prison hooch

 I'm not sure if this new interface is going to win or I am, but I'm trying to post here. 

I've been a bit fascinated with brewing alcohol lately, and been watching a ton of videos about it on youtube. 

A couple of days ago I got a 3-qt. bottle of apple juice at Wal-Mart, and yesterday went to a brewing place that's over in the same complex at Hilti, and got a little packet of wine yeast and a little airlock thing that is used to release the CO2 while not letting "bad bugs" in. 

So today I set it all up. I put 6 oz. of brown sugar I've had around here forever into the apple juice, then half the packet of yeast, a little lime juice, shook it all up, drilled a hole in the lid and installed the air lock, and it's doing whatever it's going to be doing now. 

Since it's a pretty consistent 82 degrees here in the office at least this time of year, I can just let this sit for the customary week or so and do its thing. I *should* end up with a fairly dry wine-ish liquid with about 15% alcohol content. 

The plan in learning to brew is not to become a wino, and the plan is to taste-test the stuff and then give it to Ken if it's good because one or another of his family will drink it up. If this little hobby stays interesting, the next step in the plan is to learn distilling. What's inspired this interest is that I'm paying a lot for rubbing alcohol which I use around here, and even finding it isn't certain. Alcohol's a useful cleaner, and if things keep getting worse, being able to produce it will be a useful skill as it's a good barter item. 

I'm really glad to have a brewing supply so near to me. What really happened last evening was, after making my drop offs at the post office and FedEx, and picking up some nectarines and plums that were behind H Mart, I went over to the brewing place and bought the airlock and a packet of wine yeast, the notorious EC-1118. Once that transaction was done, I joined the owner and two guys all talking in the parking lot where the roll-up door was rolled up. The owner had been, variously, a mining chemist, a professional poker player, and God knows what else, and now he's a brewing expert. He was pouring some white wine he'd made, and I had some; it was really nice tasting. 

Apparently they have some activities during the time of year wine grape growers call "The Crush" when the grapes are harvested and it's a lot of work to get them tuned into juice and on their way to becoming wine. It gets hectic, so this guy's way of handling this is to have something like work parties with free food etc. They can always use another grape shoveler, I was told. 

One of the guys was an old regular, and I said I'm a beginner about to start my new batch, and the guy looked over at the fruit in the box on my bike trailer and said, "You won't get much, maybe one bottle" and I said that's OK since I'm new and just learning. 

The thing is, we kept drinking wine and I may have drank more wine than any of them. The conversation was fun, I was hoping to learn things, the wine was free, and it really tasted nicer than the $10 a bottle stuff I'm used to. Eventually I polished off my latest generous pouring and probably said I had to go politely enough, and the next thing I remember is waking up here with the office light on, but all neatly in bed, the door locked properly, and the box of fruit by the door. I didn't feel too great either. 

I had some coffee and a can of fish and watched YouTube a bit, it being about 4AM, and then went to bed again at about 5 o 5:30. I *might* be able to do this once a week, but should not be doing it at all. For one thing, I didn't get my Ebay listings done. 

I woke up again after some proper sleep and brewed up a coffee and had my vitamins etc., and it took me forever to drink the coffee, but I got my apple juice brew started, and once I had indeed finished the coffee I headed downtown. 

I went to Lee's Sandwiches first and got a chicken-on-noodles thing and a pork ball skewer, which is almost a meal in itself - it's ground up char siu made into balls and quite hearty. I eat my lunches over at the college now and had a nice bench in the shade and squirrels to watch. 

Next stop was Dai Thanh where I got two different sizes of strainer, a stainless steel bowl, a pair of those super long chop sticks used in cooking, some dried squid, shallots, and a can of coffee. It all came to $32-odd so I used my card because it was more than I had on me in cash. 

I rode around downtown a bit and it was really dead. San Pedro Square is blocked to cars all the time now, and was a little bit busy but that was about it. I didn't see any buskers. 

I stopped at TAK Market on the way back for a couple of 1-liter bottles of Diet Pepsi, something I like as a treat anyway, and I wanted the bottles. 

When I got back, I rinsed and cut up the plums, making a nice big pot full and put in a mug of water, and simmered them for a bit over half an hour, then poured and strained as much liquid as I could get, making about 0.8 liter. This went into one empty Diet Pepsi bottle. The nectarines got the same treatment so I now have a bottle each of plum and nectarine juicy syrupy stuff, which can be stored in the fridge until I'm ready to use them. I should not have to pay for fruit, and even the yeast can be "cleaned" and re-used. 

Right now, 10PM, the yeast in my first batch are having a real party. The air lock is bubbling every 3-4 seconds, and the yeast are circulating around in the bottle like crazy. The top of the liquid is fizzing with tiny CO2 bubbles.