I've been thinking about getting into it but TBH I've got no idea what base ingredient I should use for a 5 gallon fermentation process. At first I was considering produce from the store with water and then chaptalization to increase sugar content, but that just seems like it might produce a pretty low quality, but getting together 5 gallons of fresh juice also doesn't seem economic in my region.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

If you like beer, it's probably cheaper and easier to get started with. The process is much less sensitive to air exposure, you can get kilos of malted barley dead cheap (at least where I am, but I would expect it to always be cheaper than grapes), and best of all you don't need to age it so you can try your work f as r quicker

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

If you have family or neighbors with fruit trees, they typically are more than willing to give stuff away when it's ripe. There's usually just too much. And if you help them harvest/clean up it's a win win.