# Sherry



## primusbrew (7/10/10)

I have recently inherited a stack of old cook books that used to belong to my great grandmother. It is quite a collection with lots of weird and wonderful recipes from about 60 years ago, I think. Inside a few of them their are some hand written recipes. The one that I found most interesting was one that was titled Sherry. I thought that others on here might also find this note of interest. Here it is word for word:



*Sherry

3lbs Sugar
4 pints of water (boiled and cooled)
2 packets of Sunmaid raisins
4 medium potatoes washed and cut
1/2 oz yeast spread on toast

Put all ingredients into large pan and stir well, cover and leave in a fairly cool place and stir daily for 21 days. Strain and bottle in the usual way.*



I am thinking of having a go at making it. Not expecting it to taste fantastic, just think it would be fun to do. There are a couple of things that I am unsure of that others may be able to help me with. Firstly what role do the potatoes play? Will the yeast be able to ferment the starches? And secondly what does "yeast spread on toast" mean? Any thoughts would be appreciated.


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## vykuza (7/10/10)

Mate, looks like grandmas favourite rocket fuel. It will definitely be good for a laugh though! For the yeast on toast part, I think it's talking about what we call now "fresh yeast". In big clumps it kind of looks like butter or cheese, and could be spread. I think they mean actually spread it on toast; lots of these old recipes don't necessarily make much sense.

Here's a "fresh yeast" primer. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/techniques/using_fresh_yeast Oh, and it's bloody hard to get these days. Try a baker or health food store. It's got a shelf life of less than a week (on a good week).

Good luck, and let us know how it goes! :icon_cheers:


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## primusbrew (7/10/10)

Nick R said:


> For the yeast on toast part, I think it's talking about what we call now "fresh yeast". In big clumps it kind of looks like butter or cheese, and could be spread. I think they mean actually spread it on toast; lots of these old recipes don't necessarily make much sense.



Hi Nick thanks for the reply. There is a supermarket near my place that sells fresh yeast in the deli section. 

I have just done an internet search and found a couple of recipes for dandelion wine that say "when liquid has cooled to blood temperature, soften yeast, spread on toast, and float toast in crock". I assume that this is the same method that the sherry recipe alludes to. Very strange. Is anyone aware of why people used to do this instead of adding the yeast directly to the fermenter? It certainly is very interesting to see how previous generations of homebrewers did it.


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## alkos (8/10/10)

Anything to do with oxygen supply during fermentation? It's a no-no for beer, but sherry-like stuff should benefit from oxidised flavours. At least Randy Mosher says so


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## kocken42 (8/10/10)

You way also want to look up what that recipe is actually making, because Sherry is a fortified wine. Maybe the beverage produced by the recipe was used as a replacement for Sherry's in recipes, or was simply just a good ol' rocket fuel. 

As far as I know, potatoes are used in making vodka (i.e the potatoes are fermented and the beverage then distilled to make vodka). 

So i'd suggest the recipe would make a pretty high% beverage IF the yeast ferment it entirely, as it's basically putting 1.5kgs of sugar into 2 litres of water. 

I'm interested to see how it goes  

Good luck!


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## SuiCIDER (8/10/10)

Woah. My predictions are that this is going to BURN on the way down. It might be just me, but I'd shove it all in my bucket and bang on an airlock and then only oxidise/de-gas only for the first week, like a mead.


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## Bribie G (8/10/10)

Not sure what the potatoes are for, the starches in potatoes cannot ferment unless they have been converted to sugars by some means, I wonder if some component in the bread or even raisins is 'daistatic' in some way and can break down some of the potato starch to fermentables? The Egyptians used to make beer out of soaked bread IIRC from a past life.


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## barry2 (8/10/10)

From
http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.ns...s/marmitespread

"Marmite is a thick, brown paste with a strong, salty flavour.

It is the original yeast spread, made from yeast extract, salt, vegetable extract, and spices."

If Marmite is not available perhaps Vegemite would do.

Look forward to hearing how the brew goes.


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## Bribie G (8/10/10)

barry3 said:


> From
> http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.ns...s/marmitespread
> 
> "Marmite is a thick, brown paste with a strong, salty flavour.
> ...



No. Vegemite / Marmite spread etc is made from brewery yeast residue that has been boiled and concentrated, and would be of no use for fermentation. Previous posters are referring to live fresh yeast as used by bakeries etc. Substitute a sachet of yeast from a LHBS if you can't get fresh yeast.


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## benno1973 (8/10/10)

Interesting recipe, let us know the results.


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## Muggus (8/10/10)

I thought it would be a bit more simple?

Step 1: Make wine

Step 2: Fortify wine

Step 3: Put wine in barrel

Step 4: Forget about wine for 10 years and palm it off as something else....


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## moonshine (14/10/10)

+1 to muggus

Ok a number of points Vodka isn't made from potatoes (well no good vodka is anyhow) its made from unhoped beer that is then distilled (same as whiskey/whisky only the distillation treatment is different and vodka is often post distill filtered with charcoal) 

Yeast extract is a common addition to moonshine recipes to add vit b for the yeast (+ other nutrients) not for the alive yeast cos there is none

my mate used to make potato wine so i'm assuming it has some sugars in it as well as a lot of starch (it tasted a bit like lemonchello and had a lot of added lemon juice and sugar added) although i'm not sure, again i've seen moonshine recipes where potato water (after boiling potatoes) and skins are added to a mash to convert some of the starch to sugar (although i've never tried them)

heaps of pom recipes use raisins as grapes don't grow to well there (although me cus seams to be doing alright with his grapes in London?)

tell us how this turns out?


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## Fents (14/10/10)

Its the MOOOOOOONSHINE! what up fella....hope you have recoverd finally.


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## Swinging Beef (14/10/10)

primusbrew said:


> ...stir daily for 21 days. Strain and bottle in the usual way.[/b]



Stir daily for 21 days... forget about sanitation!
And what is the usual way?

I say give it a whirl... and post a response so we know you are ok.


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## moonshine (14/10/10)

yep fully recovered. and doing well. bout to start a trial at a whisky distillery, so looking forward to that (although i hope brewing 1.5kL of beer a day doesn't dampen my enthusiasm for my hobby).
Oh btw i looked through me keg stuff the other day and seem to be missing a back QD? I know its a bit late but one didn't turn up at yours fents (i think that was the last time i saw it) anyhow, how are you mate?

Another thing bout vodka its traditionally made from rye too.


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## essjay (16/11/10)

Blast from the past, did you ever make this brew? Im positive that it isnt sherry, but it is quite similar to what iv got in my fermenter at the moment. My recipe is as follows:

2kg raw sugar
5tbs bakers yeast
2tbs vegimite/marmite
water from the potatoes that were boiled up for dinner

ingredients added in that order, and potato water added still boiling.
Top up to 10 litres, when at a reasonable temp, add another tbs bakers yeast.



What? pour hot water on top of yeast? But that will kill it! Well, thats the point, the live yeast then have some cheap nutrients to eat. That is also the point of the marmite, and the potato water. Tomato paste is another good one. As previously stated, helps add vitamin b also, as does the marmite.

It is quite possible the OP's granny brewed this up (can reach abv approaching 15% with this recipe and common bakers yeast) and then distilled it into something similar to sherry. 

Can tell you that my recipe is not for producing beer anyway  plenty of info on forums dedicated to such practices anyway.

But for interest, the potatoes are for yeast nutrient, i suspect the raisins play a similar role, and may impart some flavours to the drink if it were to be further processed...


"In the usual way" hmm was granny a secret moonshiner? Hahaha


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## Tanga (16/11/10)

OMG that sounds revolting. Let me know how it turns out =p.

I'm thinking of making up some alcoholic water to put away until it's kind of smooth and then using to add to cordial a la Cruisers.



Not for me - I swear!


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## Airgead (17/11/10)

Tanga said:


> OMG that sounds revolting. Let me know how it turns out =p.
> 
> I'm thinking of making up some alcoholic water to put away until it's kind of smooth and then using to add to cordial a la Cruisers.
> 
> ...



Alcoholic waters like that probably won't age... the aging process involves tannins and other compounds binding together and either dropping out of solution or producing new flavour compounds. In something like an alcohol water made from straight sugar those compounds just aren't there. Most things like that are charcoal filtered to make them drinkable rather than aged.

Cheers
Dave


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## Duff (17/11/10)

essjay said:


> Blast from the past, did you ever make this brew? Im positive that it isnt sherry, but it is quite similar to what iv got in my fermenter at the moment. My recipe is as follows:
> 
> 2kg raw sugar
> 5tbs bakers yeast
> ...




You're kidding, right?

:huh:


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## Murray (17/11/10)

I love reading those crazy old rocket fuel recipes.


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## Airgead (17/11/10)

Duff said:


> You're kidding, right?
> 
> :huh:



I suspect not. I also suspect that its not the sort of thing you drink without running it through a "water purifier" first.


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## Tanga (17/11/10)

So if I make alcoholic water using dex and run it through a (charcoal based) water filter then I'll get (mostly tasteless) alcoholic water?

Neat!

I might do a small batch first and see how it turns out. Any recommendations for yeast?



Perhaps that's what the potato is for - ie to absorb the bad flavours? I know it works with salt.


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## drsmurto (17/11/10)

If people are that desperate for cheap booze i can save the contents of my drip tray for them. :chug: 

I've also got 3 bottles of aged Carlton Cold you're welcome too.


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## Fents (17/11/10)

DrSmurto said:


> If people are that desperate for cheap booze i can save the contents of my drip tray for them. :chug:
> 
> I've also got 3 bottles of aged Carlton Cold you're welcome too.



:lol:


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## JestersDarts (17/11/10)

Tanga said:


> Perhaps that's what the potato is for - ie to absorb the bad flavours? I know it works with salt.



No - Thats to keep away the witches.


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## Airgead (17/11/10)

Tanga said:


> So if I make alcoholic water using dex and run it through a (charcoal based) water filter then I'll get (mostly tasteless) alcoholic water?
> 
> Neat!
> 
> ...



Your LHBS will have "turbo" yeast designed for exactly that purpose. It will ferment up to around 20% or so. The idea then is to filter then flavour with essences (also available at the LHBS) to make imitation rum/whisky/whatever. Most of them taste pretty foul but it could make an OK base for your own concoctions.

The LHBS should also have the right sort of filters as well. From memory they are pretty fine and it takes hours to slowly drip through. My LHBS guy gave me a demo once. 

A charcoal water filter may work but you may have to run it through a couple of times depending on how fine it filters. They come in a bunch of different grades.

Cheers
Dave


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## Tanga (17/11/10)

DrSmurto said:


> If people are that desperate for cheap booze i can save the contents of my drip tray for them. :chug:
> 
> I've also got 3 bottles of aged Carlton Cold you're welcome too.



Urgh!

I'm not a lolly water fan myself, but many of my friends are. Keeping a supply of carbonated alcoholic water and various cordials (ginger beer cordial, apple, berry, etc - hell even some of the cola and lemonade mixes that sodastream make - or the coke syrup if I can scam some) on hand will be kind cool.




Airgead said:


> Your LHBS will have "turbo" yeast designed for exactly that purpose. It will ferment up to around 20% or so. The idea then is to filter then flavour with essences (also available at the LHBS) to make imitation rum/whisky/whatever. Most of them taste pretty foul but it could make an OK base for your own concoctions.
> 
> The LHBS should also have the right sort of filters as well. From memory they are pretty fine and it takes hours to slowly drip through. My LHBS guy gave me a demo once.
> 
> ...



Thanks Dave. That's some great advice. Doesn't turbo yeast have ammonia in the packet though? I was thinking I'd be better off using a taste neutral kind of wine yeast? I'll look into the LHBS filters though =).


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## Airgead (17/11/10)

Tanga said:


> Thanks Dave. That's some great advice. Doesn't turbo yeast have ammonia in the packet though? I was thinking I'd be better off using a taste neutral kind of wine yeast? I'll look into the LHBS filters though =).



It has diamonium phosphate which is a yeast nutrient. Never used them myself but I am told they are designed to be completely neutral so you get a clean, flavourless product at the end.


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## Tanga (17/11/10)

JestersDarts said:


> No - Thats to keep away the witches.



:lol: - Doesn't work on me.

PS - I meant the potato absorbs salt from over-seasoned casseroles, etc. I'm thinking they might be there to absorb any nasty flavours you get from fermenting sucrose.




Airgead said:


> It has diamonium phosphate which is a yeast nutrient. Never used them myself but I am told they are designed to be completely neutral so you get a clean, flavourless product at the end.



Ah, that sounds better =). Cheers! I might start a thread just for this =).


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## essjay (19/11/10)

lol yes very serious, and it is the kind of thing you need to "filter" first. And for those STILL confused as to why "filter" is in parenthesis, look for the word all in capitals. thats what you need to filter it out... For yeast its ordinary bakers yeast, this recipe is the poor mans version, because everything in it is dirt cheap, a few dollars plus few kilos of sugar each time. the Turbo yeast mentioned before are expensive, this recipe total is less than what the turbo alone costs. plus rocketing up to 20%alc in just 5 days leaves some off flavours, something that believe it or not the potato water recipe does not. 

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE dont brew this up and run it through a few coffee filters and drink it, im sure it would be absolutely disgusting, iv never tried it and dont plan to.
Do your homework via google and its all pretty easy to do, no harder than brewing beer or cider or mead, just as rewarding though. Google "bokabob" if your keen its a good starting point. Just whatever you do dont brew this and run it through a water purifier and try to drink it, but if you do make sure you let us know what a 15% abv potato vegiemite wine tastes like will you?


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## primusbrew (11/6/12)

Hi all,

So I finally got around to putting this together this morning. I was able to pick up all of the ingredients including the fresh yeast from a supermarket around the corner.

Here is a photo of the recipe:




My conversions and estimates:
3 lbs Sugar = 1.36kg B&G White Sugar
4 pints of water (boiled and cooled) = 2.27 litres of water from the tap (boiled and cooled in a pot on the stove)
2 packets of Sunmaid raisins = 375grams of Sunbeam raisins (I wasn't sure what size packets the recipe was asking for. 375grams is simply a guess.)
4 medium potatoes washed and cut = 800grams of Sebago potatoes roughly cut into 2cm cubes
1/2oz yeast spread on toast = 14 grams fresh yeast spread on a piece of multigrain toasts




Step 1
I brought the water to a boil in a cast iron pot on the stove and then let it cool down to room temperature.

Step 2
I measured out all of the ingredients, cut the potatoes, toasted the bread and spread the yeast on it.







Step 3
All of the ingredients apart from the yeast spread on toast were mixed together with the water in the cast iron pot. I thought about putting it into a fermenter with an airlock but in the end I decided to stick with the original recipe and let it ferment in a pot. 

Step 4
With all the other ingredients in the pot, I placed the piece of toast so that it floated on the top. I am pretty sure that this it what is supposed to be done. I am still not entirely sure why the yeast is added in this way and not mixed in with the rest of the ingredients.



And that it is it. All I need to do now is stir it once a day for the next three weeks and bottle.

I took an OG reading and it was above the range of my hydrometer which goes up to 1.150. If it ferments out fully it will be in excess of 20%abv. I wonder if the yeast will be able to take it that far.

I decided not to use any sanitiser for this. I made sure that everything was thoroughly cleaned and rinsed but again I wanted to recreate what they would have made and maybe a little bit of infection is part of the finished product. I am not too worried considering the amount of yeast and sugar in there though.

I will post some updates as it goes.


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## Bribie G (11/6/12)

So how is the starch in the potatoes converted to fermentable sugars? I would guess in places like Russia and Poland where they make vodka from potatoes they would use some barley malt as well to provide the diastase to convert the potato starch.


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## ekul (11/6/12)

this looks like prison hooch!


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## Ross (11/6/12)

Primusbrew,

The beverage you're making will taste nothing like Sherry & quite honestly will most likely be undrinkable... all you are basically doing is trying to ferment out sugar water with bakers yeast.
As much as I love seeing people experiment, this is just plain daft & a waste of money!!!

cheers Ross


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## primusbrew (11/6/12)

Hey Bribie, my understanding is that the potato starches will not add to the fermentables and are there to provide nutrients for the yeast.

Ross, I appreciate that this is not sherry and will most likely not taste great but that is not the point of the exercise. Instead the aim is to recreate a recipe written by my great grandmother to get a bit of an insight into some things that she would have done. I have no idea how she would have used this but if she took the time to write out the recipe then it must have had some purpose. If you consider this to be daft and a waste of money then you are more than welcome not to do it.


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## Airgead (11/6/12)

primusbrew said:


> the aim is to recreate a recipe written by my great grandmother to get a bit of an insight into some things that she would have done.



Your grteat grandmother didn't spend any timne in prison did she?  

Seriously, interested to see how this comes out. I have tried to re-create some old booze recipes and have found them to be universally awful. Not sure what was going on back there. Maybe no one could afford the real stuff and this was the best they could do at home. I suppose it was depression era. If it were me, one sip and I'd go teatotal...

Cheers
Dave


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## machalel (13/6/12)

I'm super keen to hear how this turns out...

I don't care what anyone else says, if there is something weird that you want to try, or a crazy experiement you want to attempt, as long as you are having fun in the process, go for it!

Too many people in the world are afraid of going out on a limb, but seriously, as long as you aren't under the impression that it's going to win awards what's the downside if it doesn't work? A couple of bucks and a few hours of your time, so what?


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## Gar (13/6/12)

Good fun if nothing else, looking forward to the results myself :icon_drunk:


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## mjadeb1984 (13/6/12)

Machalel said:


> I'm super keen to hear how this turns out...
> 
> I don't care what anyone else says, if there is something weird that you want to try, or a crazy experiement you want to attempt, as long as you are having fun in the process, go for it!
> 
> Too many people in the world are afraid of going out on a limb, but seriously, as long as you aren't under the impression that it's going to win awards what's the downside if it doesn't work? A couple of bucks and a few hours of your time, so what?




+1 well said, cant imagine this is gonna be one to bust out for a special occasion but is interesting none the less


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## Maheel (13/6/12)

i get a SG of around 1.18 - 1.20 and somewhere around 28-30% alc maybe more when adding in all those sultanas (assuming you could get it to ferment out) 

but i dont think the yeast will cope with that high a % and will stall leaving you with something "sweet" 

i have grave concerns with just "washing the spuds" i would have peeled  

are you seeing much activity ?


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## primusbrew (14/6/12)

Maheel said:


> i get a SG of around 1.18 - 1.20 and somewhere around 28-30% alc maybe more when adding in all those sultanas (assuming you could get it to ferment out)
> 
> but i dont think the yeast will cope with that high a % and will stall leaving you with something "sweet"
> 
> ...



Three days in and there is some activity in the pot. There are little bubbles rising to the surface and little bits foam scattered around the surface. As you can see from the photo below the raisins have soaked up the water and risen to the surface.





One interesting thing that I have noticed is that the piece of bread is still in tact and floating on the surface. Some of the yeast is also still on the toast. It seems that the way the yeast enters the sugar liquid is by seeping through the pores in the bread. I wonder is there is any benefit to this over just stirring the yeast in with the rest of the ingredients.

Maheel, are you talking about wild yeasts/other bugs in regards to peeling the potoatoes? I thought that this might be an issue but that is what the recipe called for.


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## primusbrew (27/10/12)

So I ended up leaving this in the fermenting pot for four weeks, transferring to a glass carboy to clarify and then bottled it in a few "Grolsch"style bottles.

The FG was 1.150 so there is plenty of sugar left in it. I am not sure on the OG as I wasn't able to measure it but I think that it would have been around 1.280 - 1.300. So that gives me an ABV of around 20% I guess. I wasn't expecting the yeast to have a tolerance this high.

So in terms of taste... it is not that bad. Not great but certainly drinkable. It is very sweet but there is also but there is also some acidity there from the raisins that goes some way to balance it out. To taste it is not 20% abv but it might be in there. My girlfriend says that it smells like sawdust and tastes like apples, sultanas and alcohol. 

I'm not sure whether it will all get drunk but I am happy to say that the recipe works. I think that maybe mulling it with some spices would be quite nice.


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