r/prisonhooch Jul 03 '16

Article A Hooch primer for N00Bs

1.3k Upvotes

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 Jun 30 '20

Read this if you're worried about methanol and/or going blind from hooch

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384 Upvotes

r/prisonhooch 10h ago

Experiment The abominable SMASH pale ale I made from scratch earlier this year

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49 Upvotes

I essentially made my own malt, found some wild hops in my moms hedge, and brewed a beer.

The malting process was tedious. I tried multiple times in my kitchen, it started rotting multiple times which meant a reset, before I gave up and just stuck it in a shed outside... and it worked. I still had to move it around but ultimately it sprouted and I dried it when the roots grew to about the length of the grain. At this point I just didn't want to mess up by kilning it so I decided it would be a pale ale and see what would happen to the taste. I should have used barley that wasn't meant for animal feeding.

The hops smelled wonderful. They were very fragrant, kinda like passion fruit. I thought I picked up quite a bunch and dried some, froze some just to try. I didn't pick up enough.

The mashing process was uneventful, except that when I brewed beer with kits, the kitchen smelled of malt and sugar and this time it did not. At best it smelled somewhat grassy. I respected the right mashing temperatures, mashed out after an hour or so, boiled for one and a half (until I reduced the wort to about 2/3 of the initial volume). I hesitated when to add the hops in the boil, and instead of doing one for bitterness and one for taste, I just did one at about 7 minutes before the end. I should have mashed for longer.

Yeast was a baker's yeast from a generic French brand. I should have used a brewing yeast, but didn't want to pay the transportation fee.

Fermentation started healthy, but stopped pretty fast. I reckon it was because there wasn't that much fermentible sugar in the wort.

Bottling was bad because my siphon didn't fit the demijohn so I had to use a flexible tube. It wasn't that bad because I have less no throw away now. Carbonation was OK, I was afraid of bombs so I may have under dosed the sugar.

The result of six month of works and waiting was a fizzy drink that tasted somewhat like bitter almonds (Or cyanide), and absolutely nothing like beer.

So yeah, buying ingredients made for beer brewing is a pretty good deal in the end. Atleast I know how very bad beer tastes.


r/prisonhooch 1d ago

Lemon Pith Wine(Finished! Plus a bonus friend)

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28 Upvotes

Success!

The lemon wine managed to completely finish in just over a week, it started at 1.07 and finished just under 1.0, completely dry. The eggshells helped a ton with raising the pH while it went and it ended at a lovely 3.4.

Downside, some of the bitterness has come through after all. I wouldn't call it undrinkable by any means, but I probably won't be drinking it plain.

If you can get past the bitterness, the depth of flavor is amazing. It has a Very strong lemon flavor and seems like it would be a great base for adding on to. I still bottled a decent amount of it and plan to use it for cocktails and for supplementing future wines when they turn out a little too flat.

The rest of it was distilled down into a Lovely Lemon Brandy. I do plan on adding lemon peels to some of it to turn into the ultimately lemon Limoncello, but the rest I will keep and drink!

Now for the bonus friend:

The fermentation was going so well by day 2 that I decided to do the same thing with orange rinds!

I again soaked them in a bucket with pectic enzyme and strained it into a carboy, but I used some of the active lemon wine as a starter for the orange wine instead of having to start more yeast. It worked perfectly and finished the day after the lemon wine!

The orange wine is much less bitter than the lemon wine, and I would happily sip on it on a hot day.

I also distilled about half of it, so I have Orange Brandy as well!

The orange has so much depth that I don't feel the need to soak any of it with peels.

Apologies for my poor picture taking skills, someday I'll take better pictures.

I don't think I missed anything information-wise, but I'll update if I think of anything else!


r/prisonhooch 21h ago

Experiment How to cold crash wine?

2 Upvotes

I have multiple a lot of white wine that’s done from bread yeast how long do I cold crash it I have a auto siphon to bottle and everything


r/prisonhooch 1d ago

Apple granadilla

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12 Upvotes

-4 lt untreated water
-7 cut apples (don’t know what type)
-1 teaspoon anchor brewers yeast
-115 grams granadilla pulp
-1 small lemon squeezed
-3/4 cup sugar

Dissolved the sugar in about 200ml warm water then added cold water. Yeast was 1st prepared in a cup of warm water until it started to bubble slightly. Made 28 August 2026. Will siphon for secondary fermentation on the 05th of September 2026. I also didn’t cut the apples so I could see how it turns out vs grating them to make pulp.


r/prisonhooch 1d ago

Wondering if this recipe is at the best it can be

2 Upvotes

Still kinda broke So im learning how to make hooch and i was wondering is this gonna be good as a recipe borrowed some of this from a video but yk maybe the video is wrong who knows

99p Apple juice from asda it contains 36g of already in sugar per Litre

3 Quarters of a cup sugar

3g of Snake Turbo yeast C Star

then i would mix it and put the lid loose on


r/prisonhooch 1d ago

A few questions from a hooch noob

3 Upvotes

Hello everyone, second time hoocher here.

After succesfully growing the oyster mushroom (pleurotus ostreatus) on a mixture of empty toilet paper rolls, shredded paper and 2 old socks of mine, I have now decided to get into prison hooching.

My first batch was made from fruit syrup and tasted like ass, but it worked. So now I have a few questions for the future:

1) how do I know whether my product is safe to drink or not? I know you're supposed to work very sanitarily, but say I want to do a wild fermentation with juice I squeezed myself. How can I ensure my drink will contain alcohol, but not contain any harmful bacteria/fungi? Can't really "sanitize" the juice itself without also killing all the naturally occurring yeasts.

2) Is there anything I can do to make my product go easier on the stomach? I haven't had any problems thus far, but I can imagine drinking larger amounts of my hooch would give me a pretty bad stomach ache. Should I try to filter out the remaining yeast after fermentation or something like that?

Additionally, please feel free to give me any niche (or not so niche) tips you have for this hobby. Thank you in advance!


r/prisonhooch 2d ago

Is it just me or does all homemade wine taste exactly the same

12 Upvotes

I've made it out of apple juice, orange juice, mango juice not one difference


r/prisonhooch 3d ago

Recipe Gluten-Free Teriyucki

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333 Upvotes

r/prisonhooch 4d ago

Cannabis wine

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217 Upvotes

I tried to recreate a cannabis wine from a recipe out of a magazine from the 70s. Gonna try 100 ml, wish me luck!


r/prisonhooch 3d ago

Recipe sugar content

6 Upvotes

hi, my first time making hooch.
im sorry if this has been answered before but i couldn’t find any answers.

the juice im using (1L) has around 110g of natural sugars, is adding 100g of white sugar fine? or should i do 200g
thank you.


r/prisonhooch 4d ago

Experiment Ohhh boy, here I go hooching again

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42 Upvotes

This with pineapple chunks. Going to ramp it up to 18% using dextrose and Coconut sugar. Ec1118 yeast and steeping the sugar in stages


r/prisonhooch 4d ago

Joke Behold my improvised airlock!

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14 Upvotes

This keg doesn't have a bubbler, it has/used to have a simple pressure valve that would open when the keg had too much co2 in it. Unfortunately the spring in that valve went springer-sproing as I was putting in the bung, so here's my solution!


r/prisonhooch 4d ago

Some first time questions (sweeteners, preservatives etc.)

6 Upvotes

Hi! Made my first batch yesterday and afterwards found some tips so wanna do a new batch today.

My first batch is just 1L with some ginger, 144g of sugar and bakers yeast (I will buy the EC-1118 sometime but right now it's sold out everywhere) in a soda bottle with a lose cap.

I saw this guide telling to add 3 grams of yeast and lemon juice.

  1. Lemons are expensive here so I only have a storebought bottle which contains potassium metabisulfite (and citric acid and water but I am not worried about those). Will this harm my hooch if I add 3ml to my sugar syrup.

  2. Can I add erythritol + sucralose to the sugar syrup or do I need to add it after fermentation is done?

  3. The guide says to use 3 grams of yeast, I only did 1/4 tsp in my first batch. Is that enough?

  4. Is there a way to be sure my hooch is done if I don't use a balloon, or would you recommend a balloon for the first time?

  5. What to do when it's done? Just transfer to another bottle and let it sit at room temp for a while?

  6. I forgot to boil the ginger in my first batch, should I throw it out?

Thanks!


r/prisonhooch 4d ago

Article What are these particles?

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3 Upvotes

Why one of the bottles has different particles than the other? Is everything the way it should be or is there a contamination of bacteria? Thanks.


r/prisonhooch 4d ago

First try

7 Upvotes

Hi guys its my first time trying to make alcohol, I used apple juice and yeast with some sugar.
It's day 3 and its still bubbling, am I doing it right? Any suggestions?


r/prisonhooch 4d ago

Experiment Kilju

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11 Upvotes

Pretty sweet


r/prisonhooch 5d ago

First Time !!

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12 Upvotes

Go Big or Go Home


r/prisonhooch 5d ago

Recipe Saint John’s Wort Hooch

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44 Upvotes

1 cup of sugar
1 b vitamin
D47 yeast
Juice of 1/2 of lime
2 cups of saint johns wart
Per 1.5L
(racked 8/6)

Honestly not bad. Tastes like a mediocre dry white wine w/ a hint of apple juice.
Seems like ~8% alcohol

6/10


r/prisonhooch 6d ago

Hydrometer mystery

7 Upvotes

My hydrometer OG reading is not what it should be and I am not sure what to make of it. I am making 4 liters of country wine with 1 kilo of fruit and 750 grams of table sugar and about 50 grams of blackberry jam. The fruit is tree tomato, a citrusy fruit popular here in Colombia where it is used to make tasty juice beverages. It is not a tomato like you eat in your salad. I brought the cut fruit and water up to a boil, turned off the heat, mashed up the fruit, dissolved the sugar and strained it into the fermenting vessel. Added water up to 4 liters. So my total sugar is around 775 grams plus whatever sugar is in the fruit. According the sugar to alcohol calculators, I checked two, this should produce around 12.5 % and so the starting OG should be around 1.095. However I am only reading 1.069. And yes I am adjusting for temperature. I checked the accuracy of my hydrometer against water and it appears to be within .001. This recipe makes good wine, but I have noticed this hydrometer discrepancy before with it. However when I make a sugar wash type of booze the hydro reading seem spot on. So I am not sure to trust what the final ABV will be. I mean x amount of sugar in x amount of water, and a complete fermentation should equal x amount of alcohol. Right?


r/prisonhooch 6d ago

I collect stuff from the woods and mash it into fermenty things

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27 Upvotes

r/prisonhooch 7d ago

Article The peeps at the r/mead don't like strawberry basilic mead

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188 Upvotes

I shouldn't have posted my brew in there. Got some knowledge out of it though.


r/prisonhooch 7d ago

Bottle bombs are no joke.

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67 Upvotes

r/prisonhooch 6d ago

Has anyone made yoohoo beverage into hooch?

9 Upvotes

Swear I saw someone post they were making this, maybe roughly a year ago. If anyone’s done it, how did it come out? Curious more than anything bc the thought crossed my mind today and it sounds horrid