__NOTOC__ Pruno, or prison wine, is an

alcoholic beverage An alcoholic beverage (also called an alcoholic drink, adult beverage, or a drink) is a drink that contains ethanol, a type of alcohol that acts as a drug and is produced by fermentation of grains, fruits, or other sources of sugar. The c ...

variously made from

apples An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

oranges An orange is a fruit of various citrus species in the family Rutaceae (see list of plants known as orange); it primarily refers to ''Citrus'' × ''sinensis'', which is also called sweet orange, to distinguish it from the related ''Citrus × ...

fruit cocktail Fruit salad is a dish consisting of various kinds of fruit, sometimes served in a liquid, either their juices or a syrup. In different forms, fruit salad can be served as an appetizer or a side salad. When served as an appetizer, a fruit salad ...

fruit juices Juice is a drink made from the extraction or pressing of the natural liquid contained in fruit and vegetables. It can also refer to liquids that are flavored with concentrate or other biological food sources, such as meat or seafood, such as ...

hard candy A hard candy (American English), or boiled sweet (British English), is a sugar candy prepared from one or more sugar-based syrups that is heated to a temperature of 160 °C (320 °F) to make candy. Among the many hard candy varietie ...

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

high fructose syrup High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), also known as glucose–fructose, isoglucose and glucose–fructose syrup, is a sweetener made from corn starch. As in the production of conventional corn syrup, the starch is broken down into glucose by enzym ...

, and possibly other ingredients, including crumbled

bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...

. Bread is incorrectly thought to contain

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constitut ...

for the pruno to ferment. Pruno originated in (and remains largely confined to)

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

s, where it can be produced with the limited selection of equipment and ingredients available to inmates. The concoction can be made using only a plastic bag, hot running water, and a towel or sock to conceal the pulp during

fermentation Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food ...

. The end result has been colorfully described as a "bile flavored wine-cooler". Depending on the time spent fermenting (always balanced against the risk of discovery by officers), the sugar content, and the quality of the ingredients and preparation, pruno's alcohol content by volume can range from as low as 2% (equivalent to a very weak beer) to as high as 14% (equivalent to a strong wine).

Description

Typically, the fermenting mass of fruit—called the ''motor'' or ''kicker'' in prison parlance—is retained from batch to batch to make the fermentation start faster. The more sugar that is added, the greater the potential for a higher alcohol content—to a point. Beyond this point, the waste products of fermentation (mainly alcohol) cause the motor to die or go dormant as the

s' environment becomes too poisoned for them to continue fermenting. This also causes the taste of the end product to suffer.

Ascorbic acid Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in citrus and other fruits and vegetables, also sold as a dietary supplement and as a topical 'serum' ingredient to treat melasma (dark pigment spots) an ...

powder is sometimes used to stop the fermentation at a certain point, which, combined with the tartness of the added acid, somewhat enhances the taste by reducing the cloyingly sweet flavor associated with pruno. In 2004 and 2005

botulism Botulism is a rare and potentially fatal illness caused by a toxin produced by the bacterium ''Clostridium botulinum''. The disease begins with weakness, blurred vision, feeling tired, and trouble speaking. This may then be followed by weaknes ...

outbreaks were reported among inmates in two California prisons; the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...

suspects that potatoes used in making pruno were to blame in both cases. In 2012, similar botulism outbreaks caused by potato-based pruno were reported among inmates at prisons in Arizona and Utah. Inmates are not permitted to have alcoholic beverages, and correctional officers confiscate pruno whenever and wherever they find it. In an effort to eradicate pruno, some wardens have gone as far as banning all fresh fruit, fruit juices, and fruit-based food products from prison cafeterias. But even this is not always enough; there are pruno varieties made almost entirely from

sauerkraut Sauerkraut (; , "sour cabbage") is finely cut raw cabbage that has been fermented by various lactic acid bacteria. It has a long shelf life and a distinctive sour flavor, both of which result from the lactic acid formed when the bacteria ferme ...

and

orange juice Orange juice is a liquid extract of the orange (fruit), orange tree fruit, produced by squeezing or reaming oranges. It comes in several different varieties, including blood orange, navel oranges, valencia orange, clementine, and tangerine. A ...

. Food

hoarding Hoarding is a behavior where people or animals accumulate food or other items. Animal behavior ''Hoarding'' and ''caching'' are common in many bird species as well as in rodents. Most animal caches are of food. However, some birds will a ...

in the inmate cells in both prisons and jails allows the inmates to acquire ingredients and produce pruno. During jail and prison inmate cell searches, correctional officers remove excessive or unauthorized food items to halt the production of pruno. Pruno is hidden under bunks, inside toilets, inside walls, trash cans, in the shower area and anywhere inmates feel is safe to brew their pruno away from the prying eyes of correctional officers and jailers.

Jarvis Jay Masters Jarvis Jay Masters (born February 24, 1962) is an American author and death row inmate at California's San Quentin State Prison. In 1990, Masters was convicted of fashioning a weapon that was used by another inmate in the 1985 murder of a prison gu ...

, a

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...

inmate at

San Quentin San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County. Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the o ...

, offers an oft-referenced recipe for pruno in his poem "Recipe for Prison Pruno", which won a

PEN award This is a list of awards sponsored by International PEN centres. There are over 145 PEN centres on the world, some of which hold annual literary awards. The PEN American Center awards have been characterized as being among the "major" literary awar ...

in 1992. Another recipe for pruno can be found in

Michael Finkel Michael Finkel (born 1969) is a journalist and memoirist, who has written the books ''True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa'' (2005) and ''The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit'' (2017). Career Finkel was a wri ...

's ''Esquire'' article on Oregon death row inmate Christian Longo. In 2004 at the American Homebrewers Association's National Homebrew Conference in Las Vegas, a pruno competition and judging was held. A variety of other prison-made alcoholic potables are known to exist. These include crude

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

s, famously fermented in

toilet A toilet is a piece of sanitary hardware that collects human urine and feces, and sometimes toilet paper, usually for disposal. Flush toilets use water, while dry or non-flush toilets do not. They can be designed for a sitting position popu ...

tanks. Sugary beverages like

orange drink The term orange drink refers to a sweet, sugary, sometimes carbonated, orange-flavored drink. Typically such beverages contain little or no orange juice and are mainly composed of water, sugar or sweeteners, flavor, coloring, and additives, som ...

may also be fermented and distilled using a

radiator Radiators are heat exchangers used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of cooling and heating. The majority of radiators are constructed to function in cars, buildings, and electronics. A radiator is always a ...

or other available heat source. Though popularized in prison fiction, these techniques are slow and laborious, and generally result in a low alcohol content.

References

External links

"Jailhouse Hooch: How to Get Liquored Up While Locked Down"
from ''

Modern Drunkard Magazine ''Modern Drunkard'' is a glossy color periodical humorously promoting the lifestyle of the "functional alcoholic". History Frank Kelly Rich founded ''Modern Drunkard'' in 1996. The first issue was 16 photocopied pages with made-up ads; in 20 ...

''
Blacktable.com
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200413125556/http://www.blacktable.com/gillin030901.htm , date=2020-04-13 —a complete pruno recipe, including detailed instructions and frequent disclaimers.
"Steve Don't Eat It, Vol. 8: Prison Wine"
��extensive, humorous account of pruno preparation and tasting, with photographs, from ''The Sneeze''.
"How to Make Pruno: 8 steps"
��on wikiHow

��story about pruno-making methods, pruno stashing, and the cost of pruno in Sacramento, California's New Folsom prison circa 1995. Fermented drinks Prison-related crime Prison drinks ru:Брага

Description

See also

References

External links