Guinness Beersicle

Posted May 30th 2005 10:00AM by Eliot Phillips
Filed under: misc hacks

Here is a little something for your Memorial Day. My mouth began to water when this link first showed up. I clicked it and then� nothing. Damn Photobucket. Well, now the images have been restored to the page in all their splendor. I think most other beers probably don't have enough body to make this trick worthwhile. Go check out the simple transformation from delicious beverage to tasty summer treat.

Got any other food hacks? There's always openCola the open source cola with the recipe right on the can. I personally know that you can successfully gelatinize salsa to keep it from dripping everywhere, of course you need some strong chips to scrape it out of the pan. Finally, you can improve cheap vodka by filtering it through a Brita pitcher.

[thanks ian]

Reader Comments

(Page 1)

1. activated carbon/brita... works! definately... the less fusel oils in my alcohol the better... less fusel oils, less hangover. the only alcohol loss will be via evaporation.

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by randpiers

2. if im not mistaken, brita filters are activated carbon. if you want 200 proof you take 190 proof (the highest possible from distillation, give or take a bit) and run it thru activated carbon. that gets rid of the last bit of water. so, if anything the proof would go up not down, if brita filterss are infact activated carbon. itis also dependent on how saturated the carbon is. it can only absorb so much water.

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by duffman3030

3. Bleh, my retraction didn't post. I didn't realise that the link i was posting was the original link. Ignore me.

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Blind tree frog

4. I distill quite a large amount of alcohol, (check out http://homedistiller.org/ to see how its done) A pretty cheap and easy valved refulx still can be made for less than $60 and make a whollatta hooch. Anyway, my point is that in distillers lingo, charcoal filtering is called "carbon polishing" a process that removes most any of the fusal oils, benzines, esters etc. (read: flavors - good or bad) I presume that eventually, if you carbon polish vodka enough, that you will end up with only ethanol and water. There is a great ebook - http://www.home-distillation.com/activated_book1.pdf (pdf, sheeshe I know...) that goes into details about carbon... loads of information on polishing in general here: http://homedistiller.org/polish.htm

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by aerospike

5. my dad makes his own wine. I will test this by using the alcohol measuring device he uses. being a vodka drinker, i am curious as to see how the cheap and good stuff is after filtering.

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by hoovertronic

6. http://www.ohmygoditburns.com/wordpress/index.php?cat=3 For those interested in this. To get the proof you could just do it the old fashion way. Set it on fire and compare what's left with what you had originally. This is how it was done back in the day I'm told.

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Blind tree frog

7. http://www.ohmygoditburns.com/wordpress/index.php?cat=3 For those interested in this. To get the proof you could just do it the old fashion way. Set it on fire and compare what's left with what you had originally. This is how it was done back in the day I'm told.

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Blind tree frog

8. to determine alcohol content: Try try measuring the specifig gravity with hydrometer - Available at any home-brewing supply store... should be less than $20.

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by david lowe

9. I suppose if you ran 151 through a filter a number of times, you could tell if it reduced the amount of alcohol by attempting to light it on fire afterwards. Perhaps slash could test how long it takes the filter to run in order to reduce the alcohol level. Or would it have the opposite effect of increasing the level of alcohol? Another note, how many times can you use the filter before it goes bad and you need to replace it?

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by George

10. I'm not sure how it could lessen the amount of alcohol. Where would it go?

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Random_Tangent

11. You could use a hydrometer to measure the amount of alcohol left in the vodka... you can get them at most winemaking shops. It's basically a big glass tube with lead at the bottom that measures the density. If it takes a while to go through the brita filter you might want to get a wine thief as well so that you don't need to filter as much. I'd do this myself, but I'm underage

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Kyle

12. I did this last night - I filtered $7/750mL "Prestige" vodka, and compared blind against Skyy vodka at $14/750mL. I also compared blind against unfiltered Prestige vodka. The cheap stuff was run through the Brita one time only. The goal was, between myself and another taste tester, to just give comments on the 3 vodkas, and sort them in the order we A) like them and B) what we guessed they were of the 3 possibilities. Collected Data: We both sorted the filtred cheap vodka as the smoothest and best. I was able to distinguish the two unfiltered vodkas, and the other gentelman was not. I placed the Skyy as the worst, and the Prestige as the 2nd worst. Conclusion: The filter definitely changes the taste of the vodka to be less vodka-ey. It still remains unknown if the Brita filter reduces the amount of alcohol - if someone knows how to test this, please do it.

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Internets Guy

13. "Image hosted by photobucket.com" still... It just seemed odd to me so many people are amazed charcol filtering of "cheap" vodka makes it smoother. Just means cheap vodka skips a step of the process many other distillates follow religiously. Hence "cheap vodka". PS - Jack Daniel's is charcol filtered before barreling. Gentleman Jack before and after. Charring of the barrel is really meant to create a carmel layer which gives the whiskey its color... Or so the tour guides told us...

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by ed3

14. Where is the Guinness 'hack'? No real link, only to Photobucket's root sign in page.

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Dennis - Help me fight for my son

15. Can we get the same effect by pouring the guiness into an aluminum cup before freezing? nice hack :)

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by jdjs sr.

16. The vodka-brita-filter thing is so bogus. Sure, it will change the taste, but if you think it's becoming more pure, you're just being silly.

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Bong Bong Gad

17. who care's if it's more pure... it tastes better, and anything that makes cheep taste better without a big investment is cool with me. We used to do this at college for a lark.

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by greg

18. I used to want to get into home distillation (thought better about it when I considered the risks of blowing up my apartment), the brita filter should do a bit. If I remember right, carbon filtering helps take out the flavoring from the "heads" and "tails" of the distillation process. But there is something to be said for that special taste that reminds me "I'm drinking a 4 dollar bottle of vodka."

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by TheRev

19. Guinness Beersicle Blasphemer!!! Now I can stomach the dismembering of a commodore or game console, but defiling a perfectly good Guinness like that.... For shame....

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by kris

20. Pictures not coming up. Could Hack-A-Day start making use of Coral Cache? http://www.coralcdn.org/

Posted at 3:05PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by paul

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