Like most folks in the USA, money is really tight. SO…here are some ideas for christmas and new yrs beverages. If you like Capt morgans spiced rum, Two or three tablespoons of brown sugar, four is better half teaspoon each, cinnamon, ground clove, nutmeg, and allspice leave for a week and test it, if more spice is needed, add a bit more. VODKA…cheap vodka, pour three times thru a britta pitcher, as good as grey goose, try it! Homemade Apple wine, grab some cheap apple cider at walmart etc pour out a glass, add one cup sugar, small box of raisins add some cinnamon, a pinch or so, throw in some HODGSON"S bread yeast a couple of pinches, DO NOT TIGHTEN LID, leave it on LOOSE, leave on counter a few days, when the foaming settles (usually about 4 or 5 days) and it becomes less murky and raisins have settled, place in frig. If you live where it is cold, put outside til it is almost frozen, might kill the yeast off, ( you dont want the trots) Leave in frig a week or so, and if still murky you can kill the yeast by pouring it into a pan and getting it around 100 or so degrees, that kills it. More and the alcohol evaporates. I can usually get by drinking it without the pan etc…Hope you like it.OH, add strawberries or blackberries that come in the frozen section if you want that DONT DRINK THE CRUDDY STUFF AT THE BOTTOM, Hope you like it.
Interesting, question for any other home brewers out there what is the proper method for killing off the yeast? Seems they will just keep brewing and brewing if you keep adding sugar and the brew don’t stay sweet it just gets stronger.
@johndeere89: I think the max alcohol a fermented product can have is about 17-18%. Tripleboks are in this area, and they are so sweet they are hard to drink. This is why distillation was invented to supplement fermentation 
The ancient Irish invented whiskey and the French invented brandy. No the yeast die off when they run out of sugar to eat, and they can’t live in all that alcohol (which is their waste product).
The yeast more or less goes dormant when all the available sugar has been eaten up. Homebrews that haven’t been pasteurized will ferment again if sugar is added. However yeast can be real touchy and needs semi-ideal conditions.
This is very interesting and all, but could please mark these non-snuff threads with “OT:”-prefix in the future. Thanks!
Agreed, all non-snuff thread titles should start with OT
actualy distillation was invented for perfume actualy. At first people thought it was toxic and didn’t drink it. It took the irish to give it a go and try drinking the stuff. Just a bit of trivia.
@bob: It is toxic. Whiskey always gets me intoxicated.
highly toxic. Like a small glass will kill you type of toxic.
@graybeard19 This is awesome, I’m gonna try it! Thanks!
Sorry for not putting the O T in front of the title of discussion will do so in future, As to how to kill off the yeast after it gets finished, put a shot or two of rum or vodka into the bottle. Alc content will go up and kill off the yeast. (like Port wine which is fortified, I prefer the tawny port myself…great dram) by the way, my batch I made when I started this thread is about 9% I guess. used bread yeast, next batch will be a good champagne yeast which will take it up to about 22% that is FORTY FOUR PROOF, by the way.
What is the quickest time to make drinkable alcohol (not that Im desperate) but IO watched the ‘Master and Commander’ film recently and theyseemed to be able to make instantaneous hooch?
I think if you make some mash and have a still you could probably have some within a week. That is a bareley educated guess though.
@bob: Actually, the distillation of alcohol was originally used for herbal tinctures, for medicinal purposes. In Koln (English spelling: Cologne), Germany, the herbal tonics were diluted with water before drinking. Someone noticed that the breath of the imbibers was very sweet-smelling, and started using the “Cologne water” for the purpose we use it today. Thus, the good Germans of Koln are responsible for inventing modern perfumery, as well as the first cocktails, in addition to being very healthy. Cheers!
I thought the alchool killed the yeast. I thought that was the limiting factor.
yeah but the amount of alchool like the percentage.
You can have corn mash in a very few days if you then run it through a still you could get a respectable proof. Also I believe it is true that when the alchohol content reaches a certain percent the yeast will die. My original question more specifically is how to stop fermentation without hitting that max proof. Which I believe tc2642 answered with sodium metubisphate? Pasteurization (spl?) will also work but wont it affect flavor?
Temperature?
scarethem to death.