Khamr ul Ajwa recipe just dropped if anyone wants to make a categorically forbidden alcoholic beverage. It's an explanation of how not to accidentally turn your date punch into booze. But if you follow it in reverse (do exactly what it says not to do), you effectively have a 7th century Arab wine recipe right there. So, I'm trying it with 1.5 lb each of deglet noor dates and golden raisins, and about 1.75 gallons of water. I boiled the wort and used commercial yeast to keep it from turning into vinegar, so please use your best judgement.

Ref: Sahih Muslim 1987b (Book 36, Hadith 24)

@technicallydifficult isnt there a hadith that nothing can corrupt water so its always drinkable even if theres gross stuff floating in it or did I make that up

@georgia

sounds like a synthesis of several ahadith. Like, water a cat drank from, water with a fly in it, etc... but dying with a drop of urine on you results in the punishment of the grave. so it's pretty inconsistent.

@london you might like this recipe I got from islamic literature for brewing twice forbidden alcohol. Eastern Orthodox drink wine yes?

@technicallydifficult@brain.worm.pink Oh we sure do (when permitted). I’m just reading over ther recipe now. Did you get to drink it yet?

@london

Not yet, but it is fermenting vigorously and has a thick cap of pulp and yeast on top. It already smells boozy after just 12 hours.

I can see why this was haram af, because the alcohol by volume is already approaching that of beer after such a short time. I'm gonna use it to get shitfaced during ramadan. My first lent fast (protestant style) is gonna be to fast from practicing ramadan as a methodical rejection of my prior faith. It's gonna be a while before I can accept the eccharist anyways (am not baptized yet), so I'm using this time to deconstruct islam from my brain. Bad form to invite a new horse into a dirty stall.

@technicallydifficult@brain.worm.pink Both hilarious and deep 👍.

I do something similar with my fasts quite often. I call them behavior fasts, so my focus is more on habits that control the body than food. I think you have a good plan there.

I’m gonna try that recipe too. Never made alcohol before.

@london

I've actually made a lot of alcohol. It's nowhere near as complicated as people make it out to be. I was a pagan before becomming muslim, so I made so much booze before my talib-ul 'ilm phase.

The lid doesn't have to be airtight. You don't need an airlock. I made an adjusted recipe for this including variations (worked out with beer math) to make it easy on new brewers.

Right, so if you want to make Khamr like the Quraysh used to, you just need to take 2 lb each of pitted dates and raisins, soak them in 2 gallons of water for 6-12 hours, crush them with your hands, bring this mix to a light simmer to destroy the vinegar producing bacteria, pour into a fermentation vessel (food grade bucket with any sort of lid), let it cool to body temperature, add yeast, cover it, and stir it once a day until it starts to settle. Then leave it covered (lay the lid on top or tie a cloth over it) until it is self-clarifying. Ladle off the liquid on top, pour the pulp into a cloth and press out the liquid. This should be kept separately from the clear Khamr and can be used for cooking. For example, you can use it as the starter for a new batch, or for marinating pork chops with ginger root, shatta, and onions. The clear khamr should be bottled in clean glass jars and aged a bit to refine the flavor. It may become slightly fizzy like soda.

some ingredient combo recommendations:

you can replace some of the fruit with honey. So for example, if you can't find raisins, you can replace the 2 lb of raisins with 2 cups of honey.

Jericho Medjool dates plus ripe Spanish figs

dried apricots and deglet noor dates

turkish honey and al madinah dates, add a cardamom pod to each jar of finished khamr

shirazi raisins and medina black dates

black sphinx dates and concord raisins

@technicallydifficult@brain.worm.pink You’ve had quite the journey. I was a new ager myself for some time. Man, you can really get into some wild stuff listening to them.

I’m gonna get some of these ingredients together tomorrow when I’m out doing errands. How long do you think it should age before trying it?

@london

Was doing the prerequisite study to go to Al Azhar when stuff happened that made me question it, and realized it was bullsh*t. Was gonna go into school in Egypt to be a Qari. (Shari'a Judge). Was studying the distance learning materials from Al Azhar and Al Madinah universities, had memorized a juz (1/30th of the Qur'an) and was studying aqeedah, comparative fiqh, Islamic history, and Qur'an recitation. I was engaged in Dawah with scholars from Saudia, and was a street da'i (preacher). And I left islam, which is absolutely something you have to be sure about, because it carries the death penalty in Shari'a. If you know anyone with a christian apologetics podcast, I'd like to help out because islam spreading in the west is an existential threat to every ex-muslim.

The primary fermentation goes until most of the stuff sinks to the bottom and it's clear on top. It can take 2 to 3 weeks. For yeast, literally any yeast will work, but a white wine yeast for like, chardonay or champagne will probably work best.

Aging the finished product is up to you, but I find that wines newer than 3 months have a yeasty funk, but that goes away after the 3 months mark.

@london

In iran, they used to make a brandy out of Khamr, so that's a thing you can do too if you have a still. But that's pretty technical to remove the fusel.

@technicallydifficult@brain.worm.pink I don’t drink liquor anymore, but good to know. I might still make it anyway. My neighbor has been talking about us building a still for a couple years now.