# distilling homebrew beer

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-homebrew-beer/491461>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 31, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-homebrew-beer/491461 "2009-03-31T16:59:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Great\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-homebrew-beer/491461/1 "2009-03-31T16:59:22Z")

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I seem to recall that the fermented mash is distilled pretty young in every liquor I’ve read about. What happens if you distill aged beer? For instance, some over-spiced porter that has been sitting in a carboy for 4-6 months.

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**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-homebrew-beer/491461/2 "2009-03-31T18:31:07Z")

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I presume you mean other than “you break the law.”

I would guess that the end result isn’t that tasty–humans have been brewing beer and distilling spiritous liquors for a long time now, and probably most simple things have been tried. (If it could’ve been done several hundred years ago with early distilling equipment, it probably has been.) I seem to recall that hops in pariticular are volatile, and might not survive the process.

I admit to some curiosity, though–having heard of Sam Adams’s outrageously high-alcohol beer, it’d be interesting to see a distilled pale ale or the like, even if it were awful.

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**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-homebrew-beer/491461/3 "2009-03-31T19:52:15Z")

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> [@Great\_Dave](#):
>
> I seem to recall that the fermented mash is distilled pretty young in every liquor I’ve read about. What happens if you distill aged beer? For instance, some over-spiced porter that has been sitting in a carboy for 4-6 months.

Assuming you live someplace where this is legal (New Zealand?), you would probably get some of the essential oil of the spices into the resulting alcohol. I know making spiced alcohols in this fashion was common in Europe’s late renaissance and early modern period, but I haven’t been able to experiment on it myself (distilling without a license is illegal in the USA). If the porter is tasty, you might get a drinkable distillate out of it.

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**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distilling-homebrew-beer/491461/4 "2009-03-31T19:56:30Z")

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> [@LawMonkey](#):
>
> I seem to recall that hops in pariticular are volatile, and might not survive the process.

You recall correctly. When you boil off a beer to make a low-alcohol beer you have to re-hop it. The hops oils evaporate off pretty easily (one of the many reasons to keep your beer cool).