Before I begin, 1 thing: it is not illegal. I know it have been discussed here a lot, but I checked both canadian and american federal laws, and nothing is illegal, at least for homebrewing. It is not a distillation, it's the opposite of distillation. You take out the non-alcool (water), it is called ''concentration''.
That said.
Have you tried it?
I heard mainly 2 or 3 techniques. I would like to have your comments of those, or other techniques you might come up with. If I say wrong, please tell me, if I say right, please confirm.
1 - Full slushy freezing
Take a plastic gallon jug filled with your base beer (fermented, not carb'ed). You freeze it entirely to a slushy mixture. When done, you flip the jug upside down and place it in a funnel, draining into your next container. The alcool will melt before water and fall into the next container. You stop when you are at the concentration you want.
My POV: I'm not sure what's left is ONLY water, so that might not be the more efficient way to eisbock, and certainly not the best way to control and calculate your concentration
2 - Skimming ice on top
You place the beer in a plastic bucket, that you place in the freezer. Every few hours (I guess it depends on the size of the batch), you take off the lid, and (with a sanitized tool) remove the ice on top wich is almost 100% water, because that's what freezes first. Repeat until wanted volume.
My POV: Good way to control the concentration and ABV.. A bit of work but hey...
3 - Keg technique
Well, I don't have kegs, so I can't really speak about it but, that's mainly partially freeze your beer in the keg, then push out the non-frozen beer.
My POV: don't really no, how can you see the freezing process?
Bottling/Conditionning
-If you totally freeze the beer, your yeast's dead.
-If you concentrate to an alcool level your yeast can't take, it's dead.
-But, it you partially freeze it and only skim the top ice, there are chances that enough yeast is still alive to bottle condition normally. Lager yeast are resistant.
-If you want to be safe, or if your yeast is dead, or if you're now at 14%, you can add fresh yeast, and even use ale or champagne yeast or something like. that
What I plan to do, is to take my 7.5% Doppelbock and push it to 20% (2L to 0.75L) and bottle it flat in a 750ml and let it age several months (as long as I can wait). That would be more like a malt liquor than a beer.
That said.
Have you tried it?
I heard mainly 2 or 3 techniques. I would like to have your comments of those, or other techniques you might come up with. If I say wrong, please tell me, if I say right, please confirm.
1 - Full slushy freezing
Take a plastic gallon jug filled with your base beer (fermented, not carb'ed). You freeze it entirely to a slushy mixture. When done, you flip the jug upside down and place it in a funnel, draining into your next container. The alcool will melt before water and fall into the next container. You stop when you are at the concentration you want.
My POV: I'm not sure what's left is ONLY water, so that might not be the more efficient way to eisbock, and certainly not the best way to control and calculate your concentration
2 - Skimming ice on top
You place the beer in a plastic bucket, that you place in the freezer. Every few hours (I guess it depends on the size of the batch), you take off the lid, and (with a sanitized tool) remove the ice on top wich is almost 100% water, because that's what freezes first. Repeat until wanted volume.
My POV: Good way to control the concentration and ABV.. A bit of work but hey...
3 - Keg technique
Well, I don't have kegs, so I can't really speak about it but, that's mainly partially freeze your beer in the keg, then push out the non-frozen beer.
My POV: don't really no, how can you see the freezing process?
Bottling/Conditionning
-If you totally freeze the beer, your yeast's dead.
-If you concentrate to an alcool level your yeast can't take, it's dead.
-But, it you partially freeze it and only skim the top ice, there are chances that enough yeast is still alive to bottle condition normally. Lager yeast are resistant.
-If you want to be safe, or if your yeast is dead, or if you're now at 14%, you can add fresh yeast, and even use ale or champagne yeast or something like. that
What I plan to do, is to take my 7.5% Doppelbock and push it to 20% (2L to 0.75L) and bottle it flat in a 750ml and let it age several months (as long as I can wait). That would be more like a malt liquor than a beer.
