posted
I've heard a few people tell me that you can buy dirt cheap vodka (the nasty stuff that smells and tastes of paint stripper) and run it through a home water filter to turn it into a more taste-free, perfectly drinkable vodka that is more or less indistinguishable from the more expensive stuff you can buy.
Haven't spoken to anyone who's tried it, mind. Would this work, first of all? It seems to make sense because vodkas are filtered to remove the impurities, but would a home filter designed for water have any effect? And would the effect be noticeable enough to actually bother with the hassle of doing it? And would it actually be cost effective in the end - would it be better to just stump up and buy the more expensive stuff in the first place?
I don't drink vodka and I don't have a water filter, so I can't experiment with this myself - I'm just curious!
-------------------- Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. Posts: 2372 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
They tried this on Mythbusters, with mixed results. IIRC, here was a noticeable difference, but it still didn't match the top-shelf brands.
-------------------- [God said] "I'll just sit back in the shade while everyone gets laid; that's what I call intelligent design." - Chris Smither, "Origin of the Species" Posts: 411 | From: Fairfield, CT | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, we have an under the sink model. If that's what you're referencing using, it would be a huge hassle to disconnect, use on vodka, change the filters, and reconnect to the water supply. Besides, the filters cost about $20 per set... IMHO, it would be easier to pony up the extra cash at the liquor store for the better vodka.
-------------------- Let's just pretend we're normal for a minute ~ New favorite T-shirt quote Posts: 1193 | From: Ohio | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Ah, it was on Mythbusters! That explains why it's been a recurring "hey, didja know..." pub conversation recently. Must keep a look out for that episode.
Cheers!
-------------------- Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. Posts: 2372 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Use activated carbon in a vertical plastic tube at least two meters high, with some kind of fabric filter over the bottom end. Just pure the crappy vodka through the tube a couple of time and it will come out nice and clear like spring water.
And don't make the crappy vodka yourself, it's probably illegal. At least, don't tell anyone about it.
-------------------- /Troberg Posts: 4360 | From: Borlänge, Sweden | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Menolly: Well, we have an under the sink model. If that's what you're referencing using, it would be a huge hassle to disconnect, use on vodka, change the filters, and reconnect to the water supply.
I thought that maybe the OP was referring to those water filters that are built into pitchers. I really don't know how effective at filtering those are compared to sink models, though.
-------------------- "I'm really quite simple. I don't want to be in the business full-time because I'm a gardener. I plant flowers and watch them grow. I don't go out to clubs and partying. I stay at home and watch the river flow." - George Harrison Posts: 28 | From: Towson, Maryland | Registered: Sep 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
If it was cost-effective and actually made the cheap vodka taste like expensive vodka, why wouldn't the cheap vodka distillers do it and sell good vodka?
Troberg, it would be illegal in the US to make vodka. Distilled spirits can only be made by a licensed distillery.
-------------------- IIRC, it wasn't the shoe bomber's loud prayers that sparked the takedown by the other passengers; it was that he was trying to light his shoe on fire. Very, very different. Canuckistan Posts: 3694 | From: Arizona | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
On the Mythbusters episode, they did use the filters. I believe they concluded that yes, the vodka did taste better, but by the time you factored in the cost of the filters you might as well have just bought some decent vodka.
Posts: 384 | From: Iowa | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:Troberg, it would be illegal in the US to make vodka. Distilled spirits can only be made by a licensed distillery.
Yep, it's somewhat illegal in Sweden as well, but as long as you don't sell and don't tell, you'll be fine. In some places, it's almost a religion. I've never bothered, it's just too much trouble and work to be worth it and I drink very little anyway.
There's a joke about a man who moves into a small village and asks his neighbour where he can buy alcohol.
The neighbour points at a house and say "That's where to local police lives, and that house over there is where the priest lives."
"But I can't buy any alcohol there?!?!"
"Nope, that's right."
-------------------- /Troberg Posts: 4360 | From: Borlänge, Sweden | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Actually, my uncle's recipe was to filter vodka or moonshine through fountain coffee machine.
He demonstrated it with a great success. Actually, he was able to sell one bottle of his creation in Sweden, much to the anger of Troberg. Noone ever complained, though Posts: 246 | From: Toronto, ON / Kyiv, Ukraine | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
This is OT, but sort of similar. Has anyone tried putting a shake or two of salt into a glass of not so good beer? The OomA showed me that the other night and it made the beer much better. Well, all except the last swallow, which tasted salty.
-------------------- Me: "He's 19? Uh oh, I bought him a beer." A: "You contributed to the deliquency of a minor in drag!" "Sweet spell check: keeping drunks off the radar since 1995."- IND GodRe-AnimateGreenPorkBush Posts: 3986 | From: Illinois, jealous? | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Maybe it depends on the beer - or definition of 'better'. I just asked Hubby about that one because some time ago he demonstrated that salt will 'revive' the head on a glass of beer. But in his opinion it does nothing for the taste - you just get salty beer.
-------------------- I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains - that's why I live in Melbourne, where it always bloody rains. Posts: 632 | From: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: Nov 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
There was a story about this on NPR about three or four months ago. The "expert" on the show said very clearly - and repeatedly - that if you use the regular, over-the-counter, pitcher-type water purifier (he said, "Similar to the Brita filter"), once is enough to get an okay vodka to premium quality - three times will get rot-gut vodka to premium quality.
-------------------- Opinions aren't excuses to remain ignorant about subjects, nor are they excuses to never examine one's beliefs & prejudices...
Babies are like tattoos. You see other peoples' & they're cool, but yours is never as good & you can't get rid of it. Posts: 5622 | From: Jax, Florida | Registered: Nov 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Back in college I used to put a bit of salt in cheap flat beer, and it did revive the head(save for the last swallow). But I really didn't notice a change in the taste.
As for distilling. Yep it is illegal to distill alcholic beverages in the US. However, you can actually buy a small still from some Homebrew stores(calling it an essential oil extractor) which is supposeably to be used to make vinegar or something like that. You may or may not have to register the still with the ATF(Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms). But distilling is a whole other animal as compared to beer or winemaking in that you can actually makie something that could kill you or literally cause you to go blind from not cleaning out all the impurities from both the ingredients and equipment.
Posts: 46 | From: Dallas, TX | Registered: Aug 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
I don't know what it was exactly, but the beer did seeme to taste less bitter. Of course that could be attributed to the power of suggestion and the previous beers
-------------------- Me: "He's 19? Uh oh, I bought him a beer." A: "You contributed to the deliquency of a minor in drag!" "Sweet spell check: keeping drunks off the radar since 1995."- IND GodRe-AnimateGreenPorkBush Posts: 3986 | From: Illinois, jealous? | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by The Vanilla Gorilla: But distilling is a whole other animal as compared to beer or winemaking in that you can actually makie something that could kill you or literally cause you to go blind from not cleaning out all the impurities from both the ingredients and equipment.
Just out of curiosity, what kinds of impurities can appear in the alcohol-distilling process that can harm a person? I thought distilling was simply making a purer, more concentrated form of a substance.
- Pseudo_Croat
-------------------- "At all events, people who deny the influence of smaller nations should remember that the Croats have the rest of us by the throats." - Norman Davies, Europe: A History
God wants spiritual fruits, not religious nuts. Posts: 4578 | From: Sunrise, FL | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by The Vanilla Gorilla: But distilling is a whole other animal as compared to beer or winemaking in that you can actually makie something that could kill you or literally cause you to go blind from not cleaning out all the impurities from both the ingredients and equipment.
Just out of curiosity, what kinds of impurities can appear in the alcohol-distilling process that can harm a person? I thought distilling was simply making a purer, more concentrated form of a substance.
- Pseudo_Croat
Fusel oils can form during the process of distillation. These are very nasty substances.
quote:Very high concentrations — usually caused by incompetent distillation — can cause acute illness, including headaches, nausea, vomiting, clinical depression, or coma
-------------------- "Ladies and gentlemen, this is what is commonly known as money. It comes in all sizes, colours, and denominations - like people." Posts: 997 | From: Maidstone, UK | Registered: Jun 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
So, how much "rot-gut" moonshine would it take to kill you? Should I call a doctor if I experience the symptoms descrived above after drinking moonshine?
- Pseudo_Croat
-------------------- "At all events, people who deny the influence of smaller nations should remember that the Croats have the rest of us by the throats." - Norman Davies, Europe: A History
God wants spiritual fruits, not religious nuts. Posts: 4578 | From: Sunrise, FL | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Your best bet is to stay away from home-distilled alcohols, PC.
-------------------- "When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty."--George Bernard Shaw Posts: 19266 | From: Nashville, TN | Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm pretty sure Rob Cockerham tried this out but the article seems to have vanished from the site. Wonder if he got a visit from some purveyors of high-end vodka and persuaded to take it down?
So far as I recall, they used Brita-type filters and came to the conclusion that the filtering did work, but took a few passes to be really effective.
-------------------- But of course, I could be wrong. Posts: 858 | From: UK | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Danvers, IIRC it was the same episode that had the "Bullets Fired Up" story. I haven't seen that one in the rerun queue, but it'll probably turn up sometime. (I'm hoping for a marathon over Thanksgiving weekend, when I'm housesitting for friends with a combination DVR/DVD burner . )
Not a drinker, but I suspect part of this depends on how acute the taster's taste buds are. I know in the MB episode Kari was pretty much fooled by the filtered vodkas, but the expert taster they brought in sorted all the samples out by number of filtrations (with the control top-brand vodka rating highest), and Jamie came close.
Posts: 244 | From: Omaha, NE | Registered: Oct 2001
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by poisoned candy from strangers: I don't know what it was exactly, but the beer did seeme to taste less bitter. Of course that could be attributed to the power of suggestion and the previous beers :D
Does it make bitter beer better, or better beer bitter.
-------------------- I like free speech. It lets me know who the idiots are. Posts: 407 | From: Ireland | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
If any of her majesty's police officers are looking, I would just like to explain that this is purely theoretical knowledge and not related to my father being an industrial chemist or my grandfather being an enthusiastic producer of potcheen.
Fusil oil can result and they are nasty but they can be avoided if you keep the distillation temperature low. Methanol is more of an issue but if you heat the ferment gently then around 80% will be in the first 5% of the distillate.
Freeze distillation is a safe method, I am told.
Naturally it is illegal and my interest is wholly academic
Blues “But I always buy large amounts of corn syrup, officer” Scale
Posts: 207 | From: Woolhampton, Berks, UK | Registered: Dec 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
You may get a cleaner, more pure alcohol solution, but not necessarily good vodka. There is more to vodka than just clean water and alcohol. It's like top-brand mineral water: there may be very little taste in it compared to lemonade, but its very purity means that what is there will be more essential.
Posts: 794 | From: Utrecht, Utrecht | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by poisoned candy from strangers: I don't know what it was exactly, but the beer did seeme to taste less bitter. Of course that could be attributed to the power of suggestion and the previous beers
Those of us who don't drink Corona like to say that if you have to put salt and lime in your beer to make it taste good maybe you should start drinking better beer.
-------------------- Officially Heartless Posts: 3065 | From: The Montgomery County of the West Coast- Berkeley, CA | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by The Vanilla Gorilla: But distilling is a whole other animal as compared to beer or winemaking in that you can actually makie something that could kill you or literally cause you to go blind from not cleaning out all the impurities from both the ingredients and equipment.
Just out of curiosity, what kinds of impurities can appear in the alcohol-distilling process that can harm a person? I thought distilling was simply making a purer, more concentrated form of a substance.
- Pseudo_Croat
Fusel oils can form during the process of distillation. These are very nasty substances.
quote:Very high concentrations — usually caused by incompetent distillation — can cause acute illness, including headaches, nausea, vomiting, clinical depression, or coma
My dad had somebody over one Christmas for dinner(he is in his 70s). But the subject came up. Well he grew up in Arkansas so making moonshine was fairly common. But the subject of why people went "blind" from drinking it(which basically means any sort of ailment. But one thing that alot of moonshiners used to do when building their stills(the ones who didn't really know what they were doing) was to scavenge parts from old cars and say use the the radiator tubing as part of the still. Problem is that these were made from lead...which of course can lead to sever problems.
Posts: 46 | From: Dallas, TX | Registered: Aug 2006
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
