Alcohol

We had a seafaring friend (now deceased) who sailed on a Norwegian whaling ship. In those years pole shift and survival weren't even in our vocabulary so unfortunately I never thought to take notes or ask questions on "how to" so missed a great opportunity to find out how to make potato peel yeast in a bucket, as this is how they made yeast for baking on the high seas (vodka was also a byproduct). Has anyone got any clues to the method for this yeast as we will need many types of yeast. We won't be able to rely on just raisins or even potatoes due to shortages, climate, ad infinitum.

Offered by Jan.

I've made moonshine from sugar, vodka from potatoes, and bourbon from corn. The initial process of fermentation is the same. You mix the food with water and then cover and stir each day. If the purpose is to make alcohol then you need a hydrometer to tell you the alcohol content and when ready then siphon off the liquid and distill at 182 degrees F at sea level (the temperature is a couple degrees above the boiling point of alcohol and is from memory, so you might want to look it up ... also adjust for altitude). What is left after removing most of the liquid is what's left of the food and very concentrated yeast. The "starter" yeast is in the air and gets incorporated during the initial preparation and during stirring.

The process is that the yeast eats the food and expels alcohol and rapidly multiplies. If you let this process go for too long, uncovering and stirring will eventually allow another organism (I think a bacterium, but may be another type of yeast) in from the air. This organism eats alcohol and expels vinegar and will take over the culture. To make the potato peel yeast the only thing I would add besides the potato peel and water would be some sugar to help get that initial yeast colony going faster.

It's so simple to do that you can just try it and see what happens. Keep the stirring time short and give it, say, 10 days. Pour off the liquid and squeeze as much liquid out of the left over material as you can. Taste it. If sour then the batch is bad. Test by using a couple table spoons of the material instead of packaged yeast to make a loaf of bread. Come to think of it, I think the organism that eats alcohol and excretes vinegar is yeast also as sour doe bread starter is very sour, so maybe you would want to try both by letting it sit until it gets a sour taste. If the mixture starts to smell like rotten eggs it has gone bad because of air-born anaerobic bacteria.

Offered by Ron.