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I've been making home hooch for about a year now. I put lots of sugar, let it get almost hot, add a good amount of yeast and wait. I put it in 5 liter plastic jugs with the cover not screwed on.
Sometimes I put fresh mint in there or fresh absinth. I think it's absinth. They call it Seeba here, in Morocco. After about 3 weeks it's clear, and I do nothing after that but drink it. It's strong!

Current recipe:

  • 5L of water
  • 4 cups of sugar
  • bakers yeast (in 1/2 cup of warm water)
  • fresh mint (or potatoes or absinth)

How can I improve on this simple recipe to make it stronger/better flavored? I don't want to distill it, because I'd probably kill myself with the results. Looking forward to your answers. Take care.

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  • Please specify all ingredients (water, sugar, yeast) and quantities you use. It is important to get a good answer.
    – Philippe
    Sep 27, 2017 at 18:20
  • Ok, let's see. I use a 5 liter jug, and It's full of water. For yeast, I use baker's yeast or bread yeast, and I add about 1/2 cup to the warm liquid. For sugar, I use about 4 cups. Sometimes I put fresh mint in or absinth or potatoes- fresh. I let it sit for about 3 weeks before imbibing. How can I make it stronger?
    – user15476
    Sep 27, 2017 at 19:17
  • Can you add the weight of the sugar? This way we can also estimate the alcohol content and give advice about yeast and more/less sugar.
    – chthon
    Sep 28, 2017 at 8:13
  • Do you let the jug open, or do you rest the lid on it? Make sure that no insects can crawl in.
    – chthon
    Sep 28, 2017 at 8:19
  • Different yeast will probably give better results. I don't know how baker's yeast does for brewing, but there are yeasts specifically for making whisky that have high tolerance for alcohol and will attenuate pretty well.
    – GigaFemto
    Sep 28, 2017 at 14:30

2 Answers 2

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To improve it, start measuring how much of each ingredient you use for it and take readings for S.G. and F.G. if possible , start using brewers yeast Vs bakers yeast.

starting logging your brews and what you did.

Be consistent with your process and change one thing at a time (add more sugar or change up the flavoring).

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So, I had American friends that lived and worked for Aramco in Saudi on the Aramco housing area. They were not allowed to have alcohol, but everyone made "hooch". Their recipe was a can of frozen apple juice, a couple of cups of sugar and a gallon of water and some bakers yeast, but people had smuggled in wine yeast which was much better. They put it in a big bottle and put a balloon over the top. The balloon would inflate during fermentation and then deflate when it was done. When it was done they would move it into a new bottle and let it settle for a week or two. The apple juice gave it some flavor they said. I would suspect that the apple juice also provided more nutrients for the yeast. They drank it too fast for it to spoil or oxidize.

If you want to improve this "hooch" adding grape juice or apple juice would probably give you something far more interesting than just water and sugar. Add mint if you want. It's all a giant experiment.

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