Dan McFeeley said:
Okay,
I did this tonight.
I bought the cheapest bottle of vodka I could find on the shelf -- Vodstok (which, despite the Russianesque name, is made in Mira Loma, CA by an American distiller), at around six dollars and a half for 750ml. I put aside a shot of the original stuff for final comparison, but did not do incremental tastings.
After 4 consecutive filterings through a standard Brita water filter (pitcher-style), the difference is not just dramatic -- it's night and day. You would never guess they were the same vodka!
The unfiltered sample was, if anything, much worse than you'd expect from the price tag. I mean, twist-up-your-face-and-make-funny-noises kind of worse! The filtered sample was smooth and devoid of off-flavors (or almost any flavors, really).
True vodka fans wouldn't get much out of this, I think, since they are looking for good flavor, as opposed to merely an absence of bad flavors. But the rest of us could make a fairly high quality vodka (and, in theory, other kinds of hard liquors) out of the bottom shelf crap we'd normally just reach above. I'm telling you, with the cost of living being what it is, a technique like this is not just for cheapskates like me anymore!
The filters go for $6 and change per unit in the local store here. That's roughly a $13 investment to make a bottle of vodka it would normally cost about $20 to $25 to purchase. And I believe the filter can still be used for water, after flushing it a bit, so that brings the cost down even lower.
There was only a loss of, at a guess, maybe 4 fluid ounces from this process, including the samples. Very economical, in my opinion.
I was surfing during all this, so it didn't seem to take much time. I'd say give it an hour, start-to-finish, anyway, since you want to run a couple of quarts of water through the filter first (I did a round gallon).
I intend to make a mango cordial out of this vodka, now that it's been sanded down and finished. I'll update in Likker is Quicker as things progress.
-David
