Brewing Inmate Wine

Here’s an easy one for you guys out there who want to brew but don’t want to spend all the money to get started.  Maybe you just want to make cheap alcohol. Maybe you are underage and can’t purchase all the proper ingredients (I don’t support underage drinking).   Either way, today I am going to show you how to make what is called inmate brew.  What is inmate brew?  Inmate brew, quite simply, is fruit juice that is converted to alcohol.  They call it inmate brew because inmates created this in order to get a quick fix in their jail cells (although they made it in their toilets…you don’t want to do that).  Anyways, its very simple.  All you need is four ingredients.  Fruit juice, yeast, sugar, and raisins (and/or dates).  The fruit juice contains most of the flavor and some sugars that the yeast will eat and convert to alcohol.  The sugar is added to give the yeast more sugar to eat and ultimately boost the alcohol.  The raisins are boiled in water to extract the juices from raisins.  This juice is then poured into the fruit juice.  It acts as a yeast nutrient and ensures that the yeast will be able to live healthy, strong lives and convert as much sugar as possible to alcohol.  So here’s the steps.  First, pour out about 2 inches of the fruit juice in order to leave some head room for fermentation.  The fruit juice I used was Ocean Spray in a 3 liter jug.  Then I added 1 3/4 cups of pure table sugar. Finally, I added an entire pack of Flieshmann’s bakers yeast to the mixture.  I shook the mixture about for 3-4 minutes to ensure that all the sugar was dissolved in the liquid.  I put a condom over the lid to act as an air lock.  I will wait 6-12 hours for fermentation to occur.  The condom should inflate like a balloon.  You will then need to poke a hole in the condom to allow it to deflate…then you have a homemade airlock.  Fermentation should occur over the next few weeks.  Then you have homemade inmate brew.  Drink and enjoy!  Cheap, easy, and delicious.  A taste test review will come soon.

Ingredients for Inmate Brew

Mixture after yeast and sugar was added, shake to mix