November 11, 2004

Can you turn crappy vodka into good vodka using nothing more than a Brita filter? A team of scientists set out to find whether a 1.5L bottle of shit vodka can be charcoal filtered to smoothness. The opinion of the panelists was that the result after 5 filtrations was exceptionally smooth and better in this respect than Ketel One, although it did not posess its character.
posted by ActuallySettle 20 years ago
  • NOT DOUBLE BLIND!@#!@ WORTHLESS!@#!@ but I'd.. hmm.. that Dawn girl.
  • Oh, that and damn American cheap booze. The cheapest vodka available here (Quebec) is as expensive as their premium. You certainly can't get 1.75L of 40% booze for les than 40$ around here.
  • So useful! *looks at empty Brita Filter with new respect, and a plan, oh yes, a plan*
  • (So you might as well get premium whiskey or something -- the taxes are so high)
  • But I *like* cheap vodka.
  • Hmmm... I actaully have a tiny copper alembic still (holds about a pint) sitting on my bookcase. Alex Reynold's link makes me want to put it to a less decorative use.
  • VodkaFilter: where you can be a scientist and a lush.
  • Vodkaf... Fuck!
  • Hey this was fpp on mefi yesterday. I'm in no way criticizing it being here as well, i'm just thinking that another fpp they had the same day should have after and not just before. "...another large McVoddy please" ... "hmm.. that Ronald". [windows media]
  • vodka with character? ha
  • what happens when you put salsa through a britta?
  • Children weep, SideDish, children weep.
  • He says the leftovers were good for making horseradish alcohol, because of the neutral taste. Does anyone have any good resources for stuff like this? I grew more habanero peppers than I could possibly eat, and if I could somehow combine them with strong liquor I could make grown men cry like little baby girls.
  • Here's what I'm planning to do: http://www.vodkaphiles.com/flavor.cfm APRICOT!! ANISE!!! SAFRON!!! TEA VODKA
  • Filterfilter (it had to happen SOME day)
  • There's no such thing as good vodka. All any of the stuff is good for is getting drunk on. You may as well throw some in your coffee. You can then get drunk, and enjoy the taste of doing so.
  • Russian Coffee? Hm. An idea whose time has come. *puts on a pot to brew...*
  • Maybe if we stuff Bush through a Brita filter....
  • smallish bear - this is something I've read works, but never actually tried. So.... Get yourself a bottle of vodka (natch), slice the pepper in half, put in bottle, then place in freezer. Basically, you then let it infuse into the vodka, tasting every day or two to see how the flavour is. Supposed to be diabolical.
  • I wonder if it could improve Vodka 62. For non-Kiwis, this was a spirit of my youth - actually, there were a range of fine 63 products, including Gin 62 and Rum 62 - which cost mere pennies, were sold in 2l plastic flagons, and were named for the fact they were appalling, cheap spirit cut with even more water than normal. 62% nasty vodka, 38% water. polychome: I've tried the infusing with chilli, cinnamon, and vanilla pods. All work very well, although the chilli eventually becomes undrinkably hot after a while.
  • Hola monos. I just went out and bought a britta water system (my old one cracked about two weeks ago) and just happen to have a most of a 1.75 liter bottle of "Vodka of the Gods", about seven or 8 bucks for a half gallon at Trader Joes and tastes like crap, and am on my fourth filtration. It's a little early here to sample my little experiment, but check back here in about the next five hours and I'll give you my opinion.
  • The wife tells me that in her wild high school days the girls' drink of choice was Cherry Vodka. Not only was its flavor appropriately girlish, but apparently it was a very fine medium for Pollock-esque sidewalk art around the teen hangouts. After a while, you know.
  • Ok, I decided that since I have absolutely nothing better to do than to sample the Brita filtered swill, that I would break my usual "wait until 5pm" rule about drinking on a school night. Besides, my friend Paul just called and told me that it is indeed 5pm somewhere on this planet. Now, to cephalopod farmer's opinion. It's damn smooth stuff. Not a tremendous amount of character to it, but damn smooth. Vodka of the Gods is pretty fuckin' putrid, but after filtering it 5 times, it compares to some of the $30-$40 range stuff. I'll see how I feel tomorrow, but Kettle One might just have lost a customer.
  • Best MoFi post ever! Put this together with the vodkaphiles site ActuallySettle posted farther down and we have our weekends planned.
  • I did it. It tastes completely neutral (unlike goose or ketel or even stoli which has a bouquet, however grainy and small) and is SMOOTH. I mean...it goes down like water at room temperature. It is fantastic stuff. I'm gonna flavor some of it with tea, some with peaches if I can get any. IT IS SMOOTH. And it cost 13 bucks for 1.75 Liters.
  • Oh and for infusion: don't LEAVE anything in. You just want the alcohol to leach the essential flavor oils out. You leave lemon rind in, even if there's no pith and it will taste bitter eventually. Just put whatever seed or nut or flower pedal or leave or pit or bean or pod or WHATEVER in for around 24 hours at room temperature (freezing it will only slow it down).
  • I know what some of my friends are getting for Christmas this year. *makes shopping list for cheap vodka and Brita filters*
  • Reminds me of going to a Russian Easter party. All the real russians came bearing their own flavored vodka and of course, being a good guest meant I just had to accpet everyone's offers of a shot. Full to the brim and you have to pound it. Wow that was a lot of vodka. My favorite was the ginger vodka, I bet it could make for some amazing cocktails.
  • A few of us this weekend will be doing this experiment properly with double blinds. I mean, I am confident with everyone's reports that it's going to work, but there's no sense not doing things properly. Maybe I'll write up a paper on it, see if I can get it published somewhere. The next step is to find the least expensive way to do this, then the fastest, then a way that I can sell as a self-contained system exclusively for the purpose at a huge profit. Muahhahaha!
  • I'm guessing that filtering scotch (my current hard liquor fav) would take out the flavor, same thing with gin or other less neutrally flavored booze. Someone out there want to waste a bottle of scotch to find out?
  • I'll let you know when we do the Whisky. As for the other thing, I think our competitive advantages wlll be a) not wearing... whatever it is he's wearing; and b) skimpier outfits on the spokesmodel.
  • No, I take it back. They have a picture of Ron Jeremy with The Device. or maybe it's with some other device that looks like the filter, but is coincidentally cylindrical. I can't hope to compete with that. Oh, well, I'll make my fortunes elsewhere.
  • Definitely trying this out tonight, I'll let y'all know what my thoughts are. Bless you Monkeyfilter and ActuallySettle for posting this!
  • Definitely drunk right now, so I apologize ahead of time. We did 5 passes through a standard Brita Filter. I have to say it wasn't as smooth as some had made it out to be ("like water at room temp.") but it was definitely better than straight. The smell alone was better after the filtering. In the end I would say the price of filtering the vodka far outweighs the nasty taste of a $11 handle of cheap vodka. Servus!
  • Did you use a new filter? Cos I wasn't exagerating.
  • Counterfeit vodka kills scores of Russians Hundreds have died from hepatitis and liver failure in the past few weeks after swigging the tainted liquor. Shots anyone?