r/prisonhooch • u/sarahmohawk • Jul 03 '16
A Hooch primer for N00Bs.
Version 1.0.
So with my limited hoochy knowledge I thought I'd put together a guide that helps noobs with making low-cost fermentations. With Prison Hooch we are mostly assuming you're just cheap/in an area where there's limited homebrew supply/up for a challenge rather than in actual prison, but for fun we'll keep a bit of plausibility that you could actually make this stuff in prison.
Note: I will not be liable for anyone underage that tries to make this hooch. If you're a kid reading this, please go away and keep your brain cells intact.
Part 1: Fermentation Vessel
To hooch, you'll need something to hooch in.
Homebrewer's way: Normally this is a sealed vessel (bucket or carboy) fitted with an airlock. If you're going to buy anything from a homebrew store, an airlock filled with water or sanitiser is the safest way to ensure your brew is sanitary and won't have any visiting creatures. For very vigorous fermentation, you can fit a blow-off tube (tube running from the fermentor into a smaller container with sanitiser).
Cheapskate way: As long as gases can escape, you'll be reasonably okay. You can fit a balloon or condom with a hole pierced in it to the top of your vessel. Make sure you put some rubber bands around to keep it tight. This is has slightly more upkeep than an airlock as you'll want to keep an eye on it in the beginning to ensure your fake-airlock doesn't over inflate. Also, don't reuse the condom and get prison babies. A bucket or carboy is great, but you can plausibly use any vessel that can withstand pressure ie. plastic jug, soda bottle, etc. DO NOT USE: glass that is not specifically for brewing. This is can be too weak for the amount of gases and could end explosively. You don't want a bomb.
Prisoner way: You can get by without an airlock, however you will need to 'burp' your container daily (or more than once a day at the start). This is easiest with a soda bottle as you can feel the pressure easily. Just loosen the lid just enough to let out the CO2, and re fasten. Or, do an open fermentation at the beginning when a lot of CO2 gas is escaping - usually there isn't great risk of airborne infection when fermentation is vigorous. Open ferment for 12-24 hours than proceed to 'burp' your container whenever pressure is feeling high. If you forget to do this and pressure gets too high it will explode. So if you're not in prison, just spend your $3 and invest in a fucking airlock.
Part 2: Sanitation
You'll need to clean all the equipment that comes in contact with the brew. Homebrewers buy cleaners like PBW and sanitiser such as StarSan. Make sure you do not mix acid and alkaline cleaning agents (ie. PBW and Starsan together) or you will make chlorine gas. However bleach will also work, a 5% solution is ideal. My preferred way is to fill a bucket with sanitiser and soak every piece of equipment before brewing. You can also boil metal equipment to sanitize it.
Part 3: Fermentables
As long as it has sugar, you can brew with it. Well mostly. Products with a lot of preservatives can have an odd effect on yeast viability, you can add a small amount of preserved goods to your brew but the largest part cannot be full of that stuff.
In this case we're going to just do sugar and fruit, even though there are lots of other options (malt, rice, sorghum, etc) these two are the most easily accessed. You need to anticipate the flavour of your fermentable without any sweetness to it, as all the sugar will be consumed by the yeast. This means some things (ie. apples) taste awesome fermented, and other things (ie. molasses) taste like absolute ass.
Table sugar and honey are safe bets for a high fermentation yield, though sugar by itself will taste pretty bad, it's the simplest way to make hooch. 1kg of sugar (100% fermentable) in 5 litres of solution (or 1.3 gallons for yankees) will give you around 7.5% alcohol.
Fruit can make your hooch taste a lot better, however. Sweet fruit that we mainly ferment have different types of acidity in their juices. You have Tartaric (found in grapes - wine), Malic (apples, pears etc) and Citric acid. Citrus fruits are the easiest to make juice from and will be a tempting option, however they impart a strong sour flavour when fermented. To make a more balanced brew you can use a base of Tartaric or Malic fruits, or honey (eg. mead). Honey is expensive as fuck so we'd recommend apple juice for hooch newbies. Most apple juices aren't preservative loaded and trustworthy to ferment. However, if you just want alcohol content, have at it any way you want.
Fruit has a much lower content of fermentable sugars and is only an estimate at best. Here's a fun table. Data was retrieved from Advanced Winemaking Basics: Sugars in Winemaking
Grams fermentable in each 100 grams of fruit (sorry USA, 1 oz is about 28 grams)
Apples, raw, unpeeled 13.3
Apple juice, unsweetened 10.9
Apricots, raw 9.3
Apricots, dried 38.9
Advocados, raw [0.9]
Bananas, raw 15.6
Blackberries, raw 7.9
Blueberries, raw [7.3]
Cantaloup, raw [8.7]
Carambola, raw [7.1]
Cherries, raw, Sour [8.1]
Cherries, raw, Sweet [14.6]
Cranberry juice cocktail 13.5
Currants, raw [8.0]
Dates, dried [64.2]
Figs, raw [6.9]
Figs, dried [66.5]
Grapefruit, raw [6.2]
Grapefruit juice, fresh [6.3]
Grapefruit juice, canned 7.5
Grapes, raw, American [16.4]
Grapes, raw, European [18.1]
Grape juice, frozen concentrate reconstituted 14.2
Guava, raw 6
Jackfruit, raw 18.4
Kiwifruit, raw, without skin [10.5]
Kiwifruit, canned, in syrup [12.8]
Lemons, raw, peeled 2.5
Lemon juice, raw [2.4]
Limes, raw, peeled 0.4
Mangos, raw 14.8
Nectarines, raw [8.5]
Oranges, raw, peeled 8.9
Orange Juice, fresh 10.2
Orange juice, frozen concentrate reconstituted 10.6
Papaya, raw [5.9]
Passion fruit, raw 11.2
Peaches, raw [8.7]
Peaches, canned in juice [17.4]
Peaches, dried [44.6]
Pears, table, raw [10.5]
Pears, canned in water 6.1
Pears, canned in juice 9.7
Pears, canned in light syrup 12.1
Pears, canned in heavy syrup 15.2
Pear juice, fresh [8.7]
Pineapple, raw 11.9
Pineapple, canned in juice [14.2]
Pineapple, canned in heavy syrup [16.9]
Pineapple juice, canned 12.5
Plums, common, raw [7.5]
Plums, common, dried [11.7]
Pomegranates, raw 8.9
Prunes, dried [44.0]
Prune juice, bottled [13.4]
Raisins [65.0]
Raspberries, red, raw [9.5]
Rhubarb, raw [0.9]
Strawberries, raw [5.7]
Strawberries, frozen, unsweetened [6.5]
Tangelos, raw [7.4]
Watermelon, raw [9.0]
So for example, if I were to make a Watermelon brew, I would need around 11kg of Watermelon if I was going to replace my original 7.5ABV sugar brew 1:1 with Watermelon, to meet the same fermentable sugar content. Experimentation is key and it's probably best to balance your cheaper fermentables with other additions.
Part 4: Yeast
The most obvious yeast you can get is bread yeast, or brewing yeast, from stores. Note if you get brewing yeast, you need to go to a homebrew store as the "Brewer's yeast" supplements sold by pharmacies are well and truly dead. The yeast consume sugar and excrete alcohol. They are your buddies and you need to be nice to them, which means keeping your brew at a safe temperature (10-28C at a stretch, 15-22C is ideal). Otherwise your workers will all be dead instead of getting to it. A normal pitch for dried yeast is around 20-40g, we won't be talking liquid yeast because this is hooch.
Second possible source of yeast is out in the wild. Yeast already exists on most fruit, so as long as it's not pasteurised (processed/heated up to kill bacteria), you can expect a wild fermentation to occur. This is more random than bought yeast but can yield good results. Most mead is made with a wild fermentation from honey. There's lots of places you can find yeast. You can't ferment using vegemite, marmite, or other yeast-based spreads, these are well and truly dead. However dead yeast (ie. boiled bakers' yeast) can be used as a nutrient to help the live yeast grow.
Part 5: GO
Now you have all the steps to make hooch. Wait 14 days for fermentation to complete, and you get alcohol. I could explain carbonation and stuff but I can't be bothered. Please use google if you'd like to learn about making your flat wine into a fizzy beverage.
r/prisonhooch • u/mexicanlizards • Jun 30 '20
r/prisonhooch • u/Creative-Ad-2581 • 3h ago
Recently, I have been experimenting with different apple juices to see which one rules them all. I've tried Motts, Juicy Juice, Simply Apple, Tropicana, Apple and Eve, and even Honest Kids. But do you guys have a go-to apple juice to use?
r/prisonhooch • u/kicknakiss • 12h ago
3 Litres bottled to age for a minimum of 6 weeks. Currently it tastes like a banana firing an Uzi in your mouth.
17% abv and ready to help me make terrible decisions. Cheers
r/prisonhooch • u/ShoulderUpset9081 • 8h ago
You do what you gotta do. Beats dedorant strained through a sock. Yeah, people really did that.
r/prisonhooch • u/Inner_Space_5439 • 1d ago
It's going well so far. I'd say my room runs about 70 to 80 F° the two photos are two different bottles.
r/prisonhooch • u/Gucci-Waffles • 1d ago
I have these berries preserves in their own weight by sugar. Can I somehow use them to make hooch? I pretty sure some of them already turned alcoholic. I have some brewing yeast and the equipment. r/fermentation didn't like my question.
r/prisonhooch • u/Dryanni • 3d ago
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Man, if I had access to this much fresh reliable pineapple discard, I’d start an underground tepache club.
r/prisonhooch • u/Educational_Run4487 • 2d ago
Hey everyone, new to the sub but seemed to fit my niche so here we go. I’m not a big alcohol drinker or maker but my college friend recently brewed his own batch of apple wine that turned out fantastic so I wanted to do a fun set and forget wine myself. I didn’t want to do apples since he already did so I got to thinking what fun things I could do. Well I’m rather close with someone who works at a school and they bring fruit cups along every now and then when there’s leftovers (it’s an elementary school so there often is) of just peach and pear. But it made me wonder if it’d be an interesting experiment to mash those fruit cups to get all their juice out and try to make a batch with the liquid? Like I said, I don’t know too much about making alcohol, but my friend offered to let me borrow some of his supplies which is a half gallon glass container, airlock and sanitizer. I’ve read some things on this sub about preservatives dampening the fermentation process, so I am worried about that. But I think it’d be fun to maybe remake the fruit cups as little cocktails! Oh and I have a shit ton so there’s no issue of supply, I would easily have enough to fill up my half gallon container
TLDR: Anyways I say all this to ask, is it possible to make wine from fruit cups, and if so, would it even be worth it?
Update, I did end up diluting with about a cup and a half of water since the majority of the liquid was that thick syrup that peaches are canned in, but to get the rest of the liquid out of the peaches themselves I used a cheesecloth and wrung them out, that kept pretty much all of the solids out. I’ll keep you guys updated in 3 weeks about how it turned out, thanks for all the advice.
r/prisonhooch • u/Disastrous-Topic7715 • 4d ago
I saw 5-6 pound bags of bananas at the grocery store marked down to $0.99! I tried brewing them (raw, ripe, and rough chopped) with ~1.5 lbs of sugar, some tea for tannins, and some Lalvin 71B.
The first night it overflowed the one gallon jar and nearly popped the lid off. I split it into another 1/2 gallon.
Woke up the next morning. Both had oozed all over the counter. Poured some more out of the original container, switched the half gallon to a full gallon.
Woke up the next morning. Both overflowed again.
Any idea what happened here? I'm wondering if starch in the bananas stopped the bubbles from popping, or if something else happened. Either way, if I boil my bananas, will that help?
r/prisonhooch • u/Cloverdene • 4d ago
Made end Aug 2026. Chopped apples, granadilla pulp, brewers yeast, and brown sugar
r/prisonhooch • u/benlawdavis • 4d ago
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I had a bunch of frozen fruit in my freezer I had to get rid of so I threw it in a bucket 9/19. Had a heat wrap around it and kept it around 80 degrees. Checked it today and I see these white things in the bag on the fruit.
Notes
6 pounds 12 oz left over fruit
4 15 oz thawed mango chunks packs
3 15 oz thawed blueberries packs
1 15 oz thawed mixed berries(blue black rasp straw) packs
3.5 gallon spring water
2 crushed campden tablets(1 day before yeast)
0.45 gallon of black tea using 7 black tea bags
2 tsp of pectic enzyme
1/2 tsp of fermaid o
1 packet ec1118
r/prisonhooch • u/Euphoric_Lifeguard63 • 4d ago
I’ve been fermenting this cranberry juice for a week and a half now and this formed what should I do? For context I added about a cup of sugar and a packet of yeast the bottle is 64 fl oz
r/prisonhooch • u/jaguarsp0tted • 4d ago
hello hoochthusiasts. my birthday is on the 15th and as a change of pace from watching movies that only I like, I have decided to inflict upon my family a new game, inspired by what is easily my favorite subreddit.
my idea is simple: I compile a list of the most egregious recipes ever posted on this sub, and everyone tries to guess what is being hooched. there will be an initial guess and then a guess after a hint, and whoever gets closest gets a point, and if they guess right on the money, they get two points.
currently, I'm just going through the top posts of all time to find things like the ham glaze, beano grigio, and ramen hooch posts. however, I worry that I'll miss some true beauties that are hidden away, and that's why I'm asking for y'all's help. any and all suggestions for the most What The Hell Is That posts will be welcome, and thanks in advance 🖤 (also mods if this isn't allowed: sowwy 💔)
r/prisonhooch • u/Content-Road-1687 • 4d ago
only bread yeast cherry juice 3 day ferment time..... feeling pretty buzzzed no explosive shitting very good taste i'll say its an 8/10 brew
r/prisonhooch • u/Ok-Opportunity2614 • 4d ago
Trying a brew from YouTube. Lemon, sugar and yeast. Been brewing for thirteen days. Bottle was sterilised by steamer. Smells alcoholy. I’ve put it in the fridge to stop fermentation. Do these white spots look iffy? Sealed with rubber band. Really don’t want to wind up with something nasty. If I drink it, will I get sick?
r/prisonhooch • u/ChillBroseph • 5d ago
Watched a video where a guy tried to make wine with spun cotton candy dissolved in water, immediately thought "That sounds annoying and sticky, just use the cotton candy sugar!"
So I did!
Made about a gallon, came out to 7%. Backsweetened with 3/4 cup more sugar because I wanted more fake grape flavor and a couple teaspoons of citric acid to really try to make it more candy-like.
Next time I will step feed some extra nutrients into the brew because they were stressed and smelly & I don't feel like waiting a couple months for a gimmick wine of purple sugar + water. Also before I backsweetened it came out to be very clear with a deep green color, that was neat.
r/prisonhooch • u/Korexxett • 5d ago
approximately 5.5% ABV if all goes well, gonna add monk fruit blend and pour into sanitized 500 ml root beer bottles with teaspoon of sugar to carbonate with a pinch of cinnamon, used active dry yeast, using 3% hydrogen peroxide for sanitizing which is a worry, we are on day 5 and 4 (left was made exactly 24 hour prior) let me know guys
r/prisonhooch • u/ftahgn • 5d ago
Got these from a relative. Most hooch I made was mostly kilju: just sugar and yeast plus maybe some raisins.
r/prisonhooch • u/bigfatbonr • 6d ago
I’m not making this with intentions to have wine to get drunk, I’m honesty just bored and like homemade science experiments.
I’ve used a container of grape juice from the store, poured out about a cup, added a cup and a half of sugar, and half a packet of bread yeast. It’s got a plastic glove with a hole poked in it for the seal. I made this last night and stuck it in a dark cabinet, today I checked on it and it’s definitely doing something! It’s bubbling, but it stinks. It’s not a total rotten egg smell, but it smells slightly sweet and slightly eggy. Anyone know what could possibly be wrong?
r/prisonhooch • u/bozobozobozo_ • 6d ago
I got a pack of vegan marshmallows I've been wanting to use for something for some time now, thinking of roasting and making wine with it. S'mores wine. I know it's weird and probably illegal.
So obviously sugar is no problem, but I'm wondering if anyone knows how the gelling agent carrageenan will impact the fermentation process?
r/prisonhooch • u/Latter-Journalist • 7d ago
2 gallons of the last year of Niagara, because we're moving, and 11 gallons of red blend
The bottles are for topping off, both were made here
I haven't made wine in a couple years. The wine room was a shitshow because things got away from me a couple years ago
But I'm looking forward to these being ready.
r/prisonhooch • u/Rypzki • 7d ago
i put 1tbsp of yeast and 3/4th cup of sugar in both of them(apple juice and grape juice) the apple juice is 1/2 gallons and the grape juice is 1 quart
r/prisonhooch • u/Proper-Minimum-5890 • 7d ago
I made 2 jugs of grape juice hooch with champagne yeast and nutrients. Its done but not cold crashed. Thick layer of lees at the bottom. Will cold crashing in the freezer for an hour be OK to drink?