Here are a few answers to your questions: >>> Thinking ahead to Gulf war Q: How much fruit will I be needing for each....5 gallon batch maybe the first question should be... *** In brewing, the fruit provides for flavor and it is the sugar that will be converted to alcohol, so it starts with a question on what fruit. Q: will this work in Quantity, say 35 gallon trashcan full of smashed fruit, topped off with low grade alcohol, Shaking is not feasible, so I guess I could mix with a paddle for a month or so....then rack off and bottle? *** Of course! As long as the proportions are the same as a smaller batch it will work. But two more things need to be said here: Larger batches use larger containers, and containers not designed for brewing can allow for contamination. Now the water-bearer/brewer in me needs to say clean & sterile! Please do not use something previous used for non-food use (i.e.: trashcan that HELD trash or an oar that was in the river {ick!}). Q: How much home brew can you transport across state lines before it is considered Bootlegging? *** I want to say this carefully: If it has a controlled substance (alcohol included) it can be considered as illegal at ANY amount, but doesn't really matter so much about the alcohol but more about the state getting its taxes. Mundanely in our recent history, traffickers where charged with what? Tax evasion. {problem: No tax stamps as proof of payment of taxes}. Q: Any guesses on how honey added at the start would effect the outcome? *** Going back and adding the statement "...topped off with low grade alcohol...” a question of what is desired effect you are hoping for comes forward. Basic brewing yields a concentration of alcohol of mostly less than 20%. Yeast dies/goes dormant when the concentration gets to high for it and more effort is required to get it to the higher of that range. So back to your question, if the concentration of alcohol is very low and have a lot of head room left before say 15% then the sugars in the honey will ferment into more alcohol till the yeast goes dormant. If you add enough so the entire batch is already over 15% (7.5 proof) then the sugars in the honey go towards sweetening the mixture. It has been a while since higher math but here goes: (% concentration [fruit mixture = near zero] times volume) plus (% concentration of blending alcohol times its volume) equals the new percentage. Someone with more recent algebra skills on setting up equations can build & convert to a more usable format that allows you to plug into that formula the desired resulting % of alcohol using a certain % of commercial produced alcohol and get the result of how much of it you need to reach. example for thought: 34 gals of mix to 1 gal of 180 proof (90%) equals 35 gals @ 2.57% or less than Oklahoma beer at 3.20% and in this example the honey and fruit could fermintate and further increase the percentage, but that is another mathematical formula. . .lol. Angus <<< Renault Pre-apprentice Brewer {sorry for the bad grammer & spelling, lousy web-based checker} ________________________________________________________________________ Try Juno Platinum for Free! Then, only $9.95/month! Unlimited Internet Access with 1GB of Email Storage. Visit http://www.juno.com/value to sign up today!