That's not beer. Beer isn't distilled.
That's not beer. Beer isn't distilled.
Like most things, the US tax law probably has the most definitive answer.
That's not beer. Beer isn't distilled.
How do you think whiskey is made? Beer without hops that's distilled.
Why not? I've never seen any sort of definition like that. I don't see any reason you can't distill beer and call it beer.
In an episode of Basic Brewing Radio, James Spencer got some interesting perspectives on fractional freezing. The conclusion he drew is that fractional freezing at home is actually legal.
It's definitely a gray area, but we've been allowing the discussion of fractional freezing here at HBT, so long as it pertains to beer, wine, mead, or cider. The discussion of more traditional distillation is still verboten, as the law is not at all gray in that area.
But the US considers freezing the water and removing the ice from beer as distilling...thus illegal in the US...(same goes for Jacking Apple Cider...)
Hmm- isn't freeze-distilling a beer up to 40% abv starting to get dangerous? I know one of the major reasons non-professional distilling is frowned upon [other than the missed opportunities for taxation], and why they generally don't save the first fraction of distillate is the potential for concentrating methanol.
I'd be somewhat hesitant to drink a freeze-distilled beverage of hard liquor strength, since that method wouldn't remove the methanol...
Hmm- isn't freeze-distilling a beer up to 40% abv starting to get dangerous? I know one of the major reasons non-professional distilling is frowned upon [other than the missed opportunities for taxation], and why they generally don't save the first fraction of distillate is the potential for concentrating methanol.
I'd be somewhat hesitant to drink a freeze-distilled beverage of hard liquor strength, since that method wouldn't remove the methanol...
There is very little methanol in beer, if any at all. There is only methanol in distilled grains because of crude mashing techniques and certain yeasts strains used. Keep in mind our beer yeast can not ferment cellulose, nor is there enzymes present(cellulase) to break it down to fermentables. If there were cellulase present in our grains the plant would decompose it's husks naturally.
But is it beer?? That is what I was hoping would be settled when a mod showed up.
Hmm- isn't freeze-distilling a beer up to 40% abv starting to get dangerous? I know one of the major reasons non-professional distilling is frowned upon [other than the missed opportunities for taxation], and why they generally don't save the first fraction of distillate is the potential for concentrating methanol.
I'd be somewhat hesitant to drink a freeze-distilled beverage of hard liquor strength, since that method wouldn't remove the methanol...
Well, I have thought about this too, and my conclusion, right or wrong... is if the methanol is already in your beer or wine or fermented molasses for making rum etc. and you concentrate it and then drink enough of it to feel intoxicated... and drink enough beer to feel intoxicated, you have more or less drunk the same amount of alcohol either way.
the only difference I see, is you get a bit more water and maybe that helps.
Either way though, I think you would consume the same amount of alcohol.
Now I spoke with a profesional distiller that told me you only get methanol after you heat your alcohol in the first place, not sure if this is true or not. However methanol does come off first, what if you just heated your product to 68C or so and hold it for a few minutes, Methanol evaporates at 64.7 Ethanol evaporates at 78C. Then freeze "concentrate" Your beverage and carbonate or whatever you wish to do with it.
Regardless, it's freeze concentrating. It's just freezing the beer and removing the ice since ethanol won't freeze until ~-174*F, but the water in the beer will. Removing water (dilution) concentrates the abv.
From Wiki:
"Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in their volatilities in a boiling liquid mixture."
Distilling is heating of alcohol. Alcohols have a lower boiling point than water, so they evaporate first (for the most part), and then the vapors are caught and cooled/condensed into liquid again. Methanol has a lower boiling point than Ethanol, thus the pouring out of the first runnings which maybe contain any methanol, then you start to get Ethanol.
Yes it is beer.
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/style/36
While not as extreme, the eisbock style is a traditional one using the exact same methods. Concentration by removing ice is nothing new. Taking it to the 40%+ range is new, but this is still beer.
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