I’ve been having a go at a bit of perfectly legal freeze distilling over the last week or so, it’s called freeze distilling but it’s actually fractional freezing, no distillation really occurs, hence it being legal (as long as you don’t try and sell it of course!)
The simple idea is you take some of your beer or wine, put it in a plastic bottle and freeze it, then turn it upside down and let the concentrated alcohol leave the residual water in the brew behind. It’s how Brewdog get some of their silly strength brews. I’ve found that if you put 2 pints in you’re probably going to get 1 pint back depending on the initial strength of the brew, so it’s quite wasteful if you’re limited on quantity.
I tried it first with some sweet wine I made a while back which I didn’t really care for, it turned out much more palatable at around 25% ABV as a short. With less water as well it was thick and viscous and pretty nice. I’ve also tried it on my failed Gruit, the substance left over is more akin to Jagermeister or some kind of herbal thing. Again easier to tolerate at a higher volume, probably around 12-14% ABV and drank as shots.
So learning what I did from the poorer brews I took the risk with 2 bottles of my much loved Chocolate Milk Stout and what I was left with was superb, very concentrated and powerfully dry and bitter but it really hits with the warming feeling of a spirit. It’s about as far as I’ll be able to get to spirits and I’m really pleased with the result. Look out @craftaleexchange York Homebrew Club this’ll be the thing to knock you on your arse at the end of the June meeting, lol.
Anyway, it’s dead simple to do, so why not give it a go? It makes bad brews better and great brews awesome!