Cheap Vodka + Brita Filter = Decent Vodka?
 

I found this article earlier today, which describes how a brita filter can be used to make cheap vodka smell and taste like ketel one. Has anyone tried this? Are the brita filters useable for normal water filtration after running cheap vodka through it? Does the brita indeed have that great an effect?

Article Source: http://www.ohmygoditburns.com/ (scroll down a bit)

Okay, I'm going to have to try this. My hubby and I both prefer vodka as our drink of choice. My biggest question is does the filtering process reduce the alcohol content any? Is it still going to be 80 proof when I'm done? I guess the only way to tell would be to get drunk afterward....hmmmm.....twist my arm.

I don't remember where I read it, but the alcohol content is supposed to remain constant no matter how many times it is run through the brita filter.

but is he really saving money -- he's adding in 15 dollars to the cost for the filter... :)

It depends on how many times you can re-use the filter.

Besides, I'd rather just drink gin. ;)

This works. I didn't try filtering and drinking normal water afterwards, though. It's debatable whether you are better off doing this or just getting some vodka you can stomach.

If you can't drink terrible vodka, try putting it into a freezer for a while or putting it in some Red Bull or Sunny Delight. :)

Hmmmmmmmmmmm....

I did some research. Short answer: Home brewery guidebooks seem to suggest that use of activated carbon (what is inside a brita filter) is strongly recommended.

http://www.alcoholpurification.com/d...distilled.html

I am at a loss, however, to think of a reason why all cheap alcohol manufacturers don't do this--activated carbon is pretty cheap. They may be correct in saying the flavor improves; however, I am still skeptical.

Longer answer: In this situation, the most significant aspect of a Brita 'filter' is the fact that it contains activated carbon. I should note that a brita filter doesn't really filter anything--it's just a bunch of 'pebbles', if you will, and water trickles down past all the activated carbon. If you had a full container of water and you dunked that brita cartridge in, like you would a teabag, maybe swish it around a bit, you should get the same purifying results.

How does activated carbon (AC) work? If you were to blow up a AC 'pebble', it would look like that asteroid with the worm in it, that you saw in Empire Strikes Back. Lots of tunnels, kind of like a sponge. Organic molecules happen past and get stuck inside the tunnels. In addition to this physical 'stickiness' there's a chemical stickiness as well. Since AC is non-polar, it tends to be 'sticky' with other non-polar molecules.

Ethyl alcohol is a pretty polar--if it weren't it would have a hard time mixing with water. So no, it would seem that the alcohol shouldn't get caught in AC.

So what, exactly, would AC adsorb? I did a quick look on the internet for what would cause off-flavors--the best I could find was this article on beer:

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20051203/bob8.asp

Assuming that bad flavors in beer = bad flavors in vodka, we have chemicals such as

3-methylbut-2-ene-1-thiol
trans-2-nonenal
furfuryl ethyl ether

Thiol, being a sulfur analog of alcohol, I believe would lead to a polar molecule, so AC wouldn't do much. Trans-2-nonenal sounds like an aldehyde, which is polar as well. Ether is also polar. So none of these would be filterable with AC. I wonder if AC isn't used already for most alcohols, and it's the polar impurities that cause bad alcohol to be bad.

From what I've read, the cost of the Brita filters is more than just buying a better bottle of Vodka. Thought I suppose if you just used the cheaper activated charcoal...

10 pack of Brita filters from Costco: $31.99 (link). So, add $3.20 to your bottle cost. Less if you can filter more than one bottle with one filter.

I'd think you could - I have a brita pitcher in my fridge... and replace the cartridge every 20 - 25 gallons of water... so you'd definitely get more than one bottle of vodka out of it...

That's a really good price for the cartridges (I pay about 7 dollars a cartridge)

A box of activated charcoal is about $3/L. Dust-free maybe $7/L, otherwise rinse for 5-10min first.

Cut the top curved part off a 2L soft drink bottle. Put a pinhole or two in the cap. Flip it upside down. Now you have a metering funnel. Put in a conical coffee filter, fill it with a cup of activated charcoal. Set the funnel/filter on a receiving container and start pouring.

1L of activated charcoal is probably the equivalent of 100 brita filters.

Edit: I forgot. Wet another coffee fliter and place it flat across the top of the charcoal. Press a slight depression in the middle as if you were going to fill with gravy. That's where you pour. The barrier disperses the flow and keeps it from passing too quickly over and through the charcoal.

I've read this site before. It was what gave us the idea to make an insta-infuser.

Put desired flavors in a tea bell, or small bit of cheese cloth, place at bottom of filter well, put filter on top (or not, seems to work better if it is, though it doens't quite fit right) and pour the vodka.

Oh, and Brita filters now also contain "an ion-exchange resin" (I haven't figured out what that is) in addition to the activated carbon. They used to be just carbon.

Just ran some vodka through a brita 7 times for a batch of jello shots. I didn't taste it, but the smell improved considerably after the 5th run or so. I'm currently running some water through the brita. Hopefully I can use it for water still...

I shall report updates as they come.

Russiya seems relatively "cheap" compared to most of the better vodkas and it's already filtered five times. Besides making it taste better, I find that the extra filtering seems to really smooth out the after effects, like hangover, especially if I drink more than I should. I keep it in the freezer since I like it very cold with some good olives. I don't know if it's right, but I heard that the extra filtering removes "glycols" which are common in a lot of distilled liquors and these glycols greatly contribute to nasty after effects.

In the last few years, I seem to have gravitated toward this Russiya vodka which I first tasted at a local vodka bar, they have hundreds of vodkas on hand and some of the hardcore regulars claimed it was the best, and after extensive testing I agree. It is filtered five times while most other vodkas are filtered three times, some are four times, but five times seems to be quite rare. I live in Pennsylvania and last time I checked, the PA Liquor Control Board (PA does not have a free economy as far as selling alcoholic stuff, except beer) doesn't import and sell Russiya, so my brother-in-law and I share a case every once in a while that he buys in New York.

Maybe I'll try this brita filter trick on lousy tasting vodka and on Russiya and compare.

Many impurities are ions (charged atoms). Ion exchange media exchanges harmless ions for those of the opposite charge. Media may use one or another charge, or a combination, depending on the targets. Negatively charged media attract metals like iron, zinc, calcium. Positively charged media attract sulfates, etc. (Consult your favorite table of elements.) It works by adsorbtion like charcoal, so needs to be protected from the flow to prevent rinsing.

I haven't seen resins from fish supply stores but wouldn't be surprised if they're available. They both need pre-filters but it seems like resins would be a good substitute for or additon to charcoal.

I think this was proved sometime in the last decade. Can't remember the source but the explanation was similar to yours. Wish I'd known about it during my younger binge days. :)

just remembered that I have some pineapple infusing into a bottel of vodka for the past 3 weeks.. YUM!!!

ive read this on other sites and the consensus seemed to be that the filter would last roughly 1/2 as long as just running plain water through it.
so somewhere around 10gallons of vodka. that is a fuckload of vodka.

mmm it's yummy. I'm on my third glass already... i better stop soon because I gotta work tomorrow.

A Russian friend tells me that they add a teaspoon of sugar to bad vodka there and pour it through some lightly crushed herbs. I have never tried it.
I drink a vodka made in Austin Texas called Tito's. It's triple distilled and not that expensive.

After using the brita filter for two batches of jello shots, it still works like a champ for purifying water. Just rinse it out a couple times and you should be good.

My sister, a college student, swears by this. Also there are commercial products to do this too:

http://graykangaroo.com/home.htm

Haha. College is a great place. I ran a bottle of McCorkmick (ewy) through my Pur ultimate purifier three times. It significantly reduced the odor of the vodka and made it taste a lot less harsh. My next few batches of water were vodka flavored (nasty) . About three liters later it was back to normal

Only 25 gallons per cartridge? Damn, that's 28 cents/gallon. The water stores charge 25-30 cents/gallon and it tastes a lot better.

I saw something on how to build a filter once, hold on lemme see if I can find it.

found it: click here for the filter how to

you can also build one helluva beer bong

Would this work with other liquors iinstead of vodka? Say for example..... tequila? Anyone ever heard of Hornitos? :)

I think with other liquors it would take out too much of the taste.

after watching a show on distilling from scotch to tequila, all spirits are clear and go through some sort of filtration process to get the spirits.

Flavor is added afterwards during the casking which gives colors and some flavoring via sugars in the wood barrels (if used) otherwise it's via the ingredients it is distilled from ex. gin and vodka.

Which is why I think it might make a difference whether you're filtering gin or vodka on the one hand and whisky on the other; the source of the flavor is different. But since I don't really know how filtering works, I'm probably just blowing smoke.

(I was browsing through past cooking threads and saw this one)

My friend owns one of these filters (ones specifically made for filtering vodka) and my dorm buddies swear by it too :thumbsup:
However, even with the commercial filter, we run the cheap vodka through the filter about 4-5 times in order to get optimal results. I'm not sure if they have tried it with anything else besides vodka.

I do not recommend filtering vodka on a home water filter. It's been tried before he bought the good filter, and we learned that you can only filter a couple batches of vodka through the brita filter before there's no longer any results.

catcha back on the flipside,
will.