappy tasting booze.

What you will want to do in India is find something to flavor it with. Some sort of juice will help out. A popular recipe here is simply apple juice with yeast and maybe some sugar added to put it into wine range. Ferment for a week or two and drink. BAM! Apfelwein! (Apple wine).

Bottom line is that even bread yeast will work. You may want to rehydrate it in a small amount of water before adding to your juice.
 
Lots of threads on making sake and cider here, as for apple juice I'm not sure what you mean by 100% but either from concentrate or not will work, that is down to a taste preference.
 
Sake is fairly difficult to make as it requires preparing the rice and is a multi-step process.

Cider/apple wine is easy and delicious. Just don't' come back calling us bad names after a night of drinking it!
 
Yea I wouldn't have recommended sake if I thought half decent apple juice could be had. Cider is probably the easiest form of brewing to start with (in my opinion anyway :D ) and very rewarding.
 
Winemaking is VERY easy in it's most basic form. With a bit of juice and a bit of yeast you can't HELP but make wine!

The difficulty is getting the right balance of different things, which is not a problem when making something as simple as apple wine.

Also remember that the stronger the wine, the longer it should mature before drinking. A less strong wine will be better drinking quicker.
 
I got a major question, so I sanitized my bottle and put in 100% Apple juice in it, added 500 grams of sugar into it, and put in 25 grams of active dry bakers yeast, so If I want a 100 proof alcoholic beverage how long should I let it ferment?
 
rishikeshkhan said:
I got a major question, so I sanitized my bottle and put in 100% Apple juice in it, added 500 grams of sugar into it, and put in 25 grams of active dry bakers yeast, so If I want a 100 proof alcoholic beverage how long should I let it ferment?
Click to expand...

You are not interested in making wine. You want to make hard liquor. Fermentation will not get you to 50% alcohol by volume. It will get you to about 14 percent (28 proof). You are talking about making spirits and spirits require distillation. Distillation in the USA is illegal without required licenses and authorization which home brewers and wine makers do not obtain. I am sure you can learn all about distillation either through books printed on paper or online, but this forum restricts any discussion about distillation.
 
rishikeshkhan said:
Okay I know what distillation is.. But so how long I have to let this sit for 28 proof ?
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Stop for a second. Proof is not a factor of time as much as it's a factor of the available sugars for the yeast to eat and the amount of alcohol that will end up killing the yeast.

Once the yeast run out of sugar, it can't make any more alcohol. So brewers and vintners plan their recipe understanding that the yeast will eat a certain amount of the sugars in the drink and this will give a certain amount of alcohol.

Alcohol is also deadly to yeast at a certain point. This is why fermenting above a certain level is challenging. Some strains are better than others, but for most wine 12-14% alcohol is not difficult.

I am not a winemaker, but I'm sure someone can figure the alcohol that can expect to get from your recipe.
 
rishikeshkhan said:
Okay I know what distillation is.. But so how long I have to let this sit for 28 proof ?
Click to expand...

For your needs you can keep an eye on it for about 2 weeks then taste. Apple wine is not going to be very sweet. It should ferment pretty dry.

But of course you can drink it whenever it tastes good to you.

Also, the yeast make make it taste not so good. That is why winemakers try to settle the yeast to make a clear wine.
 
Even the most powerful, purpose-designed yeast will not get you above 24% and even then you really have to know what you are doing.

So, 30% without distillation just ain't gonna happen. With your knowledge level, you won't even hit 15%.
 
As mentioned above, home brewing will not get you anywhere near the ABV/PROOF of a spirit/vodka. Different yeast strains will stop at different ABV levels. Sinse you are unsure of the dry yeast you have it is likely that it will not get you even to 15% alcohol. In my `drop down` under my name to the left here is a recipe for a rather high ABV cider which you could try but without using the same yeast probably wont hit that ABV mark. But it should give you a decent starting point on your journey into home brewing.
 
rishikeshkhan said:
Okay, so how do I know the yeast has stopped fermenting? Is it when the airlock stops bubbling
Click to expand...

The airlock is not a good indicator IMO. Ideally you would use a hydrometer to measure the residual sugars. I'm guessing you don't have easy access to one of those since they only real use is measuring sugars for fermentation.

That said, you may have to rely on airlock activity at first, then do a taste test.

I still stand by the 2 week minimum for wine. You could hasten the settling if you refrigerate the bottle AFTER fermentation is done, but if you do it too early then it only makes the fermentation stall out and take longer.

I'll be honest. Winemaking is not a fast hobby. Beermaking still takes 2 weeks under ideal conditions with the right recipe.

My advice is to have patience and get a pipeline going. Get a couple bottles going and after a week, start another couple. Eventually you will have a couple of bottles ready and a couple more fermenting.

I'd wait to see if you like the taste first though.

And remember, you can make wine out of nearly anything with sugar in it, like any fruit. They don't all make great tasting drinks, though.
 

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