Dinghy
Veteran Member
I didn't want to hijack the home brew page, but this is in the same vein. I've never tried making beer because I'm not a big beer fan, but I do like wine. My brother told me if I didn't stock booze and cigarettes I wasn't doing the right kind of prepping! I always wanted to try making wine and finally gave myself the push last year. I made one batch of dandelion and by now about 3 batches of blackberry. I don't know what they're really supposed to taste like, but I figure if I can stomach them, they can't be too bad!! I don't do anything technical or fancy. Throw in a gallon of blackberries, I think a gallon of water(I'd have to check to be sure about that) , 5 # sugar, and a little regular baking yeast. Smash the berries and stir it every day. Let it sit about a month until it stops bubbling, then strain a few times and bottle it. It's a little stronger tasting than store bought, but hey, that might be good! Plus I tasted it before it had aged, so it might be better by now. The way I look at it is, it's nothing fancy, but it's good enough to help me sleep when I'm hurting, and it costs almost nothing to make. I use any left over glass screw top bottles that I can get my hands on. Some are real wine bottles, some are ice tea bottles. I have blackberries growing in my back yard and sugar stashed, so I could whip up a batch easy. Plus right now I have the drawer in my freezer full of berries. I think it's a good thing to learn how to do, just in case! A lot of drinkers are very mechanical people and could fix something for you in exchange for a bottle of booze. I consider it to be somewhat medicinal too, like Granny Clampit's tonic! Good for aches and pains and calming nerves, numbing toothaches, etc. I've also made Kaluha and Amaretto, but that costs more money to make because you have to buy vodka. At least I have one skill that could come in handy!!
) but I do make kefir, which is slightly alcoholic. It preserves the milk quite a while even without refrigeration. I have read that if you drank several gallons of it you might get a buzz, but that would be a tad bit hard to do! 
Anyway, I now have extra kefir grains, so if anyone is interested in getting their own kefir jar going, they can pm me -- I'll send grains for the cost of postage. I've gotten grains through the mail twice now, and they've come through fine both times.