> > Well, as far as I know there's no alcohol in it... I'm pretty sure my very Mormon father wouldn't have been letting us near it at a young age (I've been drinking the stuff since I was about 5) if there was. Not anymore than what is in some cough medicines, that is...
> >
> > And no, I don't have one of "those densiometer thingies for measuring the alcoholic content of homemade beer or wine" Sorry...never heard of it.

My mistake. It was a hydrometer I was thinking of. When the alcohol content is so low you'd need a UV spectrophotometer to measure it, anyway. ;)


> > Ticia
>
> That's what I think, too. It may depend on the way make it, but it *shouldn't* have alcohol in it. Before May Day you can buy bottled Sima from ordinary grocery stores, and that has no alcohol in it. It seems that especially children like (if they happen to like) Sima. Adults (especially we technology students) seem to prefer Champagne for the purpose of getting drunk.
>
> Juho

Heehee. Okay. I knew Juho would pop in to correct any misapperceptions ;)

But you have to admit that in making Sima, the yeast IS being pitched into the boiled lemon/sugar mixture to promote fermentation. Leaving the lemon mixture to rest overnight is a key primary reaction, where the yeast starts splitting the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. You also need that amount of time to get the yeast to begin flocculating (i.e. make copies of themselves for the next stage, when you bottle your Sima.)

So a very short, 12 hour primary ferment restricts the total amount of alcohol being generated while allowing the yeast to grow. Then the recipe says to tightly seal the lemon mixture in bottles with raisins and a teaspoon of sugar in each bottle. That's called 'priming' the secondary fermentation. You're generating carbonation at that point, right? As well as maybe letting the yeast convert some of the more unpleasant-tasting byproducts created at the beginning. When the raisins float to the top, the Sima has reached the correct density and is ready for drinking. And the addition of corn syrup probably lends a sweet apple-cider flavour to the final product. Cool. Basically, I think this recipe is an example of how fruity soft drinks -- for kids -- would have been naturally carbonated in the olden days. There's some alcohol in it but not a whole lot.

Of course, if you let everything ferment a few days longer in the first stage, that'd produce a lemon-flavoured mead.

Wolf "Beowulfian" spirit