Attempting 40%+ ABV beer... "Barley Brandy"

[SittingDuck]

I laud your effort. It's important to read the whole thread though, to fully appreciate that it is a miracle that Cape actually was able to pull it off. In fact he is likely lying. We'll have to get confirmation from one of his fellow Massholes before we can sign off on the project.

I don't want written confirmation. Those guys are all in it together. I demand a bottle be sent to me for testing.

 

[bottlebomber]

I don't want written confirmation. Those guys are all in it together. I demand a bottle be sent to me for testing.

I dunno about you, but with all the crap I've been talking if Cape sent me a little brown bottle I'm sure as hell not going to drink whatever's inside

 

[SittingDuck]

I dunno about you, but with all the crap I've been talking if Cape sent me a little brown bottle I'm sure as hell not going to drink whatever's inside

Yeah, but I have been quietly supportive.

Well, I think so anyway. I'm not reading back through this whole thread to see.

 

[BrewinBigD]

But this is pretty awesome, next group buy I'm making sure I have enough grain to try his out.

Check your name.... looks like its trademarked.

 

[TheBreweryUnderground]

Check your name.... looks like its trademarked.

But I'm the only one who brews underground!!!

It's not exactly the same though, maybe I could get away with it.

 

[the_bird]

... I really don't think anyone's going to care, unless you try to present yourself as the brewery.

 

[homebeerbrewer]

I'm still waiting on Home Depot to contact me...

 

[the_bird]

I got a cease-and-desist from Norm Abrams, but I gave him a sixer and now we're cool.

 

[homebeerbrewer]

I wonder how many sixers I'd have to give out if HD sent me a cease and desist. Norm is one guy, HD is a big corporation.

 

[Cape Brewing]

Batch #3 is in the freezer went in the freezer last night and I'll pull the ice out tonight and then repeat. It's gonna take me a week to get it done as I can only do about a gallon at a time.

Like I was saying the other day, once I get through all of these gallon batches, I am hoping to have about four gallons left (cutting the current 8 in half).

After that, I'll do the same thing again and run those four gallons through and see if I get any more ice crystals.

If I DON'T get any more ice crystals, I'm not 100% sure what I'll do. One thought I had before was to pack a pot full of the beer in a cooler packed in dry ice. I might still try that but I am concerned about how long dry ice would keep in a cooler like that.

I'm wondering if the dry ice would evaoporate before the beer froze in any meaningful way.

We'll see. The experiment continues.

 

[the_bird]

Keep a little bit aside as-is, so that you can compare the beer that's been freeze-concentrated once versus beer that's been freeze concentrated twice. Maybe even keep a couple bottles of the beer before it was frozen at all. Be interesting to compare the progession.

 

[SKBrewer]

The dry ice will be good, at the lab I used to work in we'd keep it in coolers for a week at a time, just make sure you have plenty of it. And get the heat transfer fluid as cold as you can first. And if you use acetone check it won't dissolve your cooler, it will dissolve some plastics.

 

[SaltyTX]

Dry ice will last 30+ hrs in a decent igloo cooler with insulated top, exterior temps and dry ice size depending. I've seen some last longer, some less. Figure Omaha steaks (and others) ship frozen steaks cross country in the middle of the summer...and it isn't always shipped overnight.

You'd have to watch the freezing point though- You are very close to the freezing point of alcohol with dry Ice. I'm guessing some of the flavor compounds could be frozen in the ice and left behind. I don't think that is what you are after. Maybe closely watching it thaw would prevent that?

 

[Cape Brewing]

Batch four just went in the freezer.

 

[SittingDuck]

On the dry ice issue, it has been my experience that it lasts much longer in heavy-duty styrofoam than plastic. It should last more than long enough.

 

[Cape Brewing]

We'll see if I need it. I am taking out a fair amount of volume with the first freezing. I don't think I'll need to take out much more to get where I want to be. We'll see

 

[D0ug]

I know it's a silly question but, can the temperature controller on your chest freezer go any lower? After you finish this batch, maybe crank that sucker to "11" and give it a shot?

Unless you already have it maxed out. If that's the case, and you want to come up to Portland and share a few samples, I have access to some liquid Argon...

Just sayin'...

 

[Cape Brewing]

I got it cranked down as far as it'll go. It goes down to -8.

Argon you say, huh?

 

[D0ug]

Well, it's inert and cold (-185 C), we could probably get the excess water frozen out pretty quickly.

We use it for a plasma torch in one of the instruments at work.

Although though if you're freezing a lot of water out over the course of a day or so, maybe the next round just needs to sit longer.

Can't wait to see what happens! (and let me know if you want to give some cryogens a try )

 

[JollyIsTheRoger]

Well, it's inert and cold (-185 C)

Haha, that would freeze everything though, including alcohol, malt compounds, hop acids, hell, etc.

 

[DannyD]

sceech!!! It has been a hell of a lot of work thus far. would you do it again? have you tasted some yet?

 

[Cape Brewing]

I am not sure I would do it again. As I have said throughout this thread, the biggest reason to doing it was simply as a learning experience. When it is all said and done, if what is left over is really tasty, then sure... why not.

I have tried it... it is actually a hair thicker than say a "normal beer" but I don't think it is at a point where that is a problem yet. It isn't as hot as I would have expected. You get some heat but it isn't rocket fuel by any stretch. I am guessing I am somewhere right in the 30% ABV range right now after the first freezings.

It is actually a bit sweet which is really surprising me. I get a fair amount of malt and even some soy sauce flavor.

We'll see what it is like once I am completely done freezing and if I think the "beer" can be improved by stuff like oak chips, etc., then I may nudge it here or there.

 

[bluemoose]

Mmmmmm tastes like beano.

 

[Cape Brewing]

I am a little more than half way through the first freeze and I might just say "eff it" and go ahead with the second freeze on what I've produced so far. I am not sure how much more I will be able to pull out so why bother doing the whole thing? I have a couple gallons concentrated so I am going to go with the second freezing on some of that tonight.

By tomorrow night, I should know whether I will be able to break through 40%

 

[dawgman]

And it sucked me in again.

 

[Apendecto]

God I love this thread.

 

[edecambra]

Soooooo.... It is now tomorrow night, 40 percent?

 

[Cape Brewing]

I dunno. I didn't get it in the freezer until this morning.

So I should know tomorrow morning

 

[DGibb]

I dunno. I didn't get it in the freezer until this morning.

So I should know tomorrow morning

You're just doing this to tease us, aren't you?

 

[Cape Brewing]

Nah... Just ran out of clock a few times and just got it in the freezer this morning. We'll how it goes tomorrow morning. I going to give it a full 24 hours at -8F and see what I get.