Ice beer

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Ice beer involves lowering the temperature of beer until ice crystals form. Since alcohol has a lower freezing point than water and doesn't form crystals, when the ice is filtered off, the alcohol concentration increases. As a result ice beers have at least 5.5% alcohol by volume. Also the beer tends to have less character than other beers because the yeast cells/protein particles get filtered off with the ice.

Ice beer was developed in Germany during Oktoberfest celebrations with bock beers which are traditionally brewed in the spring. A particularly cold year froze the beers and a new taste was noticed by the drinkers. These were called Eisbocks. However, in its current form, ice beer was developed from the fruit-juice industry which used to freeze orange juice concentrate in order to reduce shipping costs.

Ice beer gained popularity in the United States during the 1990's. Miller introduced Icehouse under the Plank Road Brewery brand name at that time, which is still sold nationwide; Molson introduced "Molson Ice"; Budweiser introduced "Bud Ice" (5.5% AVB) in 1984 and it remains one of the country's top-selling ice beers, Bud Ice has a slightly lower alcohol content than Natural Ice and other competitors and it retains more of the character/flavor.

Many lower-end beers such as Busch Ice (5.9% ABV) and Natural Ice (5.9% ABV) also use the freezing process. Natural Ice is the No. 1 selling ice beer brand in the United States.