szucconi
Member
So I bottled a five gallon batch today, after transferring to my bottling bucket, I noticed I left about 4-6 cups of beer in the fermentor. The trub had been kicked up already. No big deal, I have plenty of beer and running out is a great reason to make more. But after I got done bottling, I came back to it. It had settled again, so I had a quick thought, I will just freeze it and concentrate the alcohol in it. Just to see how that works and what results I could get. So I quickly dumped it into an container and threw it in the freezer. Then, of coarse, I forgot about it.
By the time I remembered it, it was a slushy. I threw the ice in a strainer with a bowl underneath. Broke it up with a fork and collected about a 4th of the total volume (1 cup). Now I have this mason jar full of high alcohol (theoretically) almost beer liquid, in my fridge. The remainder ice is currently melting so I can sample it.
There was a thread a bit ago where I had a convo with a guy about freeze concentration. He supposed that the remainder was just ice, while I proposed it was more like non-alcoholic beer. The ice seems to be dark, but not as dark, so maybe he is right, less the inefficiency in the freeze concentrate method, but we will see.
Now, does anyone have a deeper understanding of this process? If this tastes at all good, I might have a go at making a real beer with a super high avb (not wrapped in roadkill). Any way I can tell what my abv is without serious lab equipment? What are my sanitation concerns with freeze concentration (tonights batch wont be around in the morning, so I wasnt worried)?
Basicly just looking for other people that have tried this and there version of events and take-aways.
By the time I remembered it, it was a slushy. I threw the ice in a strainer with a bowl underneath. Broke it up with a fork and collected about a 4th of the total volume (1 cup). Now I have this mason jar full of high alcohol (theoretically) almost beer liquid, in my fridge. The remainder ice is currently melting so I can sample it.
There was a thread a bit ago where I had a convo with a guy about freeze concentration. He supposed that the remainder was just ice, while I proposed it was more like non-alcoholic beer. The ice seems to be dark, but not as dark, so maybe he is right, less the inefficiency in the freeze concentrate method, but we will see.
Now, does anyone have a deeper understanding of this process? If this tastes at all good, I might have a go at making a real beer with a super high avb (not wrapped in roadkill). Any way I can tell what my abv is without serious lab equipment? What are my sanitation concerns with freeze concentration (tonights batch wont be around in the morning, so I wasnt worried)?
Basicly just looking for other people that have tried this and there version of events and take-aways.