John G wrote:[color=blue]
>
> does anyone know how they make ice beer?
> can the home brewer make ice beer?
> does it take special equipment?[/color]

Are you talking about something like an eisbock, or are you referring to
some og the megalagers that are called "Ice"?. Very different
techniques and reasons for the two.

--------->Denny
--
Life begins at 60 - 1.060, that is.

i am referring to beers like bud-ice rainier-ice
it seems that all the major brands have a new line of ice beer on the
market.. i have tasted rainier-ice. it didn`t have much body to it but
over all flavor was pretty good and i was wondering if the average home
brewer could make ice beer.... can you elaborate further about the
different kinds of ice beers this sounds interesting... i thought there
was only one kind of ice beer...
thank you .............
john g

"John G" <johng5@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:1109-3F09D908-599@storefull-2175.public.lawson.webtv.net...[color=blue]
> i am referring to beers like bud-ice rainier-ice
> it seems that all the major brands have a new line of ice beer on the
> market.. i have tasted rainier-ice. it didn`t have much body to it but
> over all flavor was pretty good and i was wondering if the average home
> brewer could make ice beer.... can you elaborate further about the
> different kinds of ice beers this sounds interesting... i thought there
> was only one kind of ice beer...
> thank you .............
> john g[/color]

Not sure if you could make an "ice beer" the same way as the commercial
breweries do, but I'd imagine if you just want the "ice beer" effect, which
is essentially higher ABV, you may be able to jack up the alcohol in your
favorite pilsner recipe without adding any color or flavor by adding some
additional corn sugar or rice syrup. I quite like the rice syrup. One of
my best beers uses it, no kidding.

--
Dave
"Just a drink, a little drink, and I'll be feeling GOOooOOooOOooD!" --
Genesis, 1973-ish

"David M. Taylor" wrote:
[color=blue]
> Not sure if you could make an "ice beer" the same way as the commercial
> breweries do, but I'd imagine if you just want the "ice beer" effect, which
> is essentially higher ABV, you may be able to jack up the alcohol in your
> favorite pilsner recipe without adding any color or flavor by adding some
> additional corn sugar or rice syrup. I quite like the rice syrup. One of
> my best beers uses it, no kidding.[/color]

AFAIK, the major breweries use "ice beer" as a filtration technique, not
a way to increase alcohol. George Fix did quite a bit of writng about
it, and tried it on some of his brews. The idea, apparently, is that if
the beer if nearly frozen, it makes it easier to filter, and comes out
clearer. The European eisbock, OTOH, uses freezing to increase the
alcohol content.

------------>Denny
--
Life begins at 60 - 1.060, that is.