Teen bootleggers are making dangerous booze on TikTok

Tuesday, March 10, 2020 - 13:00 in Mathematics & Economics

It may shock you to learn that brewing alcohol in your dorm room is not a great idea. (Pexels/)In the latest concerning TikTok trend, teens have documented their DIY alcohol adventures while brewing booze with grocery store ingredients—usually fruit juice, sugar, and active dry yeast. Some videos have racked up hundreds of thousands of likes and inspired others to establish their own bedroom microbreweries.These brief TikTok “dorm mead” tutorials instruct users to funnel about a tablespoon of active yeast and a cup of sugar into what appears to be a gallon-sized juice bottle. They then leave the cap slightly loose or attach a balloon to the opening and let the hooch sit for around a week.The process likely succeeds in producing an alcoholic beverage, says John Wilson, a food scientist at Colorado State University, thanks to the molecular interaction between the yeast and sugar within the juice. “If you are...

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