Fractional freezing

[Edcculus]

I looked into this when looking to do a high abv winter warmer cider. This wikipedia article on fractional freezing gives a lot of great info.

It seems that the line of "illegality" is drawn when fractional freezing attempts to create a beverage in the "liquer" range of ABV such as applejack. The reason presumably is that in creating a 40% beverage by fractional freezing, fusel alcohols are concentrated. For homebrewers only using this method to bump their ABV to 15-25%, there are no real concerns.


I'm still a little foggy on the science. It seems that some alcohol does get frozen, or rather suspended in the frozen water. That makes sense. If you freeze a beer, its not like the water freezes and the alcohol separates from the solid. Its probably not significant since homebrewers usually freeze one time.

 

[RogerMcAllen]

I'm still a little foggy on the science. It seems that some alcohol does get frozen, or rather suspended in the frozen water. That makes sense. If you freeze a beer, its not like the water freezes and the alcohol separates from the solid. Its probably not significant since homebrewers usually freeze one time.

This is where stirring will help. Small crystals will be pure (or pretty close to pure) water crystals. Larger crystals will have voids and defects with EtOH inclusions.

 

[Brewster2256]

Found this youtube video showing a rather easy way to separate out the ice.

 

[remilard]

Maybe add a packet of that turbo yeast stuff at bottling time???? They must do it somehow.

German beers are not bottle conditioned, they are krausened. Eis beers from, say, Brew Dog are probably force carbonated. So while you could bottle condition one, I doubt it is ever done commercially.

As for the OP, Utopias is not concentrated by freezing or in any other way.

 

[Qhrumphf]

In discussing the super-beers made by BrewDog with a friend, I stumbled upon this:

http://www.ttb.gov/rulings/94-3.htm

Now I don't know if this is outdated or not, and I'm not sure if "0.5 percent" refers to 0.5% (ridiculously miniscule) or 50% (half). Either way, demonstrably legal to do this up to one of the two amounts. The former is pretty much useless, the latter I'd think a full fledged Eisbock is perfectly legal.

 

[rexbanner]

I'm drinking an "ice" irish red ale right now. It's a keg that I accidently froze when my keezer temp prob slipped out.

I let it thaw, but the beer permanently separated. The same thing happened to my dubbel. No amount of shaking will mix this beer back together. The first several glasses from the dubbel were basically imperial dubbel. It's the same with this red. It does not taste as good as it originally did, but this style isn't the best to ice. It's not bad, however. Really mother ****ing strong. I think bock is most suited for this process though.

If I were to make an ice beer, which I am probably going to do some time soon, I would freeze an eisbock in a 6 gallon better bottle with my metal siphon jammed down there. As it froze, I would look to see about how much had turned to ice. Once I had achieved the desired amount, I would pour some boiling water down my siphon to unfreeze the beer inside, and then start racking the beer out. It's not something that I know how to do precisely and accurately, but who really cares, you're making eisbock, the manliest of all beers!

 

[Zamial]

Umm is legal. Try looking up "freeze concentration". This topic gets brought up often. This is almost a Zombie rez...

 

[TycoRossBrewing]

Its totally legal for several reasons. First off, it is not distilling, its a form of concentration but not technically distilling. The reason distilling is so illegal is because people blow themselves up doing it and can start serious fires. Most people who are against legalizing distilling often say it can make people blind but this is an old myth that originated when people would mix methylated spirits with their whiskey and make people blind, you dont really see that now adays. The amount of methanol in even poorly made whiskey is low, and it will just give you a bad hangovet. Also, Applejacking is not very efficient so you can not really make too much profit off of it eithe; the government isnt too worried about it.

 

[Mutant]

So this says you can reduce it legally by 0.5%:
https://www.ttb.gov/rulings/94-3.htm

Anybody have other references?

 

[Qhrumphf]

So this says you can reduce it legally by 0.5%:
https://www.ttb.gov/rulings/94-3.htm

Anybody have other references?

There was a Basic Brewing episode where they asked TTB directly about it. That is a tax regulation applicable to commercial brewers. It is 100% legal for homebrewers to do as long as it's not sold and subject to the commercial regulations.

It remains illegal for a brewery license to do it above the level in your link. I imagine a spirits license would be a different story.