Thursday, November 29, 2012

Making Alcohol made Easy

By Dan Sutton


Producing alcohol is a breeze. It occurs naturally when yeast comes into contact with sugars. Fermentation, or alcohol production, occurs when yeast metabolizes sugars. The byproduct from the yeast is alcohol and CO2.

When making alcohol one just needs to take a liquid or juice which is high in sugar and add yeast. When making wine the sugars come from the grapes . Winemakers will pick the grapes whenever the sugar content is just right for making wine. Beer makers may use a combination of malted barley, cereals and grains and plenty of water (mash). However, the brewers will need to cook the mash so they can convert the starches into fermentable sugars. Winemakers do not have this concern given that the sugars inside the grapes are readily available to be fermented. Making whiskey is comparable to making beer. However, the product after ferment will be distilled to make a beverage that is approximately 40% alcohol by volume. The mixture of several grains and cereals will ultimately determine the taste, flavor profile, of the end product.

The most popular yeast put to use in wineries, breweries and distilleries is Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It truly is one of the most common species of yeast utilized to make alcoholic products. Having been used since ancient times in brewing and baking it is believed that yeast was first isolated from grapes skins. Often you can see on the skin of grapes a light colored film which is partially made up of yeast. Brewers, distillers and winemakers will pick specific strains of yeast to add certain flavor elements. Yeast selection is also critical for the solution that it will be required to ferment. Some yeast strains do better in high pH whereas others do better with a lower pH solution. As the yeast metabolizes the sugars the concentration of alcohol rises which kills the yeast. This is the reason why it's difficult to ferment a mash to an alcohol level over eighteen percent. To make a higher alcohol content product you must distill the fermented mash.

What might you make alcohol with? Anything at all with sugar. This includes beet pulp, apples, grains, etc. Some of us use animal feed like cracked corn to make whiskey mash. As long as there are fermentable sugars it could be converted to alcohol.

There are plenty of sites on the web that have posted different recipes for making alcohol. For instance, one simple recipe is to use concentrated grape or apple juice, sugar and water. There is no cooking involved. Just pitch the yeast and let the magic happen.




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