Home Brew Leads To Hawke's Bay Prison Lock Down

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Doc

Doctor's Orders Brewing
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Smart fellas those kiwi boys :lol:

Doc

Home brew leads to Hawke's Bay prison lock down
11 January 2005

Two Hawke's Bay Prison staff were injured yesterday as they tried to control about 20 inmates who got drunk on a potent home brew.

Two inmates lashed out while being removed from the compound of unit seven, an 80-bed unit away from the main prison at Mangaroa, west of Hastings, just after lunch. It is not known if any inmates were injured.

Corrections Department Midland regional manager Peter Grant said staff noticed a number of inmates obviously intoxicated and moved to lock them in their cells.

It quickly became obvious that more inmates were affected and more staff were called in to deal with the situation before it got out of hand.

"Some of them were really intoxicated," he said.

A visitor to the prison said at 2pm they were asked to leave as all units were locked down.

"Every available officer made their way down to the unit. They wouldn't say what was going on but they said it was a very serious incident."

The visitor was later told that a "whole heap of guys had got drunk".

Because staff were uncertain what the inmates had taken, the most intoxicated ones were taken to a higher security area until they recovered.

Mr Grant said the inmates had probably been drinking covertly before moving to the compound and drinking openly.

Damage to the unit was understood to be restricted to a broken window.

Parts of the prison were locked down for up to five hours to free staff to deal with the incident.

Although the riot squad was on standby it was not used and the problem was handled using staff trained in control and restraint.

It is understood the home brew was made from a particularly potent form of yeast called "turbo yeast", which has been a problem at the prison, especially over the holiday season.

"This was one brew which staff didn't find in time."

Mr Grant said staff acted quickly and professionally to quell the incident and prevent it spreading. He said the inmates involved would be disciplined.

Unit seven is a minimum to low-medium security mainstream unit.

The event comes in the wake of repeated violence at the prison in recent months.

In August inmate Philip Walker, 40, was killed after an attack by a fellow prisoner in the same unit.

In November, three guards were seriously injured after prisoner Arai Hema, sentenced for the 1998 attempted murder of 78-year-old Napier man Bruce Butler, threw boiling water on a staff member before commandeering a knife and attacking other guards with a shovel.

Only a day later another inmate attacked a guard with a broom, prompting a lockdown of the remand unit.

A number of escape attempts had been made during the same month and 70 staff members staged a stopwork meeting in order to have their concerns about the running of the prison addressed.

Overcrowding has been a continual problem as the prison struggles to find space for the constant influx of new inmates.

With a maximum capacity there of 568 remand and sentenced inmates, Napier and Hastings police holding cells have soaked up the overflow, with temporary jailers hired to manage them.

"Double-bunking" had been mooted as a possible short-term solution to the problem until three new men's prisons become progressively available from 2008.

Turbo yeast is a mix of extremely alcohol-tolerant yeast and nutrients that give home brewers more kick for their buck.

It produces about one more litre of alcohol per 100 litres than other yeasts, easily ferments to 17 per cent alcohol and is more tolerant of heat, solids and sugar concentrations.

It produces more alcohol faster, and can be used to ferment sugar, corn, molasses, barley, wheat, potato waste and others.

Les Hayward, owner of Jellybean brewing supplies, said the super-strong varieties could ferment sugar to four times the alcohol content of beer.

The yeast had been around for about 10 years and stronger versions were constantly being produced.

"I sell a lot of it," Mr Hayward said. One packet, which could make 25 litres of liquid, sold for between $6 and $8.50.

Distilled, the special yeast could produce 95 per cent alcohol, but Mr Hayward doubted the prisoners would have access to a still.

It would have been simple to sneak the yeast in in a plastic bag "and it would just looked like granules".

Another local brewer had not heard of Turbo yeast, but said inmates could have used anything from fruit juice to potatoes to make the alcohol.

"Most of what they'd need is probably already on the grounds. Out of the foodstore - everything from sugar to potatoes - they could basically make anything they wanted to."

The brewer said it could have taken a week to 10 days before the alcohol was "fired up ready to go", and information on brewing was readily available from books and the internet.

"It's not difficult."
 
So is this Turbo yeast available on the open market? Anybody tried it? What does the brew taste like when this stuff is used instead of standard yeast?
 
Daves Homebrew in North Sydney sell it.
I've seen it there sitting on the table.

Never bothered to ask him about it though.
I just thought it might have been for spirits or something

Rich
 
It is for spirits, not beer.
We had thought of making some hooch out of sultanas, canned two fruits & bread-maybe will give this a go, obviously turns out a good drop. Those prisoners wouldn't have drunk it otherwise.
 
[quote name='Ol'Wobbly' date='Jan 11 2005, 04:56 AM']So is this Turbo yeast available on the open market? Anybody tried it? What does the brew taste like when this stuff is used instead of standard yeast?[/quote]
By all accounts the brew tastes like crap. That is not a problem when you distill to 95%.
 
Im sure after being in jail for a while, anything alcoholic would be great.
 
morry said:
Im sure after being in jail for a while, anything alcoholic would be great.
I'm sure that after being in prision for a while anything that causes a buzz over a painful sensation would be welcomed :D

Doc
 
Yep, the turbo yeast produces up to 20% alc in about 2 days only.
Certainly is not recommended for beer, just for quick results when planning to distill.

People in gaol wil drink anything that may have alcohol. It's a bit of a desperation thing.

Seth
 
Who knows, maybe it tasted better than the Lion Red they were used to drinking on the outside ?

We're off to the Bay for a week tomorrow, think I'll be checking out this brewery Limburg and not the Turbo powered one behind bars
 
my line of work took me to prison (to visit, that is!) and I was yacking to a few of the inmates, this was a low security prison, they offered a cup of coffee, but said that the there is not sugar, so they use artificial sweetener, apparently, they got busted making home brew....
 
jaytee said:
We're off to the Bay for a week tomorrow, think I'll be checking out this brewery Limburg and not the Turbo powered one behind bars
Have a great trip Jaytee.
Have a Limburg Hopsmacker or three for me.

Beers,
Doc
 
Cheers Doc, also looking forward to the Rosies Red

Also planning to see if Roosters Brewhouse is still there in Hastings, they did a great Special Bitter last time I was there 3 years ago. Had a pint then filled a flagon to take home - sometimes it's not so good being the only driver

The January trip away is usually the first commercial beer purchase of the year. First on the list is the Monteiths Radler to quench the thirst in the heat :D (maybe they have summer in the Bay - we haven't in Wellington)

Also have a couple of favourite wineries to check out, with a few things in between to keep the kids amused/quiet

Two weekends away isn't good for the brewing schedule though , so I bought a Safale so I get a brew down the day after we get back !
 
Is oztops yeast similar to this turbo yeast?

Crims are usually heavy drinkers... so wouldnt their tastes be more refined than the average drinker... and therefore anything they brew for themselves must be of top quality.
 
No, oztops is a wine yeast as far as I'm aware. It is supposed to produce a nice subtle estery profile and ferment out to 15% (but boy that would be a dry beverage :wacko: ). It also relies soley on the nutrients in the juice. Champagne and ports yeasts will do this easily also.

Turbo yeast is really just the name for the package, yes it is an alcoholerant tolerant yeast but the whole idea of the turbo yeast is that you pitch a huge amount of yeast so that it ferments quick (just like pitching on a yeast cake) but the packet also contains enough yeast nutrient so the yeast can chew through the sugar.

The turbo yeasts taste and smell like crap. Bloody woeful to drink. They would be some desperate lads to drink it but it would be doable if that was all you had. Much better distilled with a decent reflux still, even a pot still is going to leave you with some of the ordinary flavours associated with this yeast. Distill it or forget it in my opinion.

Backlane, use a chamagne or port yeast instead of the turbo and you should end up with something drinkable. Ask at the HBS, they have heaps of these other yeast.

Cheers, JD
 
I was once invited to "Bring your cup up to the mess room". It was filled about 3/4 with clear liquid. Would have been made from white sugar and bakers yeast (since there was a bake house in the jail, but no brewery), but it didn't taste much different to vodka. Got us half whacked anyway.
Them boys wouldn't have been desperate. Just eager.
Then a couple of years later at an open camp prison, the abo boys used to get casks dropped off on the side of the road by their mates. They would take the silver bag out of the box, so the little black-tracker would find it easy in the moonlight. When ever you woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of broken glass, you'd know they'd finished their baggy.
 
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