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Have you ever tried ice wine? Unlike normal wines, ice wine is made from grapes so naturally frozen on the vine that they sound like marbles falling into the bucket. The process is quick, precise, and extremely difficult. Our drinkhacker, Christopher Null, breaks it down.

Have you ever tried ice wine?

Unlike normal wines, ice wine is made from grapes so naturally frozen on the vine that they sound like marbles falling into the bucket. The process is quick, precise, and extremely difficult.

Our drinkhacker, Christopher Null, breaks it down.

Increasing the alcohol content in beer is a delicate and complicated science. In fact, there’s a technical name for it: “Fractional freezing.” Because alcohol and water freeze at different temperatures, you can take a low-alcohol beer, put it in the freezer, and wait. What freezes is lower in alcohol, what doesn’t is higher in alcohol. Remove the ice and what’s left will be substantially stronger — not pure alcohol, but more alcoholic than before. The process is called “fractional freezing.” The resulting beer — its origins are debatable and lost to history, but are believed to have emerged from Germany in the 1890s — is called “ice bock” or “eisbock.”

Increasing the alcohol content in beer is a delicate and complicated science. In fact, there’s a technical name for it: “Fractional freezing.”

Because alcohol and water freeze at different temperatures, you can take a low-alcohol beer, put it in the freezer, and wait. What freezes is lower in alcohol, what doesn’t is higher in alcohol. Remove the ice and what’s left will be substantially stronger — not pure alcohol, but more alcoholic than before. The process is called “fractional freezing.” The resulting beer — its origins are debatable and lost to history, but are believed to have emerged from Germany in the 1890s — is called “ice bock” or “eisbock.”