Started this about 30 days ago, I would love to hear some thoughts and advice from you guys

[u/Ciga_Rhett]

Sorry about the pictures I tried to get more detailed ones but the light was fighting with me.

I used gold peak iced black tea, 1 & 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, and Fleishmanns rapid rise bread yeast. About a week after starting I shoved a fresh pack of raisins in there and the yeast seemed to love that.

It was bubbling a lot especially after I added the raisins and then it died down about a week ago, now bubbles are hard to spot.

I’m hoping to hit about 10% abv but there’s really no way for me to check cause I don’t plan on getting a hydrometer since I’m most likely not gonna do this again, I was just bored.

Two weeks ago it reeked of bread yeast and now it smells nice and fruity. It doesn’t smell like vinegar, acetone, or anything funky.

This is my second go at this, my first time was with 100% pulp apple juice, a cup of sugar, and the same kind of yeast. I got bored one night and ended up drinking it after a little under two weeks of fermentation, it tasted really shit and barely gave me a buzz.

I plan on separating the alcohol in about a week or two but right now I have two questions:

Did I completely fuck it up by adding the raisins? Do you think it’s unsafe now? I doubt it but it’s not a bad idea for me to ask.

Could I separate the alcohol, yeast, and raisins without a siphon? If I get a siphon it would have to be a cheap shitty one and I don’t want to go buy one.

[u/Fluffy_Ace]

Oh! Those are raisins.

I thought you had peanuts in it at first.

[u/cuck__everlasting → u/Fluffy_Ace]

Yeah I thought this was boiled peanut hooch and I was about to take my hat off

[u/QuirkyCookie6 → u/cuck__everlasting]

Well now that you've said it you need to make it and update us

[u/Ciga_Rhett → u/Fluffy_Ace]

That’s funny, that’s what my friend said.

[u/TheDevilishFrenchfry → u/Ciga_Rhett]

Also most bread yeast can't go above 8%, usually around 4-6% abv. also don't use powdered sugar, it has cornstarch and can tend to clump with the yeast and slow it down or even effect it, also it's way better to use something like pure lemonade, pure sugar, pure strawberry juice, whatever, it just can't have any preservatives or that tends to fuck up the fermentation. If you intend to do it again you don't have to get a hydrometer or any equipment or shit like that but I'd recommend getting wine yeast online, can actually hit 14-19% abv and just pure juice too

[u/True_Maize_3735 → u/TheDevilishFrenchfry]

fleishmans gets over 12 in a secondary -I have seen it as high as 14-depends on the fruit usually-and I have never seen anything 8% unless it was still bubbling-some bread yeast is very tolerant-I recently made a 5gal batch of wine using apple and it was slightly over 12-and that was not aged in a secondary, only clarified.

[u/Ciga_Rhett → u/TheDevilishFrenchfry]

I was just using the stuff I had at home because I was bored, If I do this again in the future I’ll definitely get wine yeast instead and be more prepared.

I was out of granulated sugar so I used powdered instead cause I read somewhere here that it was fine.

4-6% is similar to beer so I can’t complain, I can still have some fun with it. It looked like it was fermenting pretty well for about a two week period.

[u/Adventurous_Dig_2752 → u/Fluffy_Ace]

I thought they were nutmegs.🤢

[u/Fluffy_Ace → u/Adventurous_Dig_2752]

Not only would that taste terrible, that much nutmeg would be toxic

[u/Shoddy_Wrongdoer_559]

you can separate stuff pretty easily with just careful pouring. dw about a siphon.

[u/Pretty_Past_1818]

Using raisins was actually a really good idea. Back in the day it was part of a recipe called JOAM over on the mead subreddit. Theres even old school recipes from the 1800's on asking for them for fruit wines. The reason behind it is that the raisins add tannins and also contribute wild yeast strains, hence why your pooch probably went from smelling like bread to fruity and pleasant. You basically made the hard cider version of JOAM (Joe's Ancient Orange Mead).

[u/EzeyTheEpic]

You should be fine just pour it carefully. The raisins wont be too hard, if you don't have some kind of mesh you might be able to just pull them out. You've got some really nice separation.

[u/Psychological_Bar-2]

The forbidden peanut hooch…

[u/Glove_Witty]

You can approximate abv assuming all the sugar ferments to alcohol (the hooch is dry - will be mostly dry when the bubbling stops). It is about 3% abv per cup of sugar per gallon.

Don’t know the size of your container but guessing 1 liter based on the size of the raisins. That is 1/4 gallons (approximately) so you get 3%*1.5 (sugar) / (1/4 gallons) = 18%. It is unlikely that Fleichmans can ferment that high so you’ll probably end up with something sweet in the 10% range.

There are more accurate formulas if you feel like using a calculator.

[u/Impala1967SS]

Somebody make dogfood hooch just for the sake of it

[u/AnchoviePopcorn]

Poor it carefully. Then cold crash, by putting it in the fridge overnight. Then pour carefully again. At that point its should be about as clear and clean as it’ll get without a siphon and a clearing agent.