- I think people in prison got nothing but time
on their hands,
so this is not a rushed product.
Hi, my name is Mario and I'm an ex-felon.
- Greetings, my name is Drew Langley.
I'm the general manager
and owner of Kalie Restaurant Los Angeles.
- Today, I'll be teaching a professional sommelier how
to make wine I perfected in prison.
You ready to do this?
- Yeah.
(light music)
- Okay, today Drew we will be making prison wine.
That's what we call pruno.
And today, I'll be showing you how to make that.
First, we're gonna start, get your bucket.
And you're gonna open these both bags, double them up,
and then we'll line the plastic bag right here
'cause this is where we're gonna crush the fruit inside.
- [Drew] Got it.
- Preferably using a new sock, or course.
But, this sock is what we use to strain our fruit.
We're gonna take the apple, Drew,
we're gonna put the apple inside the sock.
And the palm of your hand against the wood.
- What's the most common fruit that you have access to?
- Apples. - Apples?
- Then, we're gonna grab a grapefruit.
Depending on where you at in prison,
you're allowed to have grapefruit.
We're gonna peel this.
- If you're in Florida.
- I think people in prison got nothing but time
on their hands,
so this is not a rushed product.
Then, I'm gonna do some oranges.
I wanna make sure that we use the same type
of fruit that we're allowed in prison to make prison wine.
- So, how do you conceal it?
- Well, what you do is after you cook it,
and it take the process about 7 to 10 days,
and the correctional officers search cells every day.
So, the cells they search is the cell you put it in
after they finish searching.
- Got it, 'cause they're gonna rotate it around.
- Yeah, so it's like playing hot potato.
- Why do you call it pruno?
- Pruno is a prison slang term.
It's like a weapon is a shank.
- How much does pruno go for?
- Probably $5 a cup.
- I bet it'd turn out different if you used an old sock.
- Yes, it would.
It probably would.
Pour the apple juice that we saved in a container like this,
pour it in.
Get fruit cocktail once a week, take that,
dump in there like that.
A cup of hot water.
- Yeah, so that hot water will break down the sugars
and make it easier for the yeasts to break up.
- Oh, so that's what it is.
I didn't know.
We have a sugar pack right here.
You get these in your package.
You get a yearly package that your family can send you.
So, the last thing we'll do, we will add a kicker.
It had been several bags like this,
and it'd be spoiled, rotten fruit,
fruit cocktail that you save.
Okay, you wanna do that, move the sock out the way
'cause we don't wanna have the sock in our hooch.
So what we do is now well tie the bag up.
Once you heat this up and the sugar,
what it star to do, it start to blow up.
- Yeah.
- And when it start to blow up,
that's how I know it's cooking.
That's how you know you getting some real wine.
Once it blow up,
you will untie this and you call this burping.
It will be blew up and you will burp it down like this
and let all the air out.
And you can smell the Pruno
through the bag and know it's ready.
- That's part of the chemical reaction
that happens with the fermentation.
So, yeast eats the sugar and it gives off three byproducts.
Those three byproducts are gonna be alcohol,
carbon dioxide, which fills up the bag.
And the third byproduct is heat.
It warms up. - Yes.
- So, there it is.
- This cup, you're gonna pour into here
and we're gonna drink.
It's always bitter.
But, you imagine that being cut for three or four more days.
- Yeah.
- And then that's when you get pruno.
And it really gives you a buzz.
You'll know, you're the expert.
- Sure.
- Oh man, he drinking some more.
- Well just see if we can,
I'd like to do an experiment real quick.
I'll get a wine glass.
- Okay, cool.
- So, you take your pruno, you put it in the wine glass.
- All right.
- All right? - Okay.
- So, first thing you're gonna do,
you're gonna look at the clarity of this.
So, this is definitely unfine, unfiltered.
If you wanted a more pure product,
I'd run it through the sock a couple more times.
- Of course.
- Cheers, buddy. - Cheers.
Yeah, I try to keep the faith.
- Here we go.