World's Strongest Beer?

[dhempy]

65% ABV Interesting ... at least the first part after the ad.

Dan

[nevery]

DUDE! I was thinking about doing this very thing! I met a guy that distills alcohol and he told me about a process called "jacking" whereas hard distilled alcohol is chilled to 20 or so degrees below the freezing temperature of water and then held there for some time. After that the alcohol is poured off creating extremely high alcohol content. This, he claimed, is how Everclear is made.

What I was trying to figure out is if the malts would freeze with the water and you would be left with only the ethanol, but apparently it can be done!

Thanks for sharing!

EDIT: changed "2 degrees above" to "20 degrees below" one was a typo, the other was a logic mistake.

[kevinham]

Taking Eisbock to the extreme. This has been a competition over the last couple years, with a new "world's strongest beer" coming out every couple months it seems. IMO this sounds disgusting.

I know Brewdog used a nearby ice cream factory for both of their record breaking alcohol beers (only 32% and 41% ABV, how pathetic) that were released a couple years ago. You have to freeze it to much lower than the freezing temp of water, as the alcohol and water are actually dissolved into each other. You must freeze distill several times (Brewdog says they did it 4 times, taking 7 days to freeze to around -180F each time), and freeze it to a lower and lower temp each time. The alcohol and water dissolve easily together, so you are actually just freezing off a less "pure" alcohol/water solution until you get to the higher strength.

I don't know how these guys did it, but to get to that ABV must have taken some serious time and money.

[BrewMasterBrad]

At what point does it cease to be beer? Jack Daniels calls their undistilled liquid "beer" as well, but not after it is concentrated via distillation.

[nevery]

I edited my post cause I didn't type the "0" in 20.

I was just going off what the guy told me and never really researched it beyond the thought. I appreciate your post. That's interesting. -173°F is the freezing point of alcohol, water is -32° so there's plenty of leeway there. Seems to me that -170° would be the best temp. Also the guy never told us how long you had to keep the hard alcohol at that degree. I would think that the malt molecules would freeze closer to water than alcohol. Seems to me that pure ethanol would come out and all the mass would be left behind. Not only that, the ethanol left in suspension of the frozen mass, which is probably why Brewdog had to do it several times.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing Kev.

Brad: Probably at the point of distillation? Afterall, wort is wort up until the moment the yeast is pitched, which trips me out, lol.

[kevinham]

At what point does it cease to be beer? Jack Daniels calls their undistilled liquid "beer" as well, but not after it is concentrated via distillation.

It isn't technically distilling, it is just concentrating. In true distillation you remove the methanol from everything else (including other alcohols). This is just removing some of the water essentially, and concentrating everything else.

I still think it's cheating though!

[kevinham]

I edited my post cause I didn't type the "0" in 20.

I was just going off what the guy told me and never really researched it beyond the thought. I appreciate your post. That's interesting. -173°F is the freezing point of alcohol, water is -32° so there's plenty of leeway there. Seems to me that -170° would be the best temp. Also the guy never told us how long you had to keep the hard alcohol at that degree. I would think that the malt molecules would freeze closer to water than alcohol. Seems to me that pure ethanol would come out and all the mass would be left behind. Not only that, the ethanol left in suspension of the frozen mass, which is probably why Brewdog had to do it several times.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing Kev.

Brad: Probably at the point of distillation? Afterall, wort is wort up until the moment the yeast is pitched, which trips me out, lol.

Looks like the number I saw at first regarding the Brewdog freezer temp was a typo. After watching this video from them, it was actually -20C (not -120C like the other article I read said), which is -4F. Still very cold. Also, that was only for a 32% ABV beer. So imagine what a 65% ABV beer would take.

[lexuschris]

I still think it's cheating though!

+1


--LexusChris

[jward]

When I looked into distilling it seemed like is still technically illegal to increase alcohol content this way, not that anyone will ever go after you for doing it.

[nevery]

It's federally illegal, but the states enforce local law. You need an alcohol license federally, but it depends on the state/county/city to decide or enforce whether or not you are distilling it.

The problem lies in that the Feds have to have a reason to be in your house in order to press charges, unless you are selling it. Then they have a reason because you are breaking federal law. So it's federally illegal to distil for sale without a distillation license which costs like $500 minimum a year. But unless you are selling it, there's no legal way they can prove you are distilling without a search warrant. And that would lie in the jurisdiction of the state/county/city and be their responsibility.

Interestingly enough though, it's perfectly legal to distill corn "fuel" and store it in jars in your fridge or liquer cabinet. Lol.

On a side note: I knew "someone" that worked for a medical marijuana dispensary. At the time, they were being raided left and right by the Feds, not because they were selling weed, but actually edibles, hash, tinctures, ect., which are all federally illegal because they are not covered by local statutes. The Feds in most cases needed that federal law broken to step over the boundaries of the state, which was restricted by the vague laws in prop 215 and sb420. If this "person's" boss wouldn't have had over 100 plants, AND took them out to the back yard for the ghetto birdies to look at, they would have never gotten raided and his boss wouldn't have gone to prison. True story.

By the way, this person warned his boss of all the things that sunk him, but his boss was an idiot coke head. In fact the edibles and hash were no longer sold because this guy warned his boss, so without the plants they had nothing.

(EDIT: BTW, it is a FACT that some federal investigators and prosecutors purposefully and egregiously lie and/or embellish evidence. A FACT, no matter what anyone says or believes, unfortunately.)

[jward]

Interestingly enough though, it's perfectly legal to distill corn "fuel" and store it in jars in your fridge or liquer cabinet. Lol.

I have seen some TV shows on alternate fuel vehicles where you could get a fuel distilation license. I think one may even use ethoanol in the process of making fryer oil waste into bio diesel. Almost fun enough to look into.

(EDIT: BTW, it is a FACT that some federal investigators and prosecutors purposefully and egregiously lie and/or embellish evidence. A FACT, no matter what anyone says or believes, unfortunately.)

I think the police call this "testilying".

[bwarbiany]

On a side note: I knew "someone" that worked for a medical marijuana dispensary. At the time, they were being raided left and right by the Feds, not because they were selling weed, but actually edibles, hash, tinctures, ect., which are all federally illegal because they are not covered by local statutes. The Feds in most cases needed that federal law broken to step over the boundaries of the state, which was restricted by the vague laws in prop 215 and sb420. If this "person's" boss wouldn't have had over 100 plants, AND took them out to the back yard for the ghetto birdies to look at, they would have never gotten raided and his boss wouldn't have gone to prison. True story.

The next couple of years in Colorado and Washington are going to be ***VERY*** interesting...

[nevery]

I know, dude! What's ur take on that? As much as I support legal pot, I think that having the legal right to use it for recreation might cause some problems with kids under 18 and conservative republicans? Has anyone checked to see if they survived their heart attacks?

[jward]

I know, dude! What's ur take on that? As much as I support legal pot, I think that having the legal right to use it for recreation might cause some problems with kids under 18 and conservative republicans? Has anyone checked to see if they survived their heart attacks?

Many of us conservative republians don't give a shit about pot heads. I think its boring and don't care if it's legalized.

[dhempy]

I know, dude! What's ur take on that? As much as I support legal pot, I think that having the legal right to use it for recreation might cause some problems with kids under 18 and conservative republicans? Has anyone checked to see if they survived their heart attacks?

Many of us conservative republians don't give a shit about pot heads. I think its boring and don't care if it's legalized.

Uh .. I hate to be a killjoy but let's not be divisive here ... before we get another flame war going on can we agree to disagree and getback to beer etc?

Dan