freeze fermenting?

[eltei]

A friend of mine says that "Artic Brews" of 14% are made by fermenting a wort, freezing it, pouring off the pure alcohol, fermenting that and repeating the process until you get a high strength brew required. Any truth in this or do they use turbo yeasts

 

[brewpirate]

In the USA its legal and not considered distiliation however distiliation is. The dangers of ice condensing is there is no alcohol seperation like there is in distiliation. I personally would not drink a high alcohol ice distilled beverage.

 

[honeymonster]

Thats the method BrewDog used to make their Tactical Nuclear Penguin 32% beer, which was the strongest beer ever made at the time.

 

[Slid]

A friend of mine says that "Artic Brews" of 14% are made by fermenting a wort, freezing it, pouring off the pure alcohol, fermenting that and repeating the process until you get a high strength brew required. Any truth in this or do they use turbo yeasts

Some truth in this, but beware, as the alcohol left behind by freezing is not "pure". Any by products from the fermentation process are not eliminated, but concentrated.

No one who has ever had a "fusel" alcohol hangover would ever recommend this to an inexperienced brewer.

Can't comment on the turbo yeast option as it does not really appeal to me - but it is popular enough at the LHBS. There are, I understand, some issues with using turbo yeast and would suggest these are understood in advance.

Good Luck and stay safe.

 

[mm707]

Is this legal in the UK ?

 

[Cwrw666]

Is this legal in the UK ?

Don't know, but as Slid says you get all the alcoholic impurities as well as the alcohol. Normal distillation is used to purify the alcohol. Hence `triple distilled'.
So I wouldn't touch this with a bargepole.
You could of course always buy alcohol to add to a brew to strengthen it.

By the way, in your first post you were talking about 14% - wine yeast will easily take a brew up to that level.

 

[brewpirate]

Bringing it back to beer, Eisbock is created by dropping the temp in secondary then removing the ice crystals (water) which increases the concentration of alcohol. I believe you would need to force carb or add bottling yeast to carbonate.

More Info:
http://byo.com/bf/item/593-eisbock-brew-the-beer-money-cant-buy

 

[YoungJames]

I have tried it recently, worked a treat.

 

[mm707]

I tried it with filtered wash made with turbo yeast :drunk:

 

[eltei]

There is a guy on Youtube who made an applejack using this method to approx 49%

 

[Yeastmaster]

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/spirmanual/spir3050.ht

Making spirits without a license is illegal in the UK, regardless of process followed.

 

[I-a-n]

Isn't it crazy? It's perfectly legal to make beer, it's perfectly legal to make wine, yet if you want to get rid of some excess water from your brew you break the law.
That's life

 

[Lawrence]

Isn't it crazy? It's perfectly legal to make beer, it's perfectly legal to make wine, yet if you want to get rid of some excess water from your brew you break the law.
That's life

Not only excess water, if you want to remove all of the bad stuff and then water it down to the same strength it was to start with, then it is still illegal!

That is not just life, that is odd.

 

[Slid]

Isn't it crazy? It's perfectly legal to make beer, it's perfectly legal to make wine, yet if you want to get rid of some excess water from your brew you break the law.
That's life

Well, my advice on removing excess water from homebrewed beer or homemade wine is simply to visit the bathroom afterwards.

I do not recommend concentration by freezing because it makes any mistakes you may have made worse.

 

[pomme homme]

Mention has been made of the different legislative regimes, for the production of spirits, in the UK and the USA. Much nearer to home, there a significant difference between the UK and France. But I won't elaborate here and risk the naughty step! However if anyone is interested in what happens in France, send me a PM, with your e-mail address, and I'll send you a copy of an article on the subject that I wrote for an English language magazine published in France.

 

[Misneac]

Legality aside, many folks have worries about the methanol content of applejack or similar products since they're not distilled. While it is true that freeze concentrating alcohol solutions (beer, wine or the like) doesn't remove methanol, neither does it remove ethanol. If you take a gander at the medical books for treatment of methanol poisoning you'll find that ethanol is the most widely used treatment. Thus the ethanol present is more than enough to compensate for any minuscule amount of methanol in the finished product. The only thing a reasonable person has to worry about from applejack or the like is fusels and/or cogeners from the pectin etc. While I'm not 100% certain since I haven't read up on it I suspect that some pectinase in the primary fermentation may help to moderate this. If anyone knows different or better please let me know. I'm curious since I happen to have 5 gallons of sweet cider and some extra time.

 

[MickDundee]

Freeze distillation is suggested in DIY Dog. I'm pretty sure the UKs biggest craft brewer wouldn't be recommending that its customers do something illegal!

 

[Personal91]

Freeze distillation is suggested in DIY Dog. I'm pretty sure the UKs biggest craft brewer wouldn't be recommending that its customers do something illegal!

If its all fair and game then why not give it a go !

 

[Misneac]

It's not so much about wanting a 32% "beer"; I'm more into the hobby because I like to see what I can accomplish, keep up my general science knowledge and to learn new things. If I can do that and end up with cheap tasty beer and/or applejack I think it's a double win. Since I'm in the US where it is for sure legal I've got about 2 gallons of (best guess) 50 proof freezing on the deck right now. It's sort of a mild apple pie flavor w/o the cinnamon. I've learned a lot since I started with 5 gallons a couple days ago. Best tips are patience, and re-run the ice that's not "dry", white, and snow like. Also, get good gloves that you don't mind having smell like booze. I'm shooting for 60-70 proof if the weather cooperates. It's been getting down to about -16*C here at night, but I'm hoping for -20.

 

[Misneac]

Another thing worth knowing is that if you are legally able to freeze concentrate in your neck of the woods you'll want to save that last gallon of churned up yeast on the bottom. The pectin haze remains, but a cone strainer filled with shaved ice works a treat to remove the "yeast mud". That's 17% more whatever if you're using a 6 gallon carboy. Heck, even
if you don't concentrate the first 5 gallons you could still save it and use it just to experiment on freeze concentrating for kicks. If it doesn't come out well you haven't lost anything except time.