Water, sugar and yeast...

[NickW]

Not sure where to post this.

I've always wondered this, but never tried it. If I brew with JUST water, sugar and yeast... what is the result?

15% flavourless brew? Watered down vodka taste? Perhaps it would taste pretty good with a dash of ribena??

 

[iceo]

sort of. lots of info here http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=69

 

[graysalchemy]

Just moved to more appropriate board. :thumb:

 

[Robbo]

I don't think just water, sugar and yeast would ferment without nutrients.

 

[dennisking]

Prison hooch?

 

[calumscott]

That's a kilju isn't it? You will need yeast nutrients, just like you, they need other stuff to live healthily. You should, with one of the crazy-gang yeasts out there, get near to 20%.

I would imagine that you have to be very careful with temperature and most recommend charcoal filtering too...

...but yes, you would end up with pretty flavourless, alcoholic, erm, stuff...

 

[screamlead]

Great stuff this i add lemon juice to it too about 2 cup fulls per 20 ltr. I have 40 ltr on the go at the moment in 2 FV's I use it as alcho water and add flavours once its bottled conditioned. :

 

[Idja]

Great stuff this i add lemon juice to it too about 2 cup fulls per 20 ltr.

You add the Lemon Juice with the sugar and water before you pitch the yeast Screamlead?

 

[screamlead]

Great stuff this i add lemon juice to it too about 2 cup fulls per 20 ltr.

You add the Lemon Juice with the sugar and water before you pitch the yeast Screamlead?

Yeah i do - either fresh pressed lemons or the bottled stuff you can get for cooking, i find it just gives it a nice 'twist' without being overpowering and it probably masks some 'odd' flavours you can get.
Once finished i usually bottle in 500ml bottles with a t spoon of sugar to carb them up and then add any flavour i want when pouring. :thumb:

 

[local lad]

Did you ever give this a go

I am thinking about putting water/Sugar/Yeast and nutrients to make a base for some flavorings

(i am thinking these alcoshot kits may be a bit of a rip off.)

anyway if it is possible could get a decent bottle of shots/alcopop at quite a cheap price.

might give it a go and post what i did (if i live) :!:

 

[Wasabi]

Great stuff this i add lemon juice to it too about 2 cup fulls per 20 ltr.

I decided to try this, I put 1kg sugar and 120ml lemon juice in a 4.5 L dj and added a tsp of yeast nutrient. It started ok but never became particularly vigourous.

After a week it was still fermenting slowly (about 1 bubble per 5 secs) but showed no sign of finishing. I've not had any wine in this warm weather that took longer than 7 days so I decided to add some more yeast nutrient in case this was the problem.

Another week on and it's still fermenting slowly, a hydrometer reading indicates there's still 400g of sugar left so only 600g has fermented in 2 weeks. What really struck me though was a total absence of sediment at the bottom of the dj, no more than a light dusting anyhow; normally I would expect to see 1-2cm of sediment after a week. So I decided to beef it up a bit more and added another 100ml of lemon juice, 1 tsp of nutrient and 1/2 tsp extra yeast for good measure.

After an initial strong reaction it settled back to much the same rate as before after an hour, currently 1 bubble every 8 secs which works out at about 30g of sugar a day being used up, at this rate it will take another fortnight to finish! Incidentally when I drank the hydrometer sample it tasted quite nice, like alcoholic lemonade. According to my calculation it was about 9% ABV at this point, my target is 14% though.

 

[Wasabi]

Another 7 days (21 days total now) and the gravity is still 1020, i.e. 6% sugar, so only about 100g of the remaining sugar has fermented during the last 7 days, at this rate it would take at least another 2 weeks if not more! Yet the liquid is still bubbling albeit slowly. I decided that it must still be too rarified nutrionally, and adding yeast nutrient and lemon juice wasn't enough, so I decanted 1 litre out into a pop bottle to make space for a litre of apple juice in the hope of, well not exactly kick starting it (it's about 11% ABV by now) but "kick finishing" it. I also added another 1/2 tsp of yeast for good measure. A few hours later and a promising sign is that a substantial sediment has formed for the first time in the base of the FV, and there is also a new yeast scum on the surface, so hopefully it will finish soon! In future though I think I will avoid the pure water+sugar+alcohol approach!

 

[graysalchemy]

If you want to make high abv washes then you really need the alchotec yeasts and charcoal etc. The yeast comes with a shed load of nutrients which they need. :thumb:

 

[Wasabi]

I was only going for 14% ABV, basically it was going to end up being something like wine-strength lemonade since I'd used about 3% lemon juice. The addition of a litre of apple juice has reduced the expected ABV to about 13% (assuming it ever finishes!)

 

[homegrown999]

To get a better flavorless wine, I called a couple brew shops and they said that an ale would work. I'm doing a small run of this now (1/2 gal) but I am not sure if I should add all of the nutrients like Moley did with his orange wine here, viewtopic.php?f=48&t=10179. I have all the nutrients it calls for but just added the ale, yeast, and sugar. going to be doing a finer at the end of the fermentation to help clear it up a little bit. any help would be much appreciate as this is my very first time making wine and didnt know if it would be better to add the extras to the ale brew for the next time i make it.

 

[Moley]

Ale yeasts all contribute considerably to the final taste of beers and if you split a wort and ferment it with two different yeasts you will get two different beers, so I think this suggestion is a non-starter.

Apart from that, ale yeasts have a much lower alcohol tolerance than wine yeasts.

 

[Wasabi]

I accidentally made a wine with some ale yeast, the result tasted like a mixture of beer and wine! Very odd flavour. Also it ended a bit sweet as the yeast gave up at around 11%.

 

[divingdavey]

Isn't something like elderflower wine basically a flavoured version of this?

 

[Cupid_Stunt]

That's a kilju isn't it?

KILJU apparently considered being a low-quality beverage that is consumed mainly for the sake of its alcohol content.

Nice one calumscott LMFAO, not only have I learnt something new today but at last I find a name for what I've been brewing all this time!:clap: