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Ice Ice Maggie

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  • Ice Ice Maggie

    Here is sit in my brewery wearing gloves and a jacket. It is soooo cold here, it hasn’t been above 10 degrees F in over a week, and last night it dropped to -20 degrees F. What can you do is such cold weather? Make ICE BEER!

    A couple days ago I kegged our Maggie Imperial IPA and set it out on the loading dock to ice up. This morning I am transferring the iced beer into fresh kegs and it is soooo good! So now I can walk outside and when Mother Nature slap me in the face with her cold hand I will smile back knowing that she helped me make an Ice Beer.

    The Captain
    Grumpy Troll Restaurant & Brewery
    In frigid Mount Horeb, Wisconsin
    The Troll Capital of the World!
    Mark Duchow
    Brew Master
    Short Fuse Brewing Co.
    Chicagoland
    "The best beer is FREE beer"

  • #2
    I feel your pain

    At least my brewery was 50+- this morning when I mashed in. The temp outside was 15.

    I maybe wrong but isn't ice distillation illegal?







    hehehehe


    I'll bet it's awesome!
    Cheers & I'm out!
    David R. Pierce
    NABC & Bank Street Brewhouse
    POB 343
    New Albany, IN 47151

    Comment


    • #3
      Hmmmmm?

      Is it? I had no idea, but it does sound possible. I will have to check it out.
      Mark Duchow
      Brew Master
      Short Fuse Brewing Co.
      Chicagoland
      "The best beer is FREE beer"

      Comment


      • #4
        I believe distillation is distillation in this country. If you are the paranoid type, you may want to delete this thread. Let us know how the beer turns out.
        Cheers & I'm out!
        David R. Pierce
        NABC & Bank Street Brewhouse
        POB 343
        New Albany, IN 47151

        Comment


        • #5
          I looked into making an Eisbock a couple of years ago, and you can do it with a brewery license as long as the overall change in alcohol content falls within the correct parameters. Don't quote me on this, but I believe you can only change the alcohol content by 0.5% before the process is considered "distillation" and you need a different kind of license.
          Hutch Kugeman
          Head Brewer
          Brooklyn Brewery at the Culinary Institute of America
          Hyde Park, NY

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          • #6
            Be Careful cleaning that thing out. Had a maibock that froze, thanks to a stuck solenoid valve. When we opened up the tank to see where the rest of our beer went, filtered 4.5 of 10bbls, we saw the ice ring hanging around the top of the FV. We decided to fill the tank up with city water and slowly warm to melt so it wouldn't fall, but before we could, the ice fell and did about $500.00 damage to the tank.
            Last edited by Jephro; 01-21-2008, 12:18 PM.
            Jeff Byrne

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Jephro
              Be Careful cleaning that thing out. Had a maibock that froze, thanks to a stuck solenoid valve. When we opened up the tank to see where the rest of our beer went, filtered 4.5 of 10bbls, we saw the ice ring hanging around the top of the FV. We decided to fill the tank up with city water and slowly warm to melt so it wouldn't fall, but before we could the ice fell and did about $500.00 worth of damage to the tank.
              He iced them in the keg and transferred after icing.

              I've had the same experience you described but luckily with no damage.
              Cheers & I'm out!
              David R. Pierce
              NABC & Bank Street Brewhouse
              POB 343
              New Albany, IN 47151

              Comment


              • #8
                oops, maybe i should have actually read the whole post eh??
                Jeff Byrne

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                • #9
                  TTB Ruling on Ice Beer You have to scroll down quite a way to get to the ice distillation section.
                  Cheers & I'm out!
                  David R. Pierce
                  NABC & Bank Street Brewhouse
                  POB 343
                  New Albany, IN 47151

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Btw, don't ever stick your head in a FV that you think you have frozen. I know someone who almost lost their head that way. If you have ever seen ice fall in a tank you know how scary (and potentially damaging) it can be.

                    On the topic of removing water from beer from freezing, it is illegal if you do not reconstitute it to with-in a few tenths of a percent (under .5%) to its origional alcohol content. Anyone who does this may think they are doing something rare, but its only rare because it is illegal. I know it tastes good but I think we do not need to draw any negative attention to our industry as there are more than enough people who are already gunning for us.

                    - The Gooch

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by beertje46
                      TTB Ruling on Ice Beer You have to scroll down quite a way to get to the ice distillation section.
                      So, if I'm reading this correctly, you can produce ice beer as long as you remove less than 0.5% of the original volume. Does anyone have any idea how much volume is removed in the production of traditional German Eisbock?


                      Here's the pertinent section from the TTB ruling:

                      ATF has also examined statements of process for ice beers. Our examination has found that the volume removed as ice crystals does not exceed 0.5 percent of the volume of the beer entered into the process. ATF thus concludes that removal of up to 0.5 percent of the volume of beer through the removal of ice crystals is customary industry practice and results in a product which may be considered beer.

                      Held. The meaning of the term "concentrate" defined in 25.11 does not include beer which has been reduced in volume through the extraction of ice crystals from the beer if: (1) the volume removed is a de minimis amount (not more than 0.5 percent of the volume of beer used in producing such product); and (2) the resultant product resembles beer. Under these conditions, the beer is not subject to the restrictions of Subpart R or to labeling requirements relating to concentrate. Such beer may be imported or removed taxpaid or tax determined and sold to consumers as beer.

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                      • #12
                        All I can figure out of that is, this must have been written right after all the AB and Miller Ice beers came out for .5% to be determined an industry standard. When I have experimented at home I probably removed around 30%.
                        Joel Halbleib
                        Partner / Zymurgist
                        Hive and Barrel Meadery
                        6302 Old La Grange Rd
                        Crestwood, KY
                        www.hiveandbarrel.com

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                        • #13
                          maggie

                          Iced Beer is freeze distilling and illegal. ATF Ruling 94-3 states that it is allowed with only 0.5% water removal from the beer is allowed. Because of this I have reclaimed the water and put it back into the beer. It is now known as "Ice Cured" Maggie Imperial IPA.

                          Thank you for your comments on this matter.
                          Mark Duchow
                          Brew Master
                          Short Fuse Brewing Co.
                          Chicagoland
                          "The best beer is FREE beer"

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            I was wondering when you were going to make that last post - good decision!

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                            • #15
                              Ice headache

                              I have read and confirmed (on small scale non-commerecial of course) that freeze distillation concentrates the fusels and other hangover prone components along with the concentration of ethanol. These are normally removed as the heads or foreshots in other methods. So beware of the increased risk of freeze brain.

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