As far as I know you cannot legally create any alcohol containing substance
that contains more than 25% alcohol by volume.

Here are some links:

http://www.atf.treas.gov/alcohol/info/faq/subpages/24_75.htm

1. A person may operate a "Brew-on-Premises" (BOP) business without
qualifying as a brewery or paying excise tax on beer produced at the BOP by
adults under the conditions outlined below. No Federal regulations
currently apply to the operation of a BOP business.

2. Adults may produce beer at a BOP for personal or family use. Adults who
use BOP facilities to make beer are governed by existing regulations in 27
CFR §§ 25.205 – 25.206, as follows:

*Adults must be 18 years of age (or other age required for the purchase of
beer in the locality).
*Adults may jointly produce beer at a BOP provided other conditions are
met. Adults may produce beer must for personal or family use only.
*Personal and family beer is not subject to Federal excise tax. A home
brewer may produce, without payment of tax, per household, up to 100
gallons per calendar year if there is one adult residing in the household,
or 200 gallons of beer per year if there are two or more adults residing in
the household.
*Home brewers may remove their beer from the BOP for personal or family
use, including use in organized affairs, exhibitions, or competitions (such
as homemaker's contests or tastings).
*Home brewers may not produce beer for sale or offer their beer for sale.

Nothing in any ATF regulations I have read say that they regulate home
distillation as long as the distillation does not leave the premises and is
not sold and does not exceed the total gallonage. This doesn't mean that
there aren't laws against home distillation however I can't find them. One
interesting thing of note: the ATF does not regulate "experimental" batches
as long as they are not sold and do not exceed some unstated number of gallons.

NOTE: Some states may regulate distilled alcohol differently. *cough*SC*cough*

If someone with some legal background wants to pipe up and correct our
errors we'd be much appreciative.

• –David Chubb

Uh, no. " "Coriander" is derived from the Greek 'koris', "bedbug", because
the ancients were of the opinion that both leaves and seeds smelled like
that insect." (Root, "Food", p. 88) And it just gets worse from there.

Root has lots more on coriander, but very little that's poetic. I've
checked Gerard's herbal, Parkinson & Culpeper, and Freeman's "Herbs for the
Medieval Household". Nothing good.

http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/corian99.html is the page from
Mrs. Grieve's herbal. I couldn't get it to load, perhaps you will have
better luck.

Regards,

Cindy Renfrow
cindy@thousandeggs.com
Author & Publisher of "Take a Thousand Eggs or More, A Collection of 15th
Century Recipes" and "A Sip Through Time, A Collection of Old Brewing
Recipes"
http://www.thousandeggs.com

>This topic has been discussed ad infinitum on the various brewing lists
>on through the ages. The best "proof" I saw that is is legal is from
>Dennis Davison's eisbock article in Zymurgy (winter 1995), where Dennis
>wrote that freezing beer or wine and removing the non-alcoholic ice
>crystals that form is not legally distillation but "fractional
>crystallisation", and is perfectly legal. As I remember it, Dennis
>even provided the BATF agent-name and telephone number that he
>contacted to get his determination.

This is a section from Dennis Davison's article "Eisbock: The Original
Ice Beer" (_Zymurgy_ vol 18 no. 5 Fall 1995) that addresses this issue:

Please note that this isn't legal advice!

Another thought here is that it's probably an important point to
distinguish between regulations for the commercial production of
fermented beverages versus regulations for home brewing, vinting,
et. al. when researching this issue. Commercial regulations,
out of necessity, should be expected to cover every possible
aspect of beverage production while the regulations for home
production may, repeat *may*, be somewhat looser.

Is it Legal?

Are homebrewers "distilling" or "freeze distilling" and
thereby breaking the law, if they make an eisbock in the
traditional manner by freezing beer and removing ice to
increase the alcohol content and enhance the flavors?
According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
officials, the process of freezing beer and removing ice
is called concentrating. A brewer may not employ any
process of concentration that separates alcohol spirits
from any fermented beverage, and since *ice* is being
removed from *beer* (author's emphasis), this concentration
process is legal.

By definition, because homebrew is not produced at a bonded
brewery and is not sold, it is exempt from the Federal
Administration Acts of 1935 and 1956 with regard to
relabeling. Homebrewers, therefore, can call their beer
anything they want.

We have chosen to refer to the freezing and ice removal
process (fractional crystallization) as concentration
to avoid any semantic problems with the term distilling.

<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
mcfeeley@keynet.net

• —

.-.
/ \ .-.
/ \ / \ .-. _

• -/–Dan McFeeley——-\—–/—\—/-\—,–

mcfeeley@keynet.net \ / \_/ `-'
\ / `-'
`-'

"You learn something old every day." Mr. McFeeley, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood

>But does it fit with the taste of the mead? A little bit maybe adds some
>complexity; more than that adds harshness.

This reminds me of judging mead at a homebrew competition a few years
ago. We had a bit of a discussion among the judges on one mead in
particular. It was a still mead, with a sherry flavor. We were all
able to agree that the sherry flavor tasted great and that this mead
tasted better than any of the others. Where we disagreed was whether to
give credit for this flavor or to take off for oxidation. We ended up
taking off for oxidation because the mead maker had not indicated the
sherry was intentional.

However, I still feel bad as that was one of the best meads I have
judged. I was unable to detect any other off or harsh flavors I would
normally associate with oxidation.

Hmmm.

• —

John DeCarlo, The MITRE Corporation, My Views Are My Own
email: jdecarlo@mitre.org
voice: 703-883-7116
fax: 703-883-3383

Micah Millspaw commented on the rapid fermentation of apricot melomel.
I've had the same experience using canned apricot juice to make an
apricot melomel … i.e. rapid fermentation.

Randall Stevenson
"Planning is the substitution of error for chaos."

Happy Brewing,

Nancy.

This allowance is not intended to permit fractional distillation through
freezing. The reasons for not permitting distillation (by freezing or
condensing vapors) are based on safety issues. 1) If a car radiator is
used for the condensing coil, lead poisoning can result. 2) There are
diluted toxins produced by fermentation which can be concentrated
through distillation — this is the reason that only the middle of the
run is used by distilleries. (The toxins are primarily in the first and
last parts of the distilled product and freeze-distillation does not
allow the removal of the condensed toxins.) AND 3) Ethanol and fire in
close proximity can result in some explosive results.

An inexperienced distiller can produce "headache in a bottle" or
something worse, like "jake leg in a bottle". ("Jake leg" was the term
used during prohibition for the crippling effects of lead poison
associated with "bad" moonshine.) Although they may not be enforced
very well, I think there is good reason for the regulations that
prohibit unregulated concentration of spirits.

Wassail!
Randall Stevenson

"Planning is still the substitution of error for chaos."

Dave Houseman

>27 CFR 24 (the wine regulations) go on for
>most of a hundred pages, but if you dig around I believe you'll find that
>concentration beyond fermentation is said to be prohibited. I wish I could
>quote chapter and verse.

I agree with Dick (because I've read the same thing). Fractional
crystallization and distillation, while different, achieve the same means:
concentration of alcohol beyond normal fermentation methods. Fortification
is OK because you've already paid tax on the added alcohol. Now that's for
the homebrewer. Manufacturers have a whole lot more to worry about.

Not that I suggest breaking the law, but I would like to see the BATF agent
who would be such a *&%$ as to waste their time investigating someone who
uses fractional crystallization to make a few gallons of high strength mead
(mead sherry?!?), eisbock or applejack for their own personal consumption.
Just my 2 cents.

While Glen & Joshua discussed fermentation rates & nutrients, David
questioned effects on taste:

> I think the slower fermentation rates create longer amino acid
>chains and therefore have a much more complex taste. IMO I have found most
>straight meades and metheglins have a much more complex taste than
>Melomels. More of the sherry notes & complex aftertastes. So something may
>be said for the long ferment times. Most of my primary fermentations are at

>least 3 months.

I see your point Dave. It's actually the by-products of the yeasts here
which may be AA chains (proteins) as well as many other molecules which
affect your flavor profile. Sorry I don't have any specific examples to
give here but in general yeasts at different metabolic states will surely
produce different by-products which, in-turn, flavor our beloved drink. I'm
relatively new to meads, but not fermentation, so please excuse my immature
mead palate & experience. In beer, a quick fermentation is desired to give
clean, crisp tastes. Prolonged fermentations can result in flavors that are
undesirable to beer. However sake, on the other hand, requires a slow,
steady, cold ferment to get the proper flavor. So sure, it all depends on
what you want out of your fermentation and fermentation rate is a major
factor in determining the flavor profile.

Carpe cerevisiae!

Glen A. Pannicke

glen@pannicke.net http://www.pannicke.net
75CE 0DED 59E1 55AB 830F 214D 17D7 192D 8384 00DD
"I have made this letter longer than usual,
because I lack the time to make it short." – Blaise Pascal

Anthony> Steve, the legalities regarding freeze-concentration have
Anthony> been discussed at length in the past, and based on what
Anthony> was uncovered here (as well as my own personal research)
Anthony> it is not illegal. If you are really interested you can
Anthony> search the archives or contact the BATF (which if I
Anthony> remember correctly was done previously).

That's not my recollection of the conclusion. And, in fact, I found
the posting below from 1998, which quotes a letter from the ATF.

=Spencer

Extracted from file: 0660
Subject: Freezing mead
From: Samuel Mize <smize@prime.imagin.net>
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1998 14:47:33 -0600 (CST)

Charles Hudak wrote:
> Jeff wrote:
> > Believe it or not, the BATF has no problems with *homebrewers* using
> >the freezing technique to increase the alcohol content of beer or hard cider
> >(or I assume mead and wine). However, it is illegal for *commercial*
> >brewers to do this.

Sorry, I don't believe it.

I just checked the last six months of the Homebrew Digest. On Fri,
1 Aug 1997, "Ian Wilson" posted with the subject "Eisbock – The BATF
Speaks….." discussing a letter he got from the ATF.

Here are the critical bits:

> This letter was sent to me by Mr. Charles N. Bacon, of the Bureau of
> Alchohol, Tabacoo and Fire Arms in reponse to my request for an opinion:
>
> Because of the uncanny resemblance to a concentrate made from beer, the
> Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has written a formal ruling on
> "ice beer." Essentially, it states that if a brewer superchills beer
> and removes ice or water, the product will be considered to be ordinary
> "beer" if the volume of material removed is not more than 1/2 of 1% of
> the original volume, and if the resultant product resembles "beer."
> This ruling was issued to prevent brewers from producing an "ice beer"
> which is seriously concentrated by the removal of water or ice.

> … ATF's primary interest would be, as usual, to ensure home
> brewers were not selling the beer they make.

He also offered to email the specific ATF ruling in question.

It appears to me that:

• – – Home brewing of beer, wine and mead are OK.

• – – Concentration of alcoholic beverages by any means is NOT considered

simply brewing. Concentration requires a commercial license.

• – – Freezing beer to filter it is not considered concentrating it, but

YOU MUST REMOVE LESS THAN 1/2 PERCENT OF THE PRODUCT.

This is done to filter out proteins and fine particulates, on which ice
crystals form; the ice is then filtered out. This was stated only for
beer, but would probably hold for mead (or wine) also.

• – – Based on process descriptions, I THINK it's OK to freeze/filter out more

than 1/2 percent IF you replace the removed water, BUT this comes out of
the commercial regulations, so I'm not SURE it applies to us.

• – – Freezing to concentrate the alcohol without a license is illegal.

Whether or not you care is another question. Moonshiners have been thumbing
their noses at revenoors ever since such laws were enacted. However, this
IS the category in which you are placing yourself; you are breaking the law.

I personally would be disinclined to say I was doing so in a public,
archived forum like MLD.

Best,
Sam Mize

• – —

Samuel Mize — smize@imagin.net (home email) — Team Ada
Fight Spam – see http://www.cauce.org/

Happy meading…

Melissa