Home Made Alcohol

[Ric.ror]

I fancy making some homemade alcohol. Is it as simple as water sugar and yeast and if so does anyone have a recipe? I understand champagne yeast is the best one for a stronger brew

[webbo3]

I've made flavoured gin for christmas, Blueberry and Blackberry and Rhubarb and Custard

[Mexican18]

When you can buy a bottle of vodka from the supermarket f

[Mexican18]

Sorry, don't know what happened. Vodka costs less than a tenner from the supermarket. Why bother?

[Atheist]

Ric; sugar and yeast will make alcohol, but it won't taste good and it won't be strong (maybe 14%). To make spirits, you need to distill the weak stuff you make, and that's illegal.

[Vagus]

Go for it Ric, how interesting ;)

[tomus42]

You would be better off just buying your vodka and then flavouring it. Stick it in a jar with a load of fruit and it doesn't take long before you have a delicious fruity spirit. Any cheap vodka will do, or gin.

[theprof]

Domestic alcohol production for home consumption has never been illegal in the UK. How could it be with the plethora of wine and beer kits out there?

If you try selling it, that's a different matter. You'll get a knock at the door from the men with the helmets and they'll throw the book at you as well as confiscate all your equipment and incidentally, that is nothing to do with any lockdown in place -you would be denying the exchequer of revenues due to the treasury ie tax.

[New Judge]

//Domestic alcohol production for home consumption has never been illegal in the UK. How could it be with the plethora of wine and beer kits out there?//

Ric doesn't want to make beer or wine:

"Basically I guess I want to brew my own vodka"

Vodka cannot be made by simple fermentation as beer or wine can. It is made by distilling fermented vegetable products. As pointed out, that is illegal in the UK.

[theprof]

I bow to your greater knowledge New Judge, but I was thinking in terms of beer/lager production as the OP seemed to have gone off the idea at his 18.10 post.

[diddlydo]

Obviously brewing beer and making wine at home is totally legal (we do both, especially wine since we can't go to France to stock up any time soon - or ever again thanks to Boris and Brexit). However, distilling is a whole different ballgame and is illegal!

[theprof]

Ric.ror, should you really wish to try home made alcohol production at home, I would suggest you try "Turbo Cider". It's relatively simple to make and requires a minimum of equipment. You will need a hydrometer to calculate the final alcohol content via mathematical tables available on the Internet. The final alcohol content can exceed 10%.

The principal ingredient is pasteurised applejuice, available in Tetrapacks in all supermarkets. Please be aware of the points I made earlier.

You will note that distillation of the product is not required during the production of the product nor prior to consumption. This means that production cannot be considered to be illegal in any sense of the word in this instance.

[theprof]

Diddlydo, I am grateful that you have emphasised the point. Had I referred to distilling or distillation in my 21.10 post then I would have been worthy of criticism.

[Ric.ror]

Ok - I’ve just watched a series of YouTube videos from a moonshine expert. Guess what - it’s not as simple as I thought - stills etc- so I won’t be brewing my own now. Still intrigued by some kind of home brew though- just not sure which way to go yet
Btw - over 30 years ago Boots used to sell a brew your own G&T mix which I bought with my mum - genuinely can’t remember what we did with the results though

[fourteen85]

Like Barry, I also use Beaverdale wine kits, reckon when you have all the bottles etc it then costs around 1.80 for a good bottle of wine

[barry1010]

I work it out to about £1.80 a litre, fourteen. I remember it as being good, I don't drink these days :( Everyone else loves it though

[Ric.ror]

Thanks everyone for your answets