Don't laugh, this may be the worst idea of the year but I'll ask anyway:
I've made eisbier before by freezing my beer and only keeping the alcoholic parts that don't freeze. This makes for a very strong beer (12% or so) that doesn't taste much different than the non-ice version. You've probably seen large beer company quasi-versions as well.
Have you ever heard of or tried making ice wine with the same method? I guess I could test it out on a single glass but I'm just wondering what alcohol percentages and taste can be expected from such a process with wine.
If I understand your question, certainly people do it. It is called freeze distilation. A good process if you live outside the USA, In the US it is absolutely illegal for wine or beer.
Mark, it would probably not taste remotely close to Ice Wine. It would lack the sweetness of Ice Wine and even if you back sweetened it would likely not taste the same. Alot of the bouquet and fruity notes associated with Ice Wine (apricot, tropical, honey etc) result from fermenting the high BRIX must. My guess is that your proposed process, legalities aside, would likely produce something closer to White Port. That said, people do produce "cryo-extracted" or "Ice Box" Ice Wines (from the juice, grape or apple etc.), although, I am of the opinion there is no substitute for the real thing. Ron
Apple jack is the product of frozen cider with the ice crystals removed.
You wont make icewine from that method, all you get is fortified wine. To make "ice wine" you have to freeze the juice prior to fermenting to reduce the water to a juice concentrate.
I'd hazard a guess that high teens is about as far as you go as the increased alcohol level will act as antifreeze and then if you cold enough the alcohol is start to crystalize as well.
I tried it once, but my filtration procedure was too clumsy to make anything very nice.
The alcohol will NOT start to crystallize- the freezing point of ethanol (-114.1 oC) is well below any temperature you're going to encounter.
Any time you cool a mixture of two compounds, the higher-melting one will start to crystallize (and precipitate out), rather than having the entire solution freeze. The remaining liquid will then be richer in low-melting component, and it will take a lower temperature to cause more of the first component to precipitate.
So, to do this properly, you would have to chill the wine to the point where it -just- starts to freeze. If you cool it too much, then you have a bottle of slush, which is impossible to filter properly (in
-this- respect, I'm speaking from experience). If you have a manageble quanitity of ice forming, you can filter off the wine, which will have a higher percentage of alcohol than it started with. To get ice to precipitate from this wine, you cool it a few more degrees. This gives you a liquor with a higher percent alcohol again. Repeat as required.
I don't have a phase diagram for the ethanol-water system, but I do know that at -40oC, the remaining liquid will be 40% ethanol. As to its potability, I'm not going to hazard a guess.
Cheers,
---The Mad Alchemist---
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