I have never tried a "hobo" wine, but I know that it's supposed to be stronger than regular wine and it can be fortified. What, other than costs and fortification, makes "hobo" wine different than the average bargain wine in a jug? What kinds of corners can/do they cut to make it cheaper?
Ummmmm.... you have to be a card carrying hobo, for starters LOL
and you're going for alcohol content, not flavor, so sugar is king, and the yeast better be mighty alkey-tolerant.
HIC
Gene
Hobo wine is made for alcohol only. Taste is irrelevant. It is not aged and usually it is not even cleared. Ferment the cheapest thing you can find. Road side fruit or store discards are best. Use sugar as needed. Ferment for a few days. Do not worry about secondary fermentation, clearing, bulk aging, or bottling. All are unnecessary wastes of time and money. Just drink it at the end of primary before it has time to oxidize. Great stuff for a buzz. Terrible for the head and stomach.
Ray
oh, YUM YUM. I"m glad I learned what Hobo Wine is and won't consider taking a hit when my uncle offers it. phew.
I learn alot > Hobo wine is made for alcohol only. Taste is irrelevant. It is not aged
Not cleared? I found a couple of them in the store, but they don't look cloudy. The quicker bottling and no care for secondary fermentation would be a good explanation for some of them having metal caps like they use for malt beers...Carbonation?
What I was describing was true hobo wine not ponk which is cheap low quality wine. True hobo wine )or jungle juice in the army) is make by hobos and drunk by hobos. It is not sold in the store. Hobo's do not have time to wait for it to clear or age. They are making alcohol and as soon as the alcohol is in there, it is drunk.
I have had similar wine in villages in parts of SE Asia where it is ilegal to make wine and they will make rice wine in crocks buried in the field where the local law will not find it. They do not even rack it off the must. They will dig it up and drink it out of the crock with comunal straws shoved down into the fermenting rice. Bloddy awful but you drink it to be polite as they are quite proud of it.
Ray
Sorry about the terminology, but I thought it was called hobo/bum wine because of some parody sites. Do you know the difference(s) in ingredients and processes in "ponk" vs regular wine?
There seems to be a difference in Hobo Wine (something made and consumed as soon as alcohol forms) and Bum Wine...
See Bum Wines here:
"Ponk" is simply lower grade wine. Nothing special about it. It's just cheap, e.g., jug wine (which isn't all bad).
BTW: Friends from the UK call jug wine "plonk". Just wondering if "ponk" is a regional difference in pronounciation.
Bryan
perhaps we should start rec.crafts.winemaking.hobo?
Splendid notion!
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