Increasing abv without drying out

I was thinking about ways to increase abv of cider without adding sugars so it doesnt dry out.The thought that came to me was to put it in the freezer for a little bit then remoe whatever ice has formed.Idk how well this would work and was wondering if any1 has done this or has any knowledge of what would happen.
Any info or opinion would be appreciated.Thanks in advance. :?:

That would certainly work. That process is called freeze distillation and is actually illegal… so don’t tell anyone!

Do it enough to boost the ABV up to 30% or so and you’ve got applejack. . . a Great American Illegal Tradition. Delicious, too.

Freeze distillation is not illegal. There are several threads on this on homebrewtalk, one where somebody actually called ATF and confirmed that it is in fact legal to do at the homebrew level.

The easiest way to do it IMO is to fill a 2 liter with your beverage of choice, and put it in the freezer for a few hours until it is too slushy to pour out. Invert the bottle over a jar. The alcohol will drain off first since it has a lower freezing point. It takes about 2 hours of draining, any longer than this you’re getting more concentration of water into the jar. I’ve done it with beer too, which greatly intensifies the hop bitterness. Enjoy!

[quote=“CliffordBrewing”]Freeze distillation is not illegal. There are several threads on this on homebrewtalk, one where somebody actually called ATF and confirmed that it is in fact legal to do at the homebrew level.

The easiest way to do it IMO is to fill a 2 liter with your beverage of choice, and put it in the freezer for a few hours until it is too slushy to pour out. Invert the bottle over a jar. The alcohol will drain off first since it has a lower freezing point. It takes about 2 hours of draining, any longer than this you’re getting more concentration of water into the jar. I’ve done it with beer too, which greatly intensifies the hop bitterness. Enjoy![/quote]

Will yeast survive this process and be able to bottle carb?If so this could get very interesting. :smiley:

[quote=“rand3rd”][quote=“CliffordBrewing”]Freeze distillation is not illegal. There are several threads on this on homebrewtalk, one where somebody actually called ATF and confirmed that it is in fact legal to do at the homebrew level.

The easiest way to do it IMO is to fill a 2 liter with your beverage of choice, and put it in the freezer for a few hours until it is too slushy to pour out. Invert the bottle over a jar. The alcohol will drain off first since it has a lower freezing point. It takes about 2 hours of draining, any longer than this you’re getting more concentration of water into the jar. I’ve done it with beer too, which greatly intensifies the hop bitterness. Enjoy![/quote]

Will yeast survive this process and be able to bottle carb?If so this could get very interesting. :smiley: [/quote]

I doubt it. Although I’ve only done it for un-carbonated beverages. The idea is that as soon as the freeze distillation process is over, it’s ready to drink. It produces an apple wine (applejack) hard cider, or an “ice beer” which tastes sort of like a hoppy brandy. It wouldn’t hurt to try bottle carbing though. When you’ve finished distillation, pour it into a sanitized 2 liter or plastic bottle. You should know by feel within a few days if it’s starting to carb. If it doesn’t start to carb you could add a little bit of yeast and seal it back up.

Even some of the hardier Belgian strains reportedly don’t tolerate alcohol concentrations much past 10%. Could perhaps bottle with distiller’s yeast, though.

[quote=“CliffordBrewing”]Freeze distillation is not illegal. There are several threads on this on homebrewtalk, one where somebody actually called ATF and confirmed that it is in fact legal to do at the homebrew level.

[/quote]

Call the AFT 6 times (different agents) and see how many answers you get. :wink:

Seriously, do you thing thee Feds are going to worry about some little 5 gallon batch?

[quote=“Nighthawk”][quote=“CliffordBrewing”]Freeze distillation is not illegal. There are several threads on this on homebrewtalk, one where somebody actually called ATF and confirmed that it is in fact legal to do at the homebrew level.

[/quote]

Call the AFT 6 times (different agents) and see how many answers you get. :wink:

Seriously, do you thing thee Feds are going to worry about some little 5 gallon batch?[/quote]

Haha, true. Apparently plenty of people homebrew beer in those states that don’t allow it, with the hope/understanding that it’s not worth the feds time to go after them.

It’s only because they are understaffed. If they hired all the people overlooked by the “recovery” they’d have the manpower to go door to door hunting down the 5 gallon scoflaws. :slight_smile:

It’s only because they are understaffed. If they hired all the people overlooked by the “recovery” they’d have the manpower to go door to door hunting down the 5 gallon scoflaws. :slight_smile: [/quote]

They better look out for the mash paddle we keep behind the door for home invaders. :wink:

Back to the OP, you can add frozen concentrate to up the OG. From another thread, that will provide 16points/gallon.

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I am just getting started making hard cider. I have never made any, and have done a decent amount of research on it. But I was wondering if there was a max alcohol % attainable in cider, because most of the reading I have gone through has said most ciders achieve aroudn 4-7% ABV, and I was hoping to get somewhere between 15-25% ABV. Is this possible, and if so how? Plan on using the white laps WLP775 cider yeast and starting with a 5 gallon batch. Can I just add a lot of apple concentrate and sugar or not?

Your looking to make an apple wine instead of a cider. Look up cyser recipes, should get you closer to the area that you are looking for.

Alright, if i stick to the cider, what is the ABV i should be looking for? 15-20% would be great, but I recognize reality, and cider seems like something simple to start homebrewing with.

Random question also: do I need yeast energizer and/or yeast nutrient?

“Delicious” is not how I’d describe my experiment with freeze concentrating hard cider. The tradition is you put the cider outside in a barrel, and as the ice forms over the top you break it and remove it from the barrel. Only the water gets removed that way, leaving all the alcohol, flavor components and everything else behind. It is the “everything else” part of that you need to worry about. I ended up dumping the gallon I made.

I recently read about how some people are experimenting with ice cider now, and getting results much like ice wines. The difference is that you freeze concentrate before fermenting.