Easiest alcohol to make?

[grenfell]

Funny you should say that , I too did it when younger and ended up with what was almost a thick alcoholic fruity soup , not unpleasant but not really worth the effort. I've tried a bit of simple distillation , done as part of the re enactment group I'm with rather than an illegal bathtub gin operation but have never really bothered with it too much as I only rarely drink spirits anyway .

[Stasher]

My first foray into brewing was making mead, which is simplicity itself... just honey, water and cider yeast.

I also tried making 'apocalypse wine' from a bag of out-of-date raisins. It had one redeeming quality.

LMAO

@ itsybitsy

We make wine from our grapes, which is lovely, as is the elderberry wine. Banana has been the best EVER. But not at first, the first time we opened a bottle it was vile and we left the batch to rot in the back of the shed for a couple of years. Then we needed the bottles and decided to taste before emptying them. OMG, it was nectar. Clearly needed time to mature

Also, in our experience, it doesn't have to taste brill for the first glass, sometimes it's the second or third when the flavour really develops into something

[adrian007]

My folks live in New Zealand and dad makes his own spirits using one of these http://www.lovebrewing.co.uk/air-still/

It makes a plain alcohol, between 60% and 80%, to which you add flavouring (and water to dilute down to 40%). He's likes a rum & coke and reckons the rum is OK. I don't know if he's tried any of the other flavours.

Obviously you can't buy them in the UK for making spirits, you'd have to buy one to distil water, or make biofuel or essential oils...

[BlinkingCory]

The guy who taught me how to make this also has a breeding stock of Guinea Pigs as a food source, so that should give you some idea as to its 'quality'

This makes 5 or 6 standard wine bottles of loopy juice.

Marrow Rum.
Two Big Marrows
500G Bag of Mixed Fruit or Raisins
Approx 5lb Demerara Sugar
One Orange (peeled and cut up)
Two sachets wine yeast

2 DemiJohns
2 Funnels
Pair of stockings
Cellotape

Method
Cut approx. a 2 or 3 inch end off the stalk end of each marrow, keep these ends.
Using spoons, knifes, whatever you find easiest, remove the seeds from the inside of each marrow, being careful not to puncture any holes in the marrows.
In a large bowl, add sugar, a yeast sachet, dried fruit and orange. Mix well.
Pack each Marrow with the sugar mix. If need be, top up each marrow with some additional sugar.
Cellotape the marrow tops back on.
Put each marrow into a stocking, stalk end upwards.
Put the funnels into each demijohn, with a marrow resting in each funnel, fat end downwards, propped up. Put them both somewhere warm and forget about them for a month.
After about a month, prod a few holes in the bottom of each marrow and leave for a week.
After this time, you should have close to half a demijohn full of liquid, if not give the marrows a bit of a squeeze. Pour contents of one demijohn into the other.
Mix up remaining yeast with bit of warm water, tip in, add airlock.
Wait!
When fermentation stops, bottle it or don't make any plans for the next day or three and drink it.

[BaseOne]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilju

Pronounced: Kil-yuh

[preparedsurrey]

The guy who taught me how to make this also has a breeding stock of Guinea Pigs as a food source, so that should give you some idea as to its 'quality'

I'm sure 2 guinea pigs (or greedy pigs) eat at least twice as much grass as 2 rabbits, they never stop eating unless they are pooing or sleeping

[Hamradioop]

The guy who taught me how to make this also has a breeding stock of Guinea Pigs as a food source, so that should give you some idea as to its 'quality'

.

Guinea pigs are a food source in Peru. you tube instruction video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8K5DMe4us4

[BlinkingCory]

The guy who taught me how to make this also has a breeding stock of Guinea Pigs as a food source, so that should give you some idea as to its 'quality'

.

Guinea pigs are a food source in Peru. you tube instruction video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8K5DMe4us4

Yeah, common knowledge I'd think.
Curiousity got the better of me 20 odd years ago and I tried it when in Chile. Wasn't bad from what I remember.
Sort of like mild rat LOL.

[BlinkingCory]

Back to alcohol.
We've just returned from Tesco, they've a 25% off discount on pretty much all homebrewing items and beer kits. Never been a better time to buy the bits you need to give homebrewing a crack if you've never done it before. The 'good' barrels, suitable for beer and huge batches of wine, on sale for just over a tenner, they just need a bung and airlock, a pound or two if you don't have one. The standard fermenting tub with lid, now £7 and change.
Secondly, I like to brew my stout pretty much all year round. Unfortunately, we don't have an airing cupboard or anywhere else in the house that maintains a reasonable temperature during the winter, as a stable temperature is beneficial to a good fermentation, I do/did this...
I bought a big plastic storage box, cost me about 5 quid I think. It's big enough for one standard beer fermenting tub (or two demi johns) to sit in with a good few inches to spare on all sides.
Into the storage box goes my fermenting barrel, I then fill the storage box about 4/5th full with warm water.
I use an aquarium heater, this gets set to the desired temperature, attached under water and on the side of the storage box. Switch heater on at mains, bingo, job done. Quite simply, the brew is sat in a water bath.
An aquarium heater, 25W would do, costs about 6 quid with some shopping around. Economical to run and this system works a lot better for me than the more expensive 'brew belt' which I found to be hit and miss.
I can't think of many disadvantages of this system, advantages for me are..
a. Year round brewing without a failure/stalled fermentation.
b. Storage tub can go anywhere indoors if near to an electric socket. Handy if the other half doesn't want to permanently see and smell a brew in the kitchen fermenting.
c. Great results due to stable temperature.
d. Works equally well for wine.

I originally did this in an old aquarium situated in the shed, so pretty much any suitable container in any location would do. For an outlay of just over a tenner, you can't go wrong!
If SHTF, I'm locking myself in the shed..
With the wife (for protection)
With the dog - Boris the German Shepherd (for company)
With approximately 120 pints of 5.2% stout (for nourishment, until it's all over)

[Deeps]

Peeve really is a prep I should get into, I'm quite fond of the stuff. I made lager 20 odd years ago with mixed results and my ex wife made wine. The current title holder had a shot at the vino a couple of years back and it was rank.

A bit of research required methinks.