Pruno

Description

Typically, the fermenting mass of fruit—called the motor or kicker in US prison parlance—is retained from batch to batch to make the fermentation start faster. The more sugar 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 yeasts' environment becomes too poisoned for them to continue fermenting. This also causes the taste of the end product to suffer. Ascorbic acid 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 outbreaks were reported among inmates in two California prisons; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 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. 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 and orange juice. Food hoarding 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, a death row inmate at San Quentin, offers an oft-referenced recipe for pruno in his poem "Recipe for Prison Pruno", which won a PEN award in 1992.

Another recipe for pruno can be found in Michael Finkel'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.

References

References

1. (February 2015). "Pruno, Ramen, and a Side of Hope". Post Hill Press.
2. Hardesty, Greg. (8 June 2011). "'Pruno' brew is the toast of the O.C. jail". The Orange County Register.
3. (January 2009). "Botulism from Drinking Pruno". Emerging Infectious Diseases.
4. Hensley, Scott. (7 February 2013). "Botulism From 'Pruno' Hits Arizona Prison (7 February 2013)".
5. Hensley, Scott. (5 October 2012). "Botulism Outbreak Tied to Contaminated Prison Hooch (5 October 2012)".
6. LeDuff, Charlie. (1 January 2003). "No Vintage California Pruno for New Year's? What's a Jailhouse Oenophile to Do?". The New York Times.
7. Wilkinson, William Richard. (2005). "Prison Work: A Tale of Thirty Years in the California Department of Corrections". Ohio State University Press.
8. Masters, Jarvis Jay. (2005-06-16). "Recipe for Prison Pruno". PEN America.
9. Finkel, Michael. (21 December 2009). "How I Convinced a Death-Row Murderer Not to Die.". Esquire.