When people hear “freeze dried alcohol”, what comes to mind is a powder that they can carry in a bag in their pocket and can add to any beverage to make it alcoholic. In this sense of a portable alcoholic powder, it’s not feasible to freeze dry alcohol. Alcohol (ethanol) itself is a liquid and the temperature required to freeze it is not achievable without specialized equipment.
Can You Freeze Dry Liquids?
Yes, it is possible to freeze-dry some types of liquids, including juices, coffee, milk, and some alcoholic beverages. However, the process of freeze-drying liquids is more complicated than freeze-drying solids, as the liquid must be first frozen and then dried through sublimation. Depending on the liquid you’re trying to freeze dry, it’s likely that you’ll have very mixed results.
Freeze-drying liquids can be challenging and requires specialized equipment, namely, a freeze dryer. The freeze drying process can affect the flavor and texture of the liquid and it may not retain its original taste or aroma after rehydration.
Despite these challenges, freeze-drying liquids can be a useful way to preserve and store certain types of liquids, particularly those with short shelf life or those that are difficult to transport in their original liquid form. The resulting dry powder can have a long shelf life, be easily transported, and can be reconstituted by adding water.
Can You Freeze Dry Beer?
It is possible to freeze dry beer but it’s likely not going to result in what you’re expecting. Much like freeze dried Coca-Cola, when beer is freeze dried, a crusty paste that doesn’t rehydrate well is all that’s left. In addition to this, if you do choose to try to freeze dry and later rehydrate beer, you’ll find that the resulting beverage is flat and lacks alcohol entirely because it was evaporated during the freeze drying process.
Can Vodka Be Freeze Dried?
Vodka can be considered plain ethanol in the sense that it’s not feasible to freeze dry. The freezing point of ethanol is less than -170 degrees F and the average freeze dryer cannot go any less than -20 degrees F. Because you cannot freeze the ethanol in a home freeze dryer, it won’t sublimate. Instead, it will just evaporate when the vacuum cycle begins.
Some commercial processes can make powdered alcohol but they require specialized techniques like binding the ethanol to a substrate and freezing the alcohol with a cryogenic medium like liquid nitrogen, neither of which are standard home freeze drying techniques.
Can You Freeze Dry White Wine?
Freeze drying white wine is much like freeze drying beer. Through the process, the sugars in the wine will form a crusty paste on the freeze drying trays and the alcohol will evaporate. The only positive between freeze drying wine and beer would be that the flat, rehydrated wine would be a normal texture, but it would still lack alcohol just like beer.
If you want to extend the shelf life of your wine, just store it appropriately since wine will keep for an extended period of time as a general rule.
How Do You Make Powdered Alcohol at Home?
There are recipes available to make powdered alcohol, but they fall outside of the standard freeze drying process. Making powdered alcohol is more of a chemistry experiment. It can be hard to be sure exactly how strong it is once you’re finished so we don’t recommend making it yourself. It was available commercially (“Palcohol”) then subsequently banned in 35 states and heavily regulated in the rest. For that reason, we recommend avoiding it so you don’t get in legal trouble for making and consuming your own.
Conclusion
We recommend that you put alcohol of all kinds on the list of things to avoid freeze drying. Most people dream of alcohol powder when they think of freeze drying alcohol, but as we’ve discussed, this can’t be achieved with a regular freeze dryer. For many reasons, freeze dried alcoholic beverages are not worth making. If you do somehow make powdered alcohol, it’s likely that it’s illegal in your home state. For all of these reasons, freeze dry something else other than an alcoholic beverage.