Freeze concentrating brandy

Well lets see, I routinely precipitate nucleic acids out of solution with ethanol at -80 C...but I use 2 volumes of 70% ethanol, so the concentration is like 46% or so. There it does not freeze but it gels at that temp. And I know if you take 70% ethanol in water it will not freeze at all even if you put it in liquid nitrogen, it turns into gel there. I did have some freeze once in the -80 C...I think it was around 35%.

Of course, you are not goign to get that cold at hom in the freezer. Deep freezes run -20 C. even on a cold cold winter you will nto get down to -80C (unless you are in the far reaches of Alaska) that is about -112 F. There is actually an old story in the Alaskan Bootleggers Bible, one that is based on urban myth I guess about the dead Soldier (Miner). It goes that a soldier is bringing his commanding officer a case of booze during the dead of winter and swipes a biottle, hiding it in the snow. He later retrieves it and takes a swallow, but it is so cold it kills him on the spot because whisky will not freeze no matter how cold you get it.