27 Aug
2003
27 Aug
'03
3 p.m.
Combining Mike Valentiner's and Roger
Deschner's comments about making an "ice beer" are very appropriate. It is
much, much easier and more effective to freeze beer in mid-winter, rather than in a
mechanical freezer. It is always
You can make ice beer in a freezer set right below 32F. I accidentally made an Ice-Saison
once. Make sure the keg is in contact with the wall that has the cooling elements behind
it. The wall will pull the heat out of the keg since they are in physical contact with
each other.
a good idea to push finished beer with CO2 gas and
avoid possible oxidation of your beer.
My own comment to add is this....Microbiologically speaking, there are esentially no
airborne wild yeast cells outdoors in mid-winter....very unlikely to have contamination
issues when transferring a "frozen" beer on a -20F January day.
And, yes, it is technically illegal to make an ice beer, if you look at the letter of the
BATF law. Concentration vs. distillation, obviously they accomplish the same task,
increasing alcohol content of the beverage.
You increase the percentage of alcohol and you increase the concentration of sugar, so the
beverage is sweeter. SG goes up.
There ia an old issue of Zymurgy that delves into
Eisbocks..... getting insanely high ABV's by freezing and concentrating an already
big ol' bock beer. I have this issue at home if anyone is interested..... I just
don't recall the year/month of the publication.
Good article, written by Dennis if I remember correctly.
Chills and cheers,
Steve Weiland
--
--
Michael Valentiner, Minneapolis, Minnesota
mpv(a)yuck.net