Student's brew

[#_Alco_POP_Update]

 

Firstly this is all experimental and clearly some of these experiments may not be wise or safe.

“Student brew” / “No kit Brew” (Extra strength Alco-Pop £4 for over 4 Litres ready in 1 week)
This has been designed for people that do not want a tone of brewing equipment but do want a limitless supply high power Alco-Pop / Cock Tails for parties. All the ingredients are available from Supermarkets & yeast eith bakers yeast from the supermarket or proper brewing yeast from Wilkinson’s or a home brew shop.

Required for this brew

• 5 Litre still mineral water (ASDA 99p)
• 1 Sachet containing wine yeast + yeast nutrients to make 4.5 Litres (approx 50p)
  (Try Wilkinson’s or your local homebrew shop)
• 1 Kg white sugar (50p) (You will only need 1/2 of the bag unless you go on to animal strength Alco-Pop)
• 3 Oranges (24p) or (60 ml. lemon juice from concentrate make sure it does not have any preservatives)
• Orange or similar concentrate to make up to 4.5 Litres (99p and upwards depending on your choice)

(I used Soda Stream Orange and Mango sachets at 33p each sachet make 1 Litre but cheaper options like orange concentrate or concentrated Ribena are easily found)

Total price £3.22
That is it! No other equipment required!

Instructions

• Remove about 1/2 a litre of water from the mineral water container leaving 4.5 litres in the container. (This leaves enough space for the fermentation to take place)
• Squeeze the oranges into a clean glass. You need to remove any pips or bits of skin. 
• Pour the juice into the mineral water container.
• Add the yeast to the surface of the liquid in the container. (You do not need to stir the yeast in just leave it to float on the surface. It will mix in its own time.)
• Leave for a few minutes for the yeast to hydrate
• Add 1/2 a bag of sugar (1/2 KG). A bit extra won't hurt, but it will take a bit longer to brew. 
• Screw the cap on and agitate to get the sugar to dissolve. (Don't leave the cap on too long as the yeast is working and producing CO2 gas and you do not want the container to pop) 
• Lightly put the cap on but NOT air tight. Squeeze the container to make sure it is not air tight. 
  (If it is air tight it will blow up due to the gas produced by the yeast. You will have 4.5 Litres of sticky mess) In an ideal world you would have a fermentation lock to ensure that the fermentation is done with the air excluded but this is a no equipment brew)
• Leave for 7 days to ferment & settle.
• Optional step for Animal strength Alco-Pop (Add the rest of your sugar, agitate to dissolve, and leave for at least another 7 days)
• When your brew has fully fermented and settled then gently pour the liquid into another vessel or vessels (glasses, cups...).(Avoid pouring the sediment)
• Add your concentrate to the clear liquid in the vessel(s) and drink.

My Animal strength Alco-Pop has completed and I sampled it. Very tasty with the Orange and Mango concentrate from soda stream. The brew did take longer than I thought but that because it is over 15% Alcohol and it’s a bit cooler so the yeast worked a bit slower than usual. I have also just tried the less powerful version "Extra strength Alco-Pop" at 7% Alcohol and this was ready within 7 days. The end result from using natural lemons is a cloudy drink. Natural lemonade is also cloudy. I am going to try the above but substituting the lemons for concentrated lemon juice. This should end up with a clearer end product.

Please email me if you do follow this. I want to know how easy / hard it is and what can be improved and I guess more to the point was the final drink worth it. I have got my 4.5 Litres of Orange and Mango Animal strength Alco-Pop. This is pretty good at 14% alcohol for only £3.22. That should be enough for 18 Glasses of cocktails or 18 glasses of high strength Alco-Pop (still not fizzy).
That works out at 18p a glass.

If you want your Alco-Pop sparkling then you proceed as per "Extra strength Alco-Pop" at 7% Alcohol and transfer the brew after day 7 into 2 litre plastic lemonade / cola containers. These are made of a plastic called PET, which holds pressure very well. Do not fill the PET bottle completely leave about 1.5 inch head room. Add 1 level table spoon (15 ml) sugar to each 2 Litre PET bottle. Screw the cap on and leave at room temperature (17C - 24C). Leave for another 7 days and the brew should be sparkling and should have settled with a small sediment of yeast on the bottom. Transfer your PET bottle to the fridge and cool before you serve. To serve, pour or siphon off the brew leaving the sediment behind and then add the concentrate to your brew.

Alco-Pop update

By Grant from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Here in Canada you can't buy water by the 5 L. It is either 4 L. or 10 L. So I went for 10 L. Here is the recipe and the money in Canadian dollars. For British currency, just divide by 2.

   CA$2.25   10 L. water
        $1.58    2 - 5 gram packs EC-1118 Lalvin champagne yeast
        $0.67    1 tbsp (15 gram) yeast nutrient (Ammonium Sulphate, Diammonium Phosphate)
        $1.25    1 kilo white sugar
        $0.25    125 ml. lemon juice from concentrate
**********
   CA$6.00 Grand total

I have a 23 L. carboy (cleaned). I added the water. I then added the lemon juice, yeast nutrient and two packs of yeast. I waited 15 minutes. I then added the sugar, put the screw top on and mixed like crazy! Everything was well mixed. I put an air lock on it & put it in a nice warm spot.
    It's cold here in Canada at this time of year and the temperature in the house is 20 C. So for it to ferment & clear it took two weeks. The results? Excellent! Based on 17 grams of sugar X 1 litre = 1% alcohol, my batch turned out to be 5.8% alcohol. The hydrometer backed it up. Now I had a lot of choices in what powdered fruit mix or frozen concentrate to add to the wash. I bought two packs (Peach & Fruit punch) drink mix. At a cost of CA$2.00 each and each could make 6 L. - Lots!
    So the final points? I got 10 L. of good tasting alcoholic pop for a total cost of $10.00 Canadian. Five British pounds. If I had wanted to I could have used water from the tap. Water is great here in Canada. Not a lot of work and not a bad price, eh?

Worth mentioning:
(1) When I syphoned the mix into 2 litre pop bottles I made sure to leave room at the top for the powdered mix which would displace the liquid.
(2) DO NOT make over 10 L. at a time. The yeast just can't take it! If you plan to make 25 litres, use one of the new turbo yeasts. Here in Canada I can buy a pack that makes 25 litres + 6 kilo sugar = 14% alcohol in two days. CA$6.50 for the yeast and CA$7.50 for the sugar. Total CA$14.00
(3) At this time of year water from the taps has a ph of 8. If a person does not know what the ph of their water is, stick with lemon juice.

 

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