Easiest alcohol to make?

[grenfell]

Distillation aside and going back to the original question the easiest has to be cider and wine. I've got a few demijohns bubbling away now. Process is
Juice the fruit
Put it in a demijohn
Fit airlock
Let it ferment
and that's it.

[jennyjj01]

Distillation aside and going back to the original question the easiest has to be cider and wine. I've got a few demijohns bubbling away now. Process is
Juice the fruit
Put it in a demijohn
Fit airlock
Let it ferment
and that's it.

By far the quickest and easiest that I've found are Cellar 7 kits. Literally ready to drink quite strong wine in under 2 weeks. Expensive though at about £35 for a 30 bottle kit. Buy locally or as a multiple as shipping these kits is expensive. Beer is a bit slower with kits at about £12 for a 40 pint kit (Wilkinsons have some) and taking about 6 weeks. Bottling beer is something that takes more care.

Distilling is illegal, but some home brewing shops sell 'water purifiers'

[grenfell]

I've tried the wine kits in the past and it does save the messing around with the fruit. To be honest i moved away from them simply because i prefer the country wines as they are called. Far more tasty as well as being cheaper obviously. For beer it's probably better to go with a kit until one becomes more confident and practised. I've made beer once and it was ok but i've tried several attempts by others that were frankly terrible. Not harmful but just not a great taste. One friend was disappointed with his efforts and was going to chuck it all but i took it home. It would go on the compost if nothing else but left for three months or more it became far more quaffable.
Not actually brewing but recently my wife had made some fruit gins which is of course is fruit marinaded in gin. After draining and pressing there was an amount of fruit pulp left which rather than it go to waste we mixed with melted chocolate to produce a sort of chocolate liqueur.

[jansman]

As mentioned earlier in this thread. Sugar wash. You won’t get a cheaper alcohol. In his book ‘Booze For Free’ Andy Hamilton describes the above as ‘Holy Water’. Easy to make, too easy to drink.

Now , sugar wash can be distilled ( but of course, that is illegal under UK LAW, so cannot in any way be condoned on this forum), especially if it is made using Turbo Yeast. That uses a higher volume of sugar ( typically 8 kg to 25 litres water) and needs to be brewed at a steady 25 c. It will brew out in 3 days.

The wash I brew is ala Hamilton, although I have tweaked it somewhat to suit me. I brew in 25 litre batches, so scale it up or down ingredients-wise. 4 Kg sugar, dissolved in two kettles of boiling water. Stir well. Top up to 25 litres with cold water. Add 5 teaspoons of Marmite. Don’t worry, it doesn’t taste, but gives a good colouring. Stir well. I generally put the Marmite in a pint glass of boiling water to dissolve first.

Then add 5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient, 5 teaspoons of citric acid crystals and a 5g pack of general purpose wine yeast. Brew out in a room at least 15 degree C. I actually use aquarium heaters, but it’s not essential.

It can be drunk as it is, but I like to add elderflower cordial, or even a drop of non alcoholic Chardonnay. You don’t need much either to give a flavour. Cheers!