I have come in to a particular case of beer. It’s from a well known American craft brewery. I acquired it legally and all taxes have been paid WRT its alcohol content.
The particular beer in question is a “we’re doing wacky things to gain insight on the brewing process and introduce beer geeks to new and exciting varieties” limited edition type beer. To my fairly sophisticated beer drinking palate, it is undrinkable. ABV is very very obviously over 10%, mouthfeel is maple syrup, and it tastes overwhelmingly of over ripe bananas. I thought the first bottle was a fluke so I chilled the second to below 30°f and it was equally bad. Having dumped the first two, I have ten bombers left.
I was thinking “man, ten bombers at ten percent means I still have (more or less) a fifth of everclear. If only there were a process to extr- oh yeah! There is!”
I have absolutely no intention of actually distilling my leftover beer into spirits, but can it be done?
Is it something people do?
Does beer differ significantly from mash?
If I channeled my West Virginia ancestors and threw together a still would the finished product blind me?
If I distill a finished retail product that has been taxed, would the revenuers lock me up in federal prison?
I had a still in grad school we distilled cheap wine not beer. We made some terrible brandy at a cost that was probably above the medium priced booze in the super market . We only used it a few times because the results were not that good. We had much better success just brewing beer. We consistently made beer that tasted good.
It is pretty easy to run a still without making something that will kill you. There are lots of good resources that teach you how to make and operate a still safely.
This is called ice jacking and it can be done at home using common household items plus one or two things that can be bought at a science surplus store for about $20.
I know I don’t have to tell you, but it does not create alcohol, it just removes water from an already fermented product, which intensifies the ethanol content per ounce.
Whether it would be worth the time is subjective. One might be able to jack a 12% malt liquor up to 20% or a bit more. But man, that would taste like crap. And seeing how cheap cheap booze is in the USA anyway, why bother?
As to the legality of ice jacking, my response is, I dunno. Might be legal under state laws. Federal laws depends. Years back when I was being trained as an alcohol compliance investigator I recall being told how the feds got pissy over commercial ice beers actually being “beer concentrates” which are currently illegal. The brewers won that one I guess.
Well, and when you freeze distill the beer, you tend to concentrate the taste. I learned this the hard way, by freeze distilling a 12 pack of Bud Light that someone left at my house - BLECH! I couldn’t finish the results.
Roughly: Pour beer into a vessel you can put your hand down into, place into the freezer. When you have a layer of ice on top of liquid, remove and discard the ice. Pour more beer into the vessel, and place it in the freezer again. Repeat until out of beer, or you’ve decided you really want to hate the rest of your day. I don’t recommend it.
A better treatise is here, which includes this warning:
Which probably explains the headache I got from drinking a half glass of that awful stuff.
That is the quick and dirty method. It still leaves a lot of alcohol in your water discard. There is a method the leaves more alcohol in the final product and only requires about a $20 or so investment in some equipment at a science surplus store.
But I don’t recommend it!!! If you thought what you ended up with sucks ass, wait until you taste an even purer form. It really sucks.
And it isn’t just because of the strong alcohol content. In reality pure made ice jacked beer is only about 50% of whiskey. But the other ingredients in it flare the flavor to beyond disgusting!
When you consider alcohol content divided by time over price consideration overall it just isn’t worth it! Blech!
Illegal if you intend it for human consumption. Most places, it’s legal to distill alcohol as a fuel, or just for entertainment.
But outside of New Zealand, it’s already illegal if you have intent, before a drop ever leaves the condensor.
(Permits are theoretically possible in the USA, but not practical for most people)
Also, beer would make some funny-tasting liquor, you’ve probably want to let it rest over activated carbon for a while.
The thing with beer is, the alcohol is derived from malt, not fruit or grain. And there is only so far you can go with fermenting malt. Even the Willy Wonka of brewing Jim Koch can only [so far] get about 22% (give or take) out of barley. When you start reducing the water content out of that you’re left with residuals that are flavored by something reminiscent of Vegemite! Jeezus Khripes!
Only insofar that beer has been hopped. Otherwise, mash=beer.
Not unless you badly fuck up the cuts. (Damn near impossible, actually.)
Possible, but very unlikely. You’re producing a highly regulated product without a license, the revenuers are much more concerned with those who sell a product not taxed appropriately.
Malt is grain. Raw grains are complex carbohydrates. Yeast can’t feed on complex carbohydrates, only simple sugars. Grains that have had their carbohydrates broken down to simple sugars are ‘malts’.
I’ve had Utopias, too. It reminded me a shot of port/sherry and whiskey, with a bit of a heavier body. Important thing to note, though, is that Utopias is not distilled. It’s just brewed/fermented.
Basically, ANY distillation of ethyl alcohol for any purpose potentially runs afoul of federal laws, and you’re better off consulting with them if you wish to legally operate any sort of still for alcohol production.
Turbo yeast, aka distiller’s yeast, is probably what Sam Adams used. Still, getting to 27% is impressive.
For many years Sam Adams and Dogfish Head seemed to be competing for the strongest ABV beer. It resulted in some truly horrible beers, like the 22% World Wide Stout and, IMO, Utopias.
