1 year, 10 months ago
How strong is it theoretically possible to make beer?
I asked this question in another form the other day but no one has answered, perhaps thinking it just a news comment. This is actually a technical question. I don't know enough chemistry to work it out, although my rough calculation is that it would be in the 90%'s range. The highest so far is 60%.
The question involves the freezing points of alcohol and water, the solids in beer and their effect, and practical cooling methods. Everclear is a distilled product reaching about 95% which is the limit of ordinary distilling but is freezing different? Would dry ice get it cold enough to freeze out the last possible water? When you freeze it down so far, do the remaining solids make a difference? In freezing the solids remain, as opposed to distilling which leaves them behind.
The question involves the freezing points of alcohol and water, the solids in beer and their effect, and practical cooling methods. Everclear is a distilled product reaching about 95% which is the limit of ordinary distilling but is freezing different? Would dry ice get it cold enough to freeze out the last possible water? When you freeze it down so far, do the remaining solids make a difference? In freezing the solids remain, as opposed to distilling which leaves them behind.
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M$2 Answers
It depends on a number of things mainly the type of yeast you use and the amount and type of sugars you put in the beer and if you think it still deserves to be called "beer" after it is distilled (either by cold or hot methods).
If you're like me and you believe beer is just the fermented products of grains and malts by yeast in the absence of physical manipulation (i.e. distilling) then so far the record is ~27% by Sam Adam's Utopias. They had to use a few different types of yeast to get it up that far. The problem is that it is really hard to get yeast to ferment beyond specific alcohol percentages. You can technically keep breeding yeast to be resistant to higher and higher percentages, but it is unlikely they will get much stronger than this 27% because it's tough to make organisms resistant to alcohol. This is due to its chemical properties and the fact that components of the yeast will likely break apart if the concentration gets much higher. But, theoretically you can make beer as strong as the yeast will let you.
if you want to my opinion, cheat then you can distill your beer to increase the alcohol content. Most people would agree with me that if you use a hot method of distilling beer your'e just making whiskey or gin or some such liquor instead. By the way, the strongest you can get alcohol this way is 95% because there is always some residual water that evaporates away with the ethanol. Alcohol does come in 200 proof varieties (not sold at the liquor store), but that comes from acetylene.
However, another method of distillation is used and people are still calling the beverages that are produced from it beer. It's called the Eisbock method. Because water and ethanol have different freezing points, they can chill the beer down to a point where the water freezes, but the ethanol does not (at least most of it doesn't). Then they just scrape the frozen water off the top and what you have left is a beverage with a higher alcohol content.
I believe the highest alcohol content anyone has got beer to (and mass marketed it) with this method is 43%
(see attached source). I'm not sure if anyone has actually scientifically determined the highest it can get this way just because I'm sure it depends on the amount of dissolved bits in it, which will be different for every beer.
If you're like me and you believe beer is just the fermented products of grains and malts by yeast in the absence of physical manipulation (i.e. distilling) then so far the record is ~27% by Sam Adam's Utopias. They had to use a few different types of yeast to get it up that far. The problem is that it is really hard to get yeast to ferment beyond specific alcohol percentages. You can technically keep breeding yeast to be resistant to higher and higher percentages, but it is unlikely they will get much stronger than this 27% because it's tough to make organisms resistant to alcohol. This is due to its chemical properties and the fact that components of the yeast will likely break apart if the concentration gets much higher. But, theoretically you can make beer as strong as the yeast will let you.
if you want to my opinion, cheat then you can distill your beer to increase the alcohol content. Most people would agree with me that if you use a hot method of distilling beer your'e just making whiskey or gin or some such liquor instead. By the way, the strongest you can get alcohol this way is 95% because there is always some residual water that evaporates away with the ethanol. Alcohol does come in 200 proof varieties (not sold at the liquor store), but that comes from acetylene.
However, another method of distillation is used and people are still calling the beverages that are produced from it beer. It's called the Eisbock method. Because water and ethanol have different freezing points, they can chill the beer down to a point where the water freezes, but the ethanol does not (at least most of it doesn't). Then they just scrape the frozen water off the top and what you have left is a beverage with a higher alcohol content.
I believe the highest alcohol content anyone has got beer to (and mass marketed it) with this method is 43%
(see attached source). I'm not sure if anyone has actually scientifically determined the highest it can get this way just because I'm sure it depends on the amount of dissolved bits in it, which will be different for every beer.
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M$
Just recently, the strongest beer yet has been upped from 45% to 60%, and is being brewed by a Dutch brewer, 't Koelschip. It's called "Start the Future".
Just don't drink it as a beer, it's more like a strong whiskey...
Just don't drink it as a beer, it's more like a strong whiskey...
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M$
What happened to my other comment? Anyway, that's an excellent gizmag article, only a little out of date. The Belgians mentioned as in the offing turned up with a 60%. It brings up two other questions about practicality: it seems that to get it so strong you need to start out with a lot of beer. Also, the amount of salt starts to get high, as it and all the other solids are concentrated along with the alcohol.
I agree with you that distilled beer is whiskey. I'm asking about the Ice Beer method that these recent super strong beers have used. I don't know about mass market, none of these are really mass market, but the strongest so far is 60%.
As you say, the limit for distilled is around 95% because at the required heat alcohol and water both start boiling off. But what about freezing, I don't know at what percentage if any water and alcohol become a stable mix. Also, just how cold would it be? Pure alcohol freezes a bit below the temperature of dry ice, could dry ice chill the mixture enough for the strongest possible beer? And, how do those solids affect things?
Oh yeah, you're going to have to start with a LOT of beer. You'll also probably have better luck if you limit the number of ingredients. Just give the yeast what it needs to grow and fermentable sugars to turn into ethanol. Any more dissolved bits is going to make the water freeze at a lower temperature. They may try adding some stuff into that is only soluble in ethanol, and not water which would bring down the freezing temperature of ethanol while leaving the water relatively stable thus further separating them out. Although, I still think (because I'm a purist) after doing this, you aren't making beer anymore. Sure, it's more like beer than whiskey is, but this isn't beer.