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Distilling beer worth it?
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 4:29 pm
by Nightforce
Hello to all,
I have an opportunity to obtain 2 cases of at to out of date beer for $10. I'm wondering if it would be worth it to distill. It's Busch beer, which I don't drink so would be of no use to me as is. I have a quarter keg as a boiler and my gut feeling is that I'd have to run only a case at a time (also can recover the aluminum cans for $ to offset, gotta save the planet right

) because of the added room needed because of foaming. From a 4-5% wash not sure it would be worth it.
Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Re: Distilling beer worth it?
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 4:31 pm
by olddog
Either drink it or give it to your guests, don't distill it, you will regret it if you do.

Re: Distilling beer worth it?
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 4:35 pm
by kiwistiller
I have stripped, carbon filtered, stripped again and then spirit run some free beer before. couldn't taste the hops in it after all that processing, but it was a lot of work. free is free though.
Re: Distilling beer worth it?
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 4:37 pm
by big worm
i think i would drink the beer

it would be practice, but not sure what it would taste like because of the hopps.
if you do let us know
Re: Distilling beer worth it?
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 4:48 pm
by kiwistiller
without carbon filtering the hops taste is awful, and persistent. If I didn't have a carbon filter lying around from my earlier days I'd wouldn't have bothered.
Re: Distilling beer worth it?
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 4:55 pm
by blanikdog
I'd drink the beer. I ignore most of this 'out of date' crap. Just another way for manufacturers to make more money, IMHO. We aren't stoopid! We can taste if something is crook or not.
blanik
Re: Distilling beer worth it?
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 5:22 pm
by MuleKicker
2 cases of out of date beer? That guy obviously isnt going to drink it if he wants to sell it. I would tell him you'll do him a favor and take it off his hands. but if you have to buy it? im with these guys, it aint worth it.
Re: Distilling beer worth it?
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 5:29 pm
by HookLine
For $10 you can make a bunch of sugar wash that will give you at least as much booze as the beer would, and without the hassle of cleaning out the hops flavour.
Re: Distilling beer worth it?
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 5:35 pm
by xx7777xx
When I first built my still I had some leftover beer in the keg that I decided to use as a test run. Let me tell you, that was not a good idea! It really stinks, and even the spirits coming out at 77C of my VM reflux tasted pretty nasty.
As already stated, spend your $10 on a big bag of sugar.
Re: Distilling beer worth it?
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 8:52 pm
by Nightforce
Thanks everyone for the replies, I'll not attempt it. Being a novice, all that trouble would be better spent on running sugar washes and similar easy stuff before I attempt that feat.
Re: Distilling beer worth it?
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 9:02 pm
by Dnderhead
it will run ok just gunks up the still and hard to git rid of oils from hops? if you do run it degas first.