3 ms·

The fact is, making home alcohol is super easy. Yeast is omnipresent, and are happy to eat basically any sugar. Wild yeast won't get you alcohol concentration

by gwd 5y ago

The fact is, making home alcohol is super easy. Yeast is omnipresent, and are happy to eat basically any sugar. Wild yeast won't get you alcohol concentrations in the 15-20% like commercial yeasts will, but can easily go up to 8-12%. Apples, grape juice, honey + raisins will all easily make you hard cider, wine, and mead, respectively. If you have a freezer, you can even use freeze distillation to increase the ABV. Banning all ingredients that could be made into alcohol is completely impractical.

masklinn 5y ago
Til you can get 20% out of fermentation, I always thought the limit was about 16 since that’s the top end for beer and wine. Is it because starch yeasts can keep on keeping further than glucose ones?
- ginko 5y ago
  It's the yeast strains. Some can survive higher alcohol concentrations than others. For instance this[1] one can achieve up to 25% under right conditions. [1] https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-single?id=146&type=YEAST&style_type=1 https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-single?id=146&type=YEAST&sty... No yeast can digest starches afaik. It's why you need a mashing phase to turn starches into simpler sugars when brewing beer.
  - sebcat 5y ago
    Though there are cultures of yeast and bacteria where the bacteria breaks down the starches to sugars which in turn gets eaten by the yeast. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q%C5%AB https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q%C5%AB
    - ginko 5y ago
      That's aspergillus oryzae, which is a mold though.
  - ineedasername 5y ago
    I've heard that can be pretty harsh, though I'd be curious to know how it might fair with a little bit of aging, say 6-12 months. It requires a bit more handholding of the batch as well, but there are turbo yeasts that will get to ~14% in 24-48 hours. I've also come across "triple distilled" turbo yeast that's supposed to be less harsh but not as high ABV.
- YawningAngel 5y ago
  https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-single?id=146&type=YEAST&style_type=1 https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-single?id=146&type=YEAST&sty... I dunno how it works but apparently you can get to 25%

by gwd 5y ago

masklinn 5y ago

Til you can get 20% out of fermentation, I always thought the limit was about 16 since that’s the top end for beer and wine. Is it because starch yeasts can keep on keeping further than glucose ones?

ginko 5y ago
It's the yeast strains. Some can survive higher alcohol concentrations than others. For instance this[1] one can achieve up to 25% under right conditions. [1] https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-single?id=146&type=YEAST&style_type=1 https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-single?id=146&type=YEAST&sty... No yeast can digest starches afaik. It's why you need a mashing phase to turn starches into simpler sugars when brewing beer.
- sebcat 5y ago
  Though there are cultures of yeast and bacteria where the bacteria breaks down the starches to sugars which in turn gets eaten by the yeast. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q%C5%AB https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q%C5%AB
  - ginko 5y ago
    That's aspergillus oryzae, which is a mold though.
- ineedasername 5y ago
  I've heard that can be pretty harsh, though I'd be curious to know how it might fair with a little bit of aging, say 6-12 months. It requires a bit more handholding of the batch as well, but there are turbo yeasts that will get to ~14% in 24-48 hours. I've also come across "triple distilled" turbo yeast that's supposed to be less harsh but not as high ABV.
YawningAngel 5y ago
https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-single?id=146&type=YEAST&style_type=1 https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-single?id=146&type=YEAST&sty... I dunno how it works but apparently you can get to 25%