Beer schnapps

[Dude]

Not sure where to put this thread.....and mods, delete if necessary. I think it should be legal considering it isn't actually distilling anyway....

I read this over on the Pro Brewers forum, and I got to thinking.

http://www.probrewer.com/resources/distilling/schnapps.php

Of course, I'm not going to build a still. I was just wondering if THIS method would get me anywhere close to something drinkable.

The ONLY reason I want to try this is because I was intrigued by the line in the above Pro brewers article that if you aren't happy with a certain beer, you can make beer scnapps from it and kind of hide away the faults of the beer. I mean, WTF, eh?

If this is stupid, just tell me to shut up.

 

[fifelee]

It is actually a beer style called Eisbock or icebock. Here is a recipe and a podcast.

 

[Dude]

Not really because ice beer is only frozen to raise the alc level slightly. I'm talking full out trying to get this to be pretty much as much as alcohol (EDIT to clarify) I can get out of it.

I'm worried about fusel alcohol production though. How much is too much?

 

[fifelee]

Cool, I defer to the more experienced.

 

[the_bird]

This is interesting, from the wiki article...

Ice wine is the result of a similar process, but in this case, the freezing happens before the fermentation, and thus it is sugar, not alcohol, that gets concentrated.

Could you freeze your wort, concentrate the sugars, bring back up to temp and pitch with a high-ABV tolerant yeast strain? You'd have sanitation issues to be sure - but what would be illegal about this? Anything? You aren't "distilling" anything other than malt juice... maybe do a boil, freeze, do this quasi-distillation, then if concerned about sanitation do a quick, 10-minute re-boil and re-chilling before pitching...

 

[david_42]

I've never used freeze-concentration for anything other than cider (and it's been a long time since I lived anywhere that cold). Don't see any reason why it wouldn't work on beer. The product will be very different, since actual distillation trashes the aroma and flavor oils.

 

[ayrton]

Perhaps I am confused or stupid, but once you thaw out the frozen wort, won't the sugar be dissolved to the same levels it was before you froze it?

 

[the_bird]

You wouldn't completely freeze it - you'd partially freeze and remove the frozen part.

 

[ayrton]

You wouldn't completely freeze it - you'd partially freeze and remove the frozen part.

Gotcha, thanks.

 

[CBBaron]

I believe legally distilling using heat or freeze distilling are treated the same, or at the least they are both illegal.
However here is an optional way to get a schnapps strength beer using legal techniques.
BYO 21% All-Grain Beer
Craig

 

[the_bird]

I believe legally distilling using heat or freeze distilling are treated the same, or at the least they are both illegal.

What I'm curious about - is the ice wine technique legal? Freezing, pre-fermentation? Would that work for wort?

 

[Brewpastor]

Ice wine, as described above, is technically legal, as long as the freezing is done prior to fermentation. Freezing after fermentation is not legal. You are allowed to make alcohol, but not concentrate it. Besides, freezing and removing water is not the same as distilling. They both concentrate the liquor, but that is where the similarities end. Distilling also makes it possible to remove the various components from the ferment you do not want, and there are many.

 

[CBBaron]

What I'm curious about - is the ice wine technique legal? Freezing, pre-fermentation? Would that work for wort?

Ice wine is legal because it is not concentrating the alcohol but rather concentrating the sugars. You can do a similar thing with you beer by boiling longer to create a higher gravity wort.
Ice wine is traditionally made by picking the grapes in mid winter after they have been frozen for some time. The Niagara region of Canada is the biggest producer of ice wines due to good growing conditions for grapes combined with cold winters for freezing the ripe grapes. The freezing of the grapes dehydrates the grapes resulting in a higher concentration of sugar. Since wine yeast usually stops fermenting around 12% ice wines have similar alcohol content to regular wines but are much sweeter.
Next time you visit Niagara Falls take a tour of one of the wineries in the area.
Craig

 

[the_bird]

I'm curious about the technique, wondering if it was a way that you could get a really high-gravity wort without having to do a three-hour boil or supplement with DME... but it's more idle curiosity than anything else.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I'm curious about the technique, wondering if it was a way that you could get a really high-gravity wort without having to do a three-hour boil or supplement with DME... but it's more idle curiosity than anything else.

I was thinking the same thing...add more sugar should be the same effect as removing water...owww...use less water...

 

[Brewpastor]

I have always figured that freezing isn't cut and dry. I mean a far amount of wort will be locked up in the ice, won't it?

 

[Vermicous]

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the feds allow a max of 5% of the total volume to be removed by freeze distillation.

As for freezing the beer, I am not quite sure how they do it. I know that if you just normally freeze it, you end up with a slushy. Apple jack suffers a similar problem however and I know that they get around that by slowly freezing it and unfreezing it until chunks form. Traditionally this is done by burying a cask in the ground during November and forgetting about it till February/March, at which point ice chunks will be present.