Food & Drink Has Any Ever Made Their Own Homemade Liquor?

MLarson

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Whether it's beer, wine or some type Alcohol.

I never have myself but I like to learn to make either
Whiskey or Bourbon but it's probably hard to do.
 
So, by homemade drinks, you mean brewing/distilling your own?

Distilling liquor involves fire so it's unsafe for a noob*. Brewing beer is much easier and you can buy kits with everything you need. Start there.



*That means not trying to start with whiskey or bourbon but you do you.
 
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I've made wine a few times over the years. Also helped a buddy make mead. It's not as hard as you think. Humans have been doing it since someone ate the first piece of rotten fermenting fruit and got their buzz on.
 
Whether it's beer, wine or some type Alcohol.

I never have myself but I like to learn to make either
Whiskey or Bourbon but it's probably hard to do.
Bro, this is illegal partly because people end up making wood alcohol on accident.

Making the wrong type of alcohol when distilling at home primarily results in producing methanol, a highly toxic substance, instead of the desired ethanol [1, 2]. The key risk is poisoning, which can lead to severe health consequences, including blindness and death. Methanol is a natural byproduct of fermentation but is concentrated by distillation. While small amounts are common, improper techniques, such as failing to discard the initial portion of the distillate ("heads"), can lead to dangerous concentrations. Symptoms of methanol poisoning can include:
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Severe abdominal pain
  • Headache and dizziness
  • Blurred vision or complete blindness
  • Kidney failure
  • Coma and death

It was partly this, partly government policy, that led to as many as 50K Americans dying from wood alcohol poisoning during Prohibition.

Mixed result when there is no G-man fuckery involved, but the lack of chemistry training and proper equipment can end up getting you killed-- copper and lead contamination is also a hazard. If the methanol ratio is off with wine or beer, it isn't as big of a deal because of the concentration of alcohol; there is a lower load of the poison. Not the case with liquor:

This isn't something to be approached casually. Just a heads up.
 
I don't do it much now but used to homebrew large quantities of beer, cider and wine. It's one of those things that's easy to start but hard to master; in terms of getting the taste good, and if you want to go from ingredients rather than kits.

As others have said making spirits is more complex, and you might need a license.

But to make beer for instance you can just

put sugar,

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syrup tin

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and hot water

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into your fermenting bin,

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mix with a long, hygienic (not wooden) spoon,

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fill up with lukewarm water,

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then 'pitch' yeast (just means sprinkle in, you don't have to do a baseball throw)

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and leave the bin in a warm place (near your boiler for instance) for a few days. Depends how warm the place is, if your home is cool it can take a few weeks for best results.

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Then siphon the pre-beer into a barrel,

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add some 'priming sugar'

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and again wait a few days/weeks for the fermentation of the priming sugar to fizz it up and the sediment to settle at the bottom. This time in a cool(ish) place.

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There are all kinds of different possible variations but I just kept it very simple. If you have apples in the autumn you can scrat

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and press

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them, then go through a similar process with the juice to make cider. However it's very slow using hand-tools as I have depicted, so I would recommend automatic machines if you have significant quantities. Especially the press.

Edit: The post won't post with embedded pictures, nor was I able to attach a picture earlier, so I'll leave those spaces blank, and hopefully the issue will soon be fixed and I can add the pix later.
Edit 2: Added
 
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I've made wine. Ended being super strong like a port wine on steroids. Its easy to get drunk as hell. But l dont like alcohol but ive made it before. If you ant a very cheapnajd easy method regular grape juice will be easiest.
 
Nope. My neighbor makes his own wine, though. Gets real serious about it. Saw his setup...nope. Way above my paygrade. Don't know how good it really is, but it goes down easy and gets you drunk real quick.

I never brewed beer, but I knew some folks who gave it a shot. Always came out like shit.
 
Yeah used to make cordial from blue berries, elderberries and black berries. Had a friend who made a still in his garage. It's not terribly difficult if you are conscientious enough to see the project through. Don't let @Madmick's asperger's scare you off.
 
My step dad makes wine from his fruit garden every year. I don't drink, so I cannot tell you how it is, but he seems to be a fan.
 
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