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This guy made booze while in prison and tells how you can do it at home.

http://freakybay.com/article/what-is-prison-wine-and-how-to-make-it.php

Sounds lovely , looks like a bag of puke.

To be fair, I've been brewing beer for the last roughly seven years, and the bottom eighth of it consistently resembles vomit.

However I can't see this link, because it has a problem with my ad blocker. I'm guessing he relies on natural yeast, and so it results in less alcohol per yeast byproduct.

But that's an assumption.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh. I put other precautions into place and disabled the ad blocker. Turns out he's boiling fruit juice and somehow coming up with a yeast packet to add after the fact. I couldn't guess how you come up with that in prison, but yeah, that's booze making right there. If he was really roughing it, he would add the fruit skins and try to brew off the yeast present on those skins. Truly our prisons must be paradise such that this isn't a concern.

Well, yeah, that's about what it takes. Instead of double boiling, you can add potassium metabisulfate, roughly 1 tsp per 5 gallons, to any sort of fruit juice and then 24 hours later dump a yeast packet into your slop. You can even just use Welcher's fruit juice if you really just want something to get you trashed. Dump about a cup of confectioners/corn/powdered sugar into it if you have it. Seal it in glass or a plastic bucket, and about 3-4 weeks later minimum give it a taste. Depending on the yeast packet and the sugar, it'll be 5-10% alcohol, and it'll get you where you need to go, but it'll be dry as feth unless you sweeten it up after the fact. If you do, you either need to add something to kill ALL the yeast in it, or drink it in the next day or two.

 daedalus wrote:
However I can't see this link, because it has a problem with my ad blocker.

Because it's a spam bot.

I would be very wary of clicking that link or disabling your blocker.

It’s standard basic brewing, home brewing doesn’t need an ‘expensive’ set up. A demijohn, assorted tubes and funnels will Get you through the process and various tablets for sterilisation and nutrients are a few pounds but the packs will last a long time. You could do all that for £20 and most of it would be a one off cost. The mash in that bag looks grim but once you filter it and let the remaining sediment settle out it will look like a passable white.

If you want to get into nasty stuff you can make spirits from all sorts of waste like potato skins or wood shavings. The distillation process to concentrate the alcohol is illegal because of the dangers of doing it incorrectly. Natural fermentation produces small but normally safe quantities of methanol. As methanol has a lower boiling point it distils out first and done correctly a distiller will dispose of the distillate produced below the boiling point of ethanol. If you’re not equipped or experienced to monitor the temperature accurately or ensure the distillation process proceeds slowly enough to remove all the methanol before the ethanol distils out you risk dangerously concentrating methanol into your moonshine, and that carries a risk of poisoning leading to blindness or death.

You can buy ready made stills off the shelf here and they are safe and easy to use, but brewing itself isn't at all hard. All you need is sugar, yeast, water and heat.

Tinned fruit from commissary, water, plus a plastic bag.

Leave to rot under your prison bunk, skim off the crud and drink the fermented liquid.

The trick is hiding the stash as its contraband to brew pruno, generally you want to leave everything from the fruit in the plastic bag because you want it to ferment as quickly as possible as you likely don't have much time; a few days at most. Less if someone rats you for extra chow.

 Orlanth wrote:
Tinned fruit from commissary, water, plus a plastic bag.

Leave to rot under your prison bunk, skim off the crud and drink the fermented liquid.

The trick is hiding the stash as its contraband to brew pruno, generally you want to leave everything from the fruit in the plastic bag because you want it to ferment as quickly as possible as you likely don't have much time; a few days at most. Less if someone rats you for extra chow.

Gosh, Orlanth! Do you speak with the voice of experience?

Mmmm... Toiletshine....

The Auld Grump - the '49ers used to drink the liquid from making sourdough....

I once used one of those homebrew kits from Thinkgeek on some Juicy Juice. Took a few weeks, and it was god-awful. After that experience, I don't think I'd be desperate enough for prison hooch.

Home made alcoholic ginger beer is cheap, easy and tastes good. Plenty of recipes. For an extra kick chuck in a couple of Birdseye peppers.

Careful with prison hooch:

https://www-m.cnn.com/2016/06/16/health/botulism-prison-outbreak/index.html?rm=1

There are so many high quality micro brewerys and distillerys where I live that making my own booze is kind of a waste of time.

I live in an area that was famous for producing booze for the Chicago area during Prohibition days. Let's just say that old habits die hard.

The number of old-timers making their own booze around here have fallen to pretty low levels, however the ones that remain learned how to do it from their grandfathers decades ago. I got introduced to a friend-of-a-friend a while ago. Although I am usually a non-drinker (and never hard liquor), but I did partake. It's hard to describe how something can both be smooth in your mouth, and have immediate warming in your belly. I'm a really large guy, and just a little glass of that stuff put me out. Had to have been some pretty high octane stuff.

Working in a state prison for 12 yrs, inmates make that stuff all the time. Jenkem is another method they use to catch a buzz...fermented human waste is all you need

 Chute82 wrote:
Working in a state prison for 12 yrs, inmates make that stuff all the time. Jenkem is another method they use to catch a buzz...fermented human waste is all you need

Googled that. Jeebus

How bad does reality have to be that huffing poop fumes is a viable alternative??

 feeder wrote:

 Chute82 wrote:
Working in a state prison for 12 yrs, inmates make that stuff all the time. Jenkem is another method they use to catch a buzz...fermented human waste is all you need

Googled that. Jeebus

How bad does reality have to be that huffing poop fumes is a viable alternative??

When the prison movie night is showing the reboot of Ghostbusters, you have to do what you have to do in order to make it to the end, LOL

 cuda1179 wrote:

 feeder wrote:

 Chute82 wrote:
Working in a state prison for 12 yrs, inmates make that stuff all the time. Jenkem is another method they use to catch a buzz...fermented human waste is all you need

Googled that. Jeebus

How bad does reality have to be that huffing poop fumes is a viable alternative??

When the prison movie night is showing the reboot of Ghostbusters, you have to do what you have to do in order to make it to the end, LOL

That would fall under “cruel and unusual punishment” making the inmates watch that movie, last thing any CO would want is a write up

 feeder wrote:
There are so many high quality micro brewerys and distillerys where I live that making my own booze is kind of a waste of time.

It's a valuable skill to have when you're anticipating the certain collapse of your economy.

Let's all remember, legally you can make your own wine or beer. If you make distilled spirits you need to be certified by the government and pay taxes on it.

I never really understood why beer and wine is okay, but not liquor. Is it some kind of legacy anti-Irish law?

I think spirits are a lot more dangerous to make for both the distiller and the consumer.

Round me there's a fairly high amount of groups making vodka in sheds and you here of fires and explosions at times, due to mistakes being made.

 cuda1179 wrote:
Let's all remember, legally you can make your own wine or beer. If you make distilled spirits you need to be certified by the government and pay taxes on it.

I never really understood why beer and wine is okay, but not liquor. Is it some kind of legacy anti-Irish law?

You can make under 200 gals for two adults in one household for personal use that’s wine and beer... just watch the state laws about transportation of alcohol

http://www.ncsl.org/research/financial-services-and-commerce/home-manufacture-of-alcohol-state-statutes.aspx

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 Orlanth wrote:
Tinned fruit from commissary, water, plus a plastic bag.

Leave to rot under your prison bunk, skim off the crud and drink the fermented liquid.

The trick is hiding the stash as its contraband to brew pruno, generally you want to leave everything from the fruit in the plastic bag because you want it to ferment as quickly as possible as you likely don't have much time; a few days at most. Less if someone rats you for extra chow.

Gosh, Orlanth! Do you speak with the voice of experience?

Thankfully not, just my writing style.

 cuda1179 wrote:
Let's all remember, legally you can make your own wine or beer. If you make distilled spirits you need to be certified by the government and pay taxes on it.

I never really understood why beer and wine is okay, but not liquor. Is it some kind of legacy anti-Irish law?

I'm guessing that it's because distilling is kind of dangerous for health and safety. I think most states are twitchy about single sources of alcohol above a certain volume. An old roommate of mine used to have a kegerator, and there was state paperwork you had to fill out to get a keg sold to you by the places that carried them. I think Illinois has something similar.

On top of that, booze above 40% is flammable, it's generally being kept over flame or heat, and there's no means of regulating it when you're brewing it yourself unless you're testing it yourself. If you're just drinking whatever comes out of the still, and you don't know/care what you're doing, you could be drinking 40% moonshine or 80% moonshine. There's a big difference there between the two.

 daedalus wrote:

 cuda1179 wrote:
Let's all remember, legally you can make your own wine or beer. If you make distilled spirits you need to be certified by the government and pay taxes on it.

I never really understood why beer and wine is okay, but not liquor. Is it some kind of legacy anti-Irish law?

I'm guessing that it's because distilling is kind of dangerous for health and safety. I think most states are twitchy about single sources of alcohol above a certain volume. An old roommate of mine used to have a kegerator, and there was state paperwork you had to fill out to get a keg sold to you by the places that carried them. I think Illinois has something similar.

On top of that, booze above 40% is flammable, it's generally being kept over flame or heat, and there's no means of regulating it when you're brewing it yourself unless you're testing it yourself. If you're just drinking whatever comes out of the still, and you don't know/care what you're doing, you could be drinking 40% moonshine or 80% moonshine. There's a big difference there between the two.

I understood it to be this way because an amatuerish brewery gone bad will only make a stinky mess, but an amatuerish distillery gone bad is an explosion/fire hazard?

Well, yeah. It is a non-trivial fire hazard. I'd imagine that without proper containment / ventilation the fumes are probably a little hazardous too.

The worst thing I can think of that would happen with beer/wine (other than your sticky mess) is biological contamination, but those are pretty easy to detect (at least in beer) before you would get sick from it (if you were even going to). Pretty harmless in comparison. I guess you could burn yourself pretty badly on spilled beer wort, but it's "personal injury" kind of going wrong, not "house exploding and fire" kind of going wrong.

Yeah, I'm sure there's been a lot of block fires throughout history caused by backyard distillerys.

I somewhat seem to recall somewhere in history the US had a major city fire that I thought was caused by a distillery company catching fire, but I can't seem to find it now that I'm looking. I suspect that my memory is faulty.

I would not be surprised though.

 Chute82 wrote:

 cuda1179 wrote:
Let's all remember, legally you can make your own wine or beer. If you make distilled spirits you need to be certified by the government and pay taxes on it.

I never really understood why beer and wine is okay, but not liquor. Is it some kind of legacy anti-Irish law?

You can make under 200 gals for two adults in one household for personal use that’s wine and beer... just watch the state laws about transportation of alcohol

http://www.ncsl.org/research/financial-services-and-commerce/home-manufacture-of-alcohol-state-statutes.aspx

Scarily enough, our local SCA shire has a very similar story....

The Auld Grump