Spring is like a plastic container full of fermenting apples.

As I stated in a previous post, I have recently taken up residence in a trailer in Campton, purchased by my cousin Matt Benedix. He is a year older than me and we've been kickin' it since we were wee tots, so it goes without saying that our preference for depravities is near identical. So when Matthew began unpacking his possessions on the day of the move-in and revealed to me his current project, I was nothing but elated.

I guess for 3 or so months now, unbeknownst to me, he has been fermenting two Poland Spring jugs of apples. Mind you now, Matthew has been unemployed all winter long, so what better way to occupy yourself than attempting to make free alcohol for yourself...right? Now we've made a batch or two of beer before - nothing very technical, just one of those pre-made kits you can buy at the Fermentation Station - but never have we attempted anything like this from scratch.

Apparently, out of sheer boredom (and supposedly after watching one of those "locked-up" prison shows on Msnbc), he decided to research a simple tutorial on how to make cheap "prison wine" on the internet. He found a good recipe involving a few apples (high in sugar!), some water and lots of time. He cut up the apples and threw them into two plastic jugs, filled it with water - quite haphazardly - and let it sit. After a week or so he realized that the process was taking much longer than he had first hoped, so he decided to go out buy some yeast from the Campton Cupboard and drop it in with the batch.

That next morning Matt said he went to check on the jugs and they nearly doubled in size due to the carbon dioxide pressure from the newly added yeast. Matt has not implemented any sort of depressurizing system, so for the last three months, several times a day, he has been slightly unscrewing the lid of the jugs, and manually depressurizing them himself.

As of now the fizzing has subdued a bit, and one jug even looks like it has ceased producing carbon dioxide altogether (and the apples are significantly browner than the other one - we have no idea why that is). We're thinking maybe these things have got another month until they are adequately fermented. The question is, whose gonna drink the damn stuff when it's ready...I'll keep ya informed :\