this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
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Homebrewing - Beer, Mead, Wine, Cider

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So…. What’s the worst idea you went through with? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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From the picture, this tops my list, flaming hot Cheetos… after mentioning it yesterday, my enzyme came in later than expected but I decided to send it anyways. It’s so greasy it’s probably turned me off Cheetos forever. However, science must ensue. Here we have 15 pounds of flamin hot Cheetos mashed with enzymes for an hour and 8 pounds of sugar. Honestly, after tasting the mash, the heat doesn’t come through, and frankly it mainly tastes/smells like a corn mash. Personally I’ll be surprised if I can tell the difference between this and a white whiskey made from straight corn. So, what’s the dumbest thing you’ve done?

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Amazing! Maybe you can rim the glass with crushed hot cheeto too

this reminds me of r/prisonhooch which I miss dearly.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Be the change you want to see in the world my friend. Here’s the list of what’s on my radar for distilling next lol. Milk wine sounds whacky but I made it before (called blaand) and it’s surprisingly just tastes like white wine.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Jesus.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I paid for the still, I’m gonna get my moneys worth out of it 😂 and by that I’m just curious what flavors come through the process. While these are mostly horrid ideas, you never know when you’ll be surprised and can make something interesting from it. Hell sour beers were considered bad at one point in history and now people (including myself) make them intentionally!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Probably look to anything with oily aromatics. That would probably transfer the most amount of flavor. There's probably a shitton of herbs out that it would work with.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah, that’s basically the thought behind the spinach and random herb idea I have, probably will be awful for drinking but thankfully I also cook daily so at worst I can use it to infuse some flavor into a dish lol

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Hah I'm really curious on the rosemary, also, Basil buds/flowers if you have access to them. Very aromatic.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

I grow my own basil, so definitely have access to those :)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Haha! True! More power to ya. Be sure to post when you find a good one!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

For sure! I’m not the most experienced distiller, but I’ve made enough beers to assume this is going to turn out tasting exactly like a white whiskey/cream ale after it’s done fermenting. It smells potently of corn and not much else. I might end up macerating a handful of dehydrated Carolina reapers that I was holding onto for a firey chocolate stout into the still. Who knows, the world is my oyster.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

world is my oyster.

Are oysters on your list?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago

They weren’t but they are now lmfao

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

...died after drinking that.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

We tried brewing watermelon and banana wines before. I forget which one, but one of those didn't last long before it started turning more vinegary..

But now you perked my interest, SPAM wine?..

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah, that’s what got me into trying stupid stuff. All the research I did on watermelon said it doesn’t turn out. I made a brandy that easily topped my list of things I made. Did you by chance boil it? As an originally beer brewer it’s ingrained, but I think that’s what kills off watermelon flavor fast. At least from my one attempt at it that was a raging success.

And yeah, spam won’t ferment, unless there’s some enzyme that turns proteins into fermentable sugars, but I plan on macerating spam in a still during a run, I’m curious what flavors, if any, come through. It goes back to an old joke my buddy and I had in the woods ages ago where we drank vodka out of a “spamteen” (can of spam cut out to hold a shot of liquor, it was horrible)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Nah, not boiled, we just experimented the good old fashioned daddy don't give a shit redneck way, with a 5 gallon water jug, plain old bread yeast, sugar, and whatever random fruits or berries he came across on the cheap.

He started with elderberries, then went on to try strawberries, blueberries, watermelon and bananas.

Surprisingly, even though he did things totally redneck style without all the proper equipment, I think around 3/4 of his batches came out alright. Not the finest of wines, but we got drunk on the cheap LOL! 🥂

Random idea we never tried: Technically tomatoes are considered a fruit, what would tomato wine taste like?.. 🤔

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Honestly it works. I find that even without sanitization adding in good yeast results in good results most of the time lol. And funny enough tomato is on my list (but for beer, I’ve just been in a distilling mood lately). I also want to do Carmelized onions in a beer but that’s neither here nor there lol

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Cool beans!

Speaking of, can beer or wine be made with beans? 🤔

I have no idea, obviously it takes time to brew. But whatever you come up with, keep us updated..

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Hmmm beans do have a decent bit of carbs in them so hypothetically there should be an enzyme to convert those into sugars. Only one way to find out lol

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Hell yeah

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

SUCH a good choice of image!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Loving the goblin fermentation vibes you re giving off there. Never stop.

Mostly beer brewer here, so dumb things I've done were mostly process related. Fermenting beer with unsanitized wood chips - turned sour. Adding too much rye or pumpkin - took me 12 hours to get the damn thing made - stuck mash.

Fermentation wise, not brewing, messed around with some koji with varying degrees of success.

If you're doing things like spam alcohol, have you also considered miso as an ingredient?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

The spams probably going to be a maceration in the still, but no I haven’t thought of miso yet. Might have to add it to the list. And hey as a fan of sour beers, the wood chip one sounds interesting lol. Any fun discoveries you made with an interesting shakeup in the process?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

In retrospect, I should have saved it, but it was my second beer ever and went for an overly complex recipe also. Knowing what I know now, it would have probably aged nicely.

I've discovered boiling is not fully necessary to get a good brew and that heather tips make it awesome. I've just added maybe 1-2 handfuls now to the mash. Next autumn I plan to go nuts on collecting the thing and will try to fit maybe half a kilo in there, see how it comes out.

Honorable mention to red yeast rice, I have this notion of doing a rice mash for maybe a week with it and then plopping that into a raw ale mash to get enzymes and flavour of red yeast rice wine in a beer, as I've noticed that its enzymes also work up to 70ish Celsius.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Live and learn right? And oooh the red yeast rice idea sounds interesting

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I'm currently brewing up a batch of Tang! We'll know in a week or so if it was a success.

I'm hoping the synthetic chemicals that give it a citrus flavor are anathema to my yeast so I'll have something refreshing in a month or so.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago

Yesss! Let me know how it goes! I ended up following a post on Facebook about a dude who reduced orange soda into a syrup and used it for a beer. As it was a more… traditional, group everyone was horrified. Apparently it turned out super awesome. Love the creativity and I’m curious about how your adventure turns out :)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

A local brewery down here did a Tang run. It was pretty on point taste wise.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

On my 25th birthday, my roommate and I had the great idea to do Skittles vodka. If you're not familiar, you basically separate each color of skittles and use filters (think coffee filters) to infuse the color/flavor into the alcohol you poor over.

It mostly tasted like vodka. And even though I had a brewery tour and bar outing under my belt, it still tasted like pretty much pure vodka.

What I remember of the night was pretty good overall. But waking up in Skittles-colored vomit... both hilarious (in hindsight) and gross.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

Oh man, the key is gummy bears! I got a giant gummy bear (1 pound/0.45kg or so) once and soaked it in vodka. The bear was so big the alcohol barely penetrated through it, but the vodka it was soaking in was delicious, if you have a sweet tooth. The skittles colored vomit however doesn’t sound like the best of times though lol. Learning experiences are priceless though 😅

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's coated with powder, but the actual seasoning there actually isn't much of it. I learned this when I tried to make Hot Cheeto fried chicken. The flavor barely came through.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Oh yeah from the smell and taste of the mash it tastes almost exactly like a corn/cream ale I made ages ago, but it’s always worth a shot

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago

I assumed this was V8. Well... nothing to report here.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I made a few jugs of apple wine by pitching gallons of apple cider in the end table under my TV, (plastic) bottle conditioning and forgetting about them for a while.

Huge alcohol content, decent taste, nightmarish poops.

You win.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

Sounds almost exactly like my recipe for my apple pie brandy base lol

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It wasn't a terrible idea, but I tried to make maple syrup mead, and it tasted exactly like breaking a branch off of a tree and trying to suck it. Like, that green tree taste. Complete waste of some very expensive maple syrup.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Out of curiosity, have you come up with a reason why it tasted so tree like?

What colour did the mead end up being?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

It's really simple when you think about it, the taste of any fermentation is going to be the taste of what you put into it minus any of the sugars. Maple syrup is sugar and the liquid extract from a tree. So once you remove the sugar, all you have left is alcohol and the liquid extract from a tree.

It's actually one of the reasons that I think my need made from honey turned out to be so lovely, is once you take the sugar out of honey what you're left with is extract from flowers.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

Oh man that’s a shame! I actually really wanted to try a maple syrup fermentation too, but the whole cost of syrup (or even honey) is what always put me off the idea.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

A long time ago my buddy thought lobster would be fun. (He was a legit winemaker)

Thankfully, I was the one who built the still and stored all the mash.

I hate shellfish to start. I could not imagine it after 4 weeks.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

A number of years back someone posted the idea of pumpkin gin to the homebrewing subreddit. Supposedly some senator arguing against prohibition in the early 1900s claimed you could just hollow out a pumpkin, fill it up with sugar and you'd end up with booze. So I gave it a try. One pumpkin I filled up with apple juice and another I filled with brown sugar. The apple juice pumpkin actually fermented and I got a somewhat drinkable hard cider out of the deal. the sugar one just turned to sludge and grew mold.

Another thing I tried was to make my own amylase producing mold using millet and rice cakes and ginger root to inoculate it. They grew mold (some of it white, some of it green) and I used them to inoculate some steamed rice that sort of fermented. It went sour of course, and it ended up tasting a lot like lemon juice, so I must have gotten some citric acid producing mold in the mix as well.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Coco powder sugar and the starch from rinsing some rice... dumb.

I currently have a 4 month BBQ sauce that is in part a fermented stale baguette, but also a ton of other wild ferments, stocks and stuff that have gone through many reductions. So far, the only thing I've fermented and drank was some lemons with garlic and ginger with a good bit of honey. That came out super sour like candy in a raw Sour Patch Kids candy but more clean and natural kinda flavor. Most of that still went into sauces. Almost everything I make goes into sauces because fruits turned savory juices, mixed with stock, and reduced make far better flavors than anything that can be bought in a store and were optimised for cheap mass production.

I'm really curious what anyone might be growing at small scales, like on a patio for brewing. Maybe even just bittering agents too?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

How’d the coco thing come through? That sounds interesting. And oooh the lemon sounds fantastic. I love super sour drinks. Any chance you have a more or less recipe for it? 😅

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I never do recipes with anything. The lemons were a combo of a couple of dozen that were juiced and like a cup of brown sugar. The lemons were all fresh off a neighbour's tree, and the water was all rain from the patio, but I'm a half city block from the Pacific too, so interesting water. I also took around a dozen or so lemons and sliced them into cubes. I removed the seeds and added something like 3 garlic cloves and an equivalent amount of ginger. I was just using a bunch (8) small like 6oz jars. I filled those 3/4 with a 3% brine and maybe a couple of tablespoons of honey. They barely did anything and I thought they were all duds. I left them for 2 months and barely had to burp the jars at all. I ended up pulling the contents, drying and grinding them to make a zesty lemon spice that was alright. I poured the remaining juice from the small jars into the raw fermented juice I had made at the same time with just some added sugar that also wasn't super active. I then crushed and processed a whole crab apple I was given, also locally grown, and let it go off wild for a few days. Then I added this to all the lemon juice combined and added a bunch of brown sugar. That really took off strong and needed to be burped a couple of times a day for a week or more. Finally I let it sit in the fridge for a few months before trying it. That one was really good. Probably the best lemon liquor I've ever had.

The rice thing was in a bad container and went sour. It is still curiosity but I can't really get around using tap water in excess and needing to reduce it for more starch density. The first wash is probably viable but it did not seem particularly active.

About the best thing I've tried is pineapple by itself. Pineapple is insanely active to wild ferment. Something about it will go absolutely nuts and the juice has a really good flavor to sip or sauce. I only did a tiny amount. Like I was given an old fruit platter and put each thing in a 6oz jar for the heck of it. The pineapple generated higher CO^2^ pressures in 8 hours than anything else by far that I have tried.

The only other one I've done a few times are blueberries that were on the brink of going bad. They basically make a slightly fruity soy sauce flavor that is nothing like blueberries.

I guess you could say my recipe is always, "Thing going bad? Thing go in jar with salt brine." Deep stuff ;)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Nothing so meme lord. Pure watermelon. It's so sour, and not in a good way. It tastes like underripe watermelon rind. It probably didn't need acid added and it should be back sweetened.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yep! My last one was a watermelon wine I made into a brandy. The key is to only get the red guts and avoid anything slightly white. definitely dont boil the juice either or youll get a carrot flavor. Once it’s done fermenting if it was a good fermentation it’ll taste almost like cucumber, a bit of back sweetening makes the watermelon flavor come back with a vengeance.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The key is to only get the red guts and avoid anything slightly white

Did that

definitely dont boil the juice either or youll get a carrot flavor

I did heat pasteurize, but not boil. Just 160/180F (I can't remember exactly).

it’ll taste almost like cucumber

Eh, I'm not getting cucumber. Maybe? It's mostly just SOUR with some watermelon notes.

a bit of back sweetening makes the watermelon flavor come back with a vengeance.

this is what I'm thinking

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