Can Proof In Bottled Bourbon Be Increased?

[fogfrog]

I think the best you can do is drink it the way it is

[gr8erdane]

I've always wondered if a centrifuge would seperate the water from the alcohol at a high enough speed? Or would it just mix back together again as soon as the spinning stops? Might as well try to knock the H2O out with a hammer I guess.....

[tdelling]

Barturtle is right. There is a "magic dessicant"! (It's the only way
to remove the water without taking out the tasty goodies.) Organic
chemists will often thrown them into their solvents to scavenge up
any water that made its way in: molecular sieves, type 3A. It'll
be a touch expensive and somewhat tedious, but it's definitely
do-able. (You'll have to bake out the molecular sieves, soak up
some water, bake 'em out, soak up more water...)

http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/Brands/A...ar_Sieves.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_Sieve



Dane: you're right about the centrifuge... you just can't separate
ethanol from water using one. There is a chemical trick using
anhydrous magnesium chloride that will cause ethanol to
phase-separate from water, but you wouldn't want to drink it
after that.

(Re-barrelling is, of course, the super totally awesome way to go here.
Just be aware that the proof increase will be... slow.)

Tim Dellinger

[barturtle]

Now that's cool. But A "touch expensive?" Try $390 for half a kilo!( about 37 cu. in. worth) about enough to fill a 750 ml bottle. Reusable but I'd have to be doing a lot of this!....Maybe there's a lab that would let us come in a utilize them for our little experiment.

[Sijan]

Those mini barrels are pretty neat - small enough for me to consider a bourbon rebarreling project once I get settled down in the DC area in the fall. I don't imagine there's any way to order them pre-charred on the inside?

[Rughi]

Those mini barrels are pretty neat...I don't imagine there's any way to order them pre-charred on the inside?

Sijan,
My source will order them lightly toasted (standard for wine) or charred, so I imagine whatever source is most convenient for you can order them either way as well. It seems charred barrels are more likely to be a special order, though (at least here in wine country).

Roger