Rice Wine Woes

[Taylor-MadeAK]

wow, that's so cool. are you gonna sell any?

i'm thinking about doing some home-brewing sometime. mostly beers or maybe like an apple-type drink.

Nah, it's illegal to sell homebrew simply because Uncle Sam doesn't get his cut.

When you say "apple-type drink" I immediately think hard cider.  Couldn't get any easier than that.  Just buy a jug of additive-free pasteurized unfiltered apple juice from your local supermarket (you can find the good stuff in the natural foods section), and a vial of White Labs English Cider yeast from your local homebrew supply store.  Crack the lid, remove a cup of cider and drink it (you need the head space), and add the yeast.  Let it ferment out someplace warm and dark for a couple weeks.  Then prime and bottle.  Presto!  Hard cider of about 6% alcohol by volume.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

The specific gravity is down to 0.996 (SMV +5. and there aren't any signs of continued fermentation, so I transferred sake to secondary with my wife's help last night, including pressing the lees.  More pics!

[Orev-Zev]

to think what you can do with sake, i should send you some wormwood, start knocking out bathtub absinthe! 

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Proper absinthe requires a still and access to some artemesia absinthum, which is way more effort than I'd want to put into it. ~.~

[lazydullard]

that's why I'm never gonna make abstinthe. A still? no thanks. Oni would have to post an article from adnews.com on my obituary.

and lol. i was a little drunk when I wrote that post. I realized the next morning, "duh! that would be illegal"

[Taylor-MadeAK]

Oh, you can make a close approximation simply by soaking the appropriate herbs and spices in some everclear or 151 proof rum for a couple months, but it's not quite the same.  This is, in fact, the "absinthe" that you can currently buy in our uptight country.  It is possible, however expensive, to import the genuine article.

In case you're wondering, you're not the first person to ask me about this.  *glances meaningfully at Oni*

[Oni]

*looks away innocently* Why I have no idea what you are talking about.