Commercially-distilled beer

Pumpkin Spirit

Apparently they took Lakefront's Pumpkin Lager and distilled it. Anyone try this? Anyone know of any other distilled beer? I've wondered about distilling beer but never knew anyone did it. I'm gonna have to see if I can find some.

I'm not exactly sure if this one is related (other than the name) to the actual beer, but I know Rogue makes a Dead Guy whiskey. I was going to order a bottle, but never got around to it.

did a quick search, seems like they use the same 4 malts as dead guy, but in a traditional whiskey making process.

it seems that the lakefront stuff, they took finished beer that would otherwise be bottled and dumped it into the still.

so, anyone actually buy this?

also i've found out that it isn't just straight pre-bottled pumpkin lager. Lakefront brews some without hops, as they apparently made it bitter.

the first batch (2010?) was straight pre-bottled beer, with hops. this year they've decided to modify.

Edcculus said:

I don't think the OP was seeing if anyone has ever distilled a commercial beer, or distilled a beer they made. He is just asking if anyone has tried (as in tasted) this particular product, which is a distilled commercial beer.

To answer: no I have not, but it would be pretty interesting. I think it would be a pretty neat business to start. Partner with some well known breweries and have them produce some unhopped wort to distill.

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thanks for saving me some typing.

I'm interested in:

1. Has anyone ever tried the COMMERCIALLY distilled Pumpkin Spirit offered by the LICENSED DISTILLERY Great Lakes?

2. Does anyone know of any other LICENSED DISTILLERY doing something similar (LEGALLY distilling a previously-commercialized beer)?

The best beer to whiskey is CharBay it runs 360 and up of you can find it. We have two bottles. They used Pilsner. You can smell the hops and taste them it is framing great. Google CharBay, my bro is a has a Bourbon collection pushing 6k if it is rare and hard to get he has one or is trying really hard. They also have one they did with Racer 5 IPA but it is gone

Keg
Coffee Stout
Irish Red
Bourbon Barrel Aged Black Imperial IPA
Applewood Smoked IPA
Robust Porter, hopfully blow this today

Sec
Wheat
Blackberry Cobbler Ale

Bottle
Amaretto choc porter
Hazelnut choc porter

Darkness said:

The best beer to whiskey is CharBay it runs 360 and up of you can find it. We have two bottles. They used Pilsner. You can smell the hops and taste them it is framing great. Google CharBay, my bro is a has a Bourbon collection pushing 6k if it is rare and hard to get he has one or is trying really hard. They also have one they did with Racer 5 IPA but it is gone

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interesting, i did look up charbay. seems it's made from a pilsner. also seems its $325 for a 750mL. way too rich for me.

well, i just bought some! $40, a little more than the MSRP of $35 (Otto's in Cedarburg is always expensive....), but i think it's worth it for 90 proof bierschnapps!

as it's about 11am, i haven't tried it yet. but soon.

It's Saturday! 11am is the perfect time for bierschnapps! I'm pretty sure it's a breakfast digestif in the motherland.

Can't wait to hear what you think. Not that I'm likely to find such a thing out here.

motobrewer said:

well, i just bought some! $40, a little more than the MSRP of $35 (Otto's in Cedarburg is always expensive....), but i think it's worth it for 45 proof bierschnapps!

as it's about 11am, i haven't tried it yet. but soon.

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I think technically it should be the Fatherland with Germany

Ja, das stimmt. Vielen danke fur die wichtig korrektur...

Ryush806 said:

I think technically it should be the Fatherland with Germany

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Haha bitte schön!

ClarnoBrewer said:

It's Saturday! 11am is the perfect time for bierschnapps! I'm pretty sure it's a breakfast digestif in the motherland.

Can't wait to hear what you think. Not that I'm likely to find such a thing out here.

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lol, well my buddy's coming over this afternoon, so i'll probably wait to open it until then.

i'm sure you could probably find the rouge whiskey previously mentioned. not technically a bierschnapps.

hm....

http://www.essentialspirits.com/Products/Bierschnaps.htm

I believe Rogue did this with their John and Jon series. The brewery made the beer (juniper something or other was one of them) then a portion was sent to Rogue distillery to make the spirits.

apparently Sierra Nevada did it awhile ago (2003ish?) with their Pale Ale. I guess they had trouble distributing, as they couldn't use their normal beer distributor for spirits? or something? seems strange as you see a few breweries with distilleries under the same name (rouge, dfh).

Close. The John-John series are all ales that are then aged in spirits barrels. The spirits are all distilled in a fairly traditional manner. The Dead Guy whiskey isn't made directly from finished Dead Guy ale, but from the same grain bill used for Dead Guy.

So definitely not the same as the bierschnapps, or whatever it's actually called, that's made directly from beer. Can't wait to hear how it tastes.

pickles said:

I believe Rogue did this with their John and Jon series. The brewery made the beer (juniper something or other was one of them) then a portion was sent to Rogue distillery to make the spirits.

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In most states, distributing spirits is much more difficult than distributing beer, and it's often handled by different distributors. There's a lot of extra work and money in licensing, insuring, etc... when it comes to dealing with spirits. If there weren't you'd see a lot more craft distillers. It's still too much of a PITA legislation wise to make it easy to do. However, the times, they are a changin'. A lot of folks are working hard to legalize home distillation.

motobrewer said:

apparently Sierra Nevada did it awhile ago (2003ish?) with their Pale Ale. I guess they had trouble distributing, as they couldn't use their normal beer distributor for spirits? or something? seems strange as you see a few breweries with distilleries under the same name (rouge, dfh).

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er, i misspoke before, it's 45%, not 45 proof. 90 proof.

Anyway its fantastic! unbelievably smooth. drank it neat, has a nice bit of spice, then a good malty finish. i haven't had the base beer (pumpkin lager) in a few months but from what i remember you can definitely pick out the base beer.

i hope more people start doing this. i'd like to see this done to a dunkel or bock. that'd probably rock my world.