Concentrated beer

OK, so this is a stupid idea, but speaking hypothetically...

I have a few friends who are going to Iceland (where beer is really expensive). We were talking about concentrating a beer syrup (fractionally distil off the ethanol, boil off water, re-add ethanol) and taking that with them, then adding back the water (ribena style) and drinking.

What would you need to also do to get the same taste from the beer syrup?

I've said that you'd boil off the aromatic compounds from the hops, so you'd need to make a concentrated hop solution to take with you (boil water, add a lot of late hops as you would at the end of your boil, chill and bottle or add back to the syrup).

You'd kill off the yeast, but that's not a problem. You'd also drive off the Carbon Dioxide, so you'd need to either put it through a sodastream or use soda water mix with the syrup (even ales that are flat have dissolved CO2).

You'd need to take care to keep the oxygen out of the syrup so that it doesn't turn to vinegar (since this is normally done by the yeast, what's the best way of doing this?).

What else do you reckon that you'd need to do to get a tasty beverage at the end of the adventure?

Recommendation:

Ship a couple of cases of your favorite beer to a postal service in Iceland. Kick back and enjoy the adventure. Relax and keep your eyes on those beautiful blond girls!

That seems like a hell of a lot of trouble... and the result probably would be too great.

I'd say just deal with the price of the local beer, or like bpcsatx said, ship some over there... but the cost of shipping might mean that ideas not so great either...

How expencive we talking here anyway?

I think that it's about £5 a pint (US$10). That's not really the point of this thread though... we were just talking about it over lunch and I got to wondering what you'd have to do to get a good taste out of it if you were insane enough to attempt it!

The Japanese have a pale yellow beer-like beverage that is poured out of a fountain, much like you have for a Coke. The syrup squirts in one side, the carbonated water in the other.


It looks like pure **** to me.

SO you're talking about making LME?

I suspect it would taste really bad.

Already made a thread on this... or very close to it.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=29383