Homemade Alcohol from Around the World

Homebrew and homemade alcohol are relatively easy to make: just mix some type of sugar, water and yeast. Yeast eats sugar in the water environment, produces alcohol and carbon dioxide. Many of us have tried in some way or other to replicate this process. The true adventure comes in what type of sugar is used, how pure the water is and the type of yeast used. Oh yeah, whatever other kinds of crazy crap that is added to the mixture has an effect on the outcome as well.

All over the world there are different types of homebrews and homemade alcohol. In America it is illegal to own and operate your own distillery unless licensed, but that is not the type of alcoholic drink that I am talking about here. What I am referring to are things like wine, beer and other "stove-top" type alcohols that don't need distillation. Here are some of the better known drinks and some not so well known homebrewed alcohol.

First of all, there's beer. Ok, we know Americans have drunk a beer or two and think we know a little bit. But try making a homebrewed beer. Whole books have been written on the topic and one or two can be read to determine what type you might want to make. Take some malt (the sugar of choice in beer), spring water, beer yeast, hops (remember the "crazy crap" that I mentioned before?) and mix it via the recipe and you've got yourself a beer. You could simply check your local homebrew shop for ideas and supplies.

There are other drinks besides beer, of course. What if the "sugar" of choice in the mixture is honey? Well, then you just might have yourself a mead. Mead is the classic drink (yes, it came before beer) of fermented honey, producing (if done right) a fine honey "wine." This was the drink of the Vikings, the "ambrosia" of the Greek gods. Ad certain fruits and grains to honey, ferment it, and you produce a wide array of other mead-ish drinks with their own unique names, like melomel, metheglans and the like. All of these are worthy of a homebrewer's time and, especially in the case of mead, patience (a very fine mead takes years to perfect and ferment).

There is also wine, hanging high on the list of homemade alcoholic drinks. Take some grape juice (the "sugar" in this case) and ferment it and you have some sort of wine. Whether it is a fine Chardonnay or simple bath-tub cool-aid depends upon the study and research of the wine maker, not to mention quality of the products used.

But what if the "sugar" comes from rice, rather than wheat/grain (in the case of beer)? A Korean drink called makkoli is a fermented rice wine, homebrewed rather than distilled such as Sake. It requires an enzyme (can be bought very cheaply from the local Asian market store or online) to break down the rice. But once this enzyme is added to the water and rice, man does it ferment! Powerful and strong, makkoli is highly carbonated and very alcoholic! This is a drink that I believe every homebrewer should try to make at least once just to see what a really strong and active primary ferment would look like!

But what of Russian drinks? The recipe for Kvass looks very interesting, especially using wheat bread for the yeast producer. With all the dates and other ingredients it certainly looks like a drink that would be soothing for Russian winters.

And, of course, there is the usual, easy to make but brutal on the taste buds, homebrewed free-for-all. This is made by taking whatever juicy-fruit type drink that is around in a plastic bottle, adding some sugar or honey or syrup or whatever to it, adding a little yeast to it (bread yeast, although not the best choice, for this scenario it will do and can be found at the local grocery store) and putting a paper towel secured with a rubber band over the opening of the bottle. Let it sit for a week, then put it in the refrigerator to kill off the remaining yeast. This drink will be strong on the alcohol and otherwise lethal on the senses.

There are many other fascinating concoctions and alcoholic homebrews out there to be discovered. With some searching and experimenting, perhaps you to can one day be the inventor of the next beverage craze and your face can be plastered on bottles and featured in pubs the world over.