Some basic questions

[az77]

Hi,

I am hoping to make some strong(ish) alcohol, maybe 10-15%, but also as cheap as possible I have a few questions i can't find the answers too.

1) When brewing (fermenting) do you really need a fish tank heater or not, the brew has to be between about 22-30 deg right otherwise it will just not ferment, my rooms are usually pretty warm not sure the extact temp though, if so is it fine to just sterilize the casing of the heater?

2) Is it ok during fermenting to open the lid and check the temp or will this ruin the mash, i.e the air and contaminants will get in?

3) can you use household sugar what abv will this likely get you?

4) How much yeast would you use for a 33 ltr bin, would 5g be enough?

TIA

[booldawg]

I and most on here would probably steer you into brewing a decent quality ale, starting with a kit and making up as per instructions. There are excellent tutorials on the 'Technique' section as above.

Nevertheless, everything is subjective!

1) you wont need any extra heat if room temp is between 17-22C. Sterlise everything that comes into contact with the beer - fermenting bin, spoons, bottles - everything.
2) yes you can crack the lid, not too often though as the CO2 layer protects the beer and opening the lid will cause this layer to escape. Get a strip theromometer from any brew shop and stick it on the side of the fermenting vessel.
3) You can use household sugar but it wont give you a top quality tasting beer, a cidery taste can be expected. But as it sounds like you're going for cheap, strong hooch then thats up to you!
4) 5g wont be enough for the kind of beer you're hoping to brew. The 33Lt bin isnt a factor- how many Litres are you brewing? I'd put a couple of 11g sachets in something that strong (especially if its around the 25L mark)

What are you doing? Buying a cheap kit and ramping up the sugar?

[OldSpeckledBadger]

Start off by making some kits. Answers to all of your questions can be found in the Kits forum.

[az77]

I and most on here would probably steer you into brewing a decent quality ale, starting with a kit and making up as per instructions. There are excellent tutorials on the 'Technique' section as above.

Nevertheless, everything is subjective!

1) you wont need any extra heat if room temp is between 17-22C. Sterlise everything that comes into contact with the beer - fermenting bin, spoons, bottles - everything.
2) yes you can crack the lid, not too often though as the CO2 layer protects the beer and opening the lid will cause this layer to escape. Get a strip theromometer from any brew shop and stick it on the side of the fermenting vessel.
3) You can use household sugar but it wont give you a top quality tasting beer, a cidery taste can be expected. But as it sounds like you're going for cheap, strong hooch then thats up to you!
4) 5g wont be enough for the kind of beer you're hoping to brew. The 33Lt bin isnt a factor- how many Litres are you brewing? I'd put a couple of 11g sachets in something that strong (especially if its around the 25L mark)

What are you doing? Buying a cheap kit and ramping up the sugar?

Thanks for that, just experimenting. I may add some flavour yes, hops or whatever. But i want it quite strong, i am sure i will learn my lesson as i go along, but i want to try it. Still not 100% sure on the sugar to yeast ratio, does the yeast grow in the mash, and basically the more sugar then the stronger it is BUT all yeast will die about 20% abv from what i can make out so there must be a formula that will tell me the optimum amount of sugar per ltr of water, for exmaple i could add 10kg of sugar but may not all ferment as the yeast may have say died out of 6kg of the sugar was broken down.

So i have 33ltr bin so i guess i would be making about 30 ltrs. I have been watching a few videos and sanitation seems a big factor here, i was going to use household bleach, with rinsing or cours,e for the sanitizer (why do i not read of many people using HH bleach), it seems more economical?

[boingy]

It sounds like you just want alcohol rather than beer.

Buy this:

www.leylandhomebrew.com/item2628.htm

and follow the instructions.

[booldawg]

I've only ever used HH thin bleach (dont use the thick stuff) for sanitising. There are better products out there but its always worked for me. 5ml bleach per litre of water.

Boingys link sound truly disgusting! Has anyone actually brewed that? Wont be true vodka unless its distilled?

[az77]

Well i just ordered 10g of champagne yeast, would i get a good yield if i mix this with 5kg of sugar all in 30 ltr of water, if i add some chopped up apples would i get cider?

[boingy]

Well i just ordered 10g of champagne yeast, would i get a good yield if i mix this with 5kg of sugar all in 30 ltr of water, if i add some chopped up apples would i get cider?

az, mate. I have a very serious suggestion. Don't make 30 litres of anything just yet. Make a small batch, say 5 litres.

And, no, it wouldn't be cider!

[dave-o]

Well i just ordered 10g of champagne yeast, would i get a good yield if i mix this with 5kg of sugar all in 30 ltr of water, if i add some chopped up apples would i get cider?

If you want to make beer, follow the guides and recipes on this forum.

If you want to make flavourless alcoholic water, use

Dextrose (or table sugar, but you won't get it quite as high in alcohol) - 10 kilos
Turbo yeast - 1 packet
Water - 23 litres
Ferment it at indoor room temperature, it'll probably take 2 weeks or so.

That'll come out somewhere between 18% - 24%. You can then add juice or flavours if you want. Normal yeasts won't be able to handle such high alcohol levels, so that's why you need turbo.

[Horatio]

About twenty years ago I made a brew using up all my sugar supplies; honey, treacle, golden syrup, dark muscovado, soft brown and so on. It was not as strong as you are looking for, mine was about 10% IIRC. I bottled it and forgot about it for over a year and when I tried it, you know what... it tasted horrible! But I gave my sister's mates husband (a well known local p1ss head) a few bottles at a BBQ and he loved it! Takes all sorts and each to his own I suppose.