Turning Rotgut into Smooth Booze

Dear Sundiver,

My tastes often outstrip my alcohol budget. Can you give any insight into filtering bottom shelf liquor to make it taste like next-shelf-up liquor? I found this product, the Gray Kangaroo, but for that kind of money I could buy another couple gallons of gin.

Can you offer a cost-benefit analysis for me?

Love,
Cheap date

Cheap Date, this product is a refinement of the tried and true method of using a Brita pitcher to filter alcohol. The Gray Kangaroo is an improvement on Brita in that it only takes 4 passes with the Gray Kangaroo but 10 to 20 passes with a Brita filter.

Of course, the Brita filter comes with a handy pitcher. The Gray Kangaroo works best with two people.

The price of a Brita filter is lower than a Gray Kangaroo, but the time required is higher. KCDrinker has a nice post on the cost-benefit analysis of the Brita filtration method.

A Brita water pitcher filter will indeed clean nasty vodka. But you will never turn a nine dollar bottle of filth into a forty dollar bottle of Grey Goose.

At best, the first three liters at twenty filtrations a pop will turn a bottle of scum into a Sky level of vodka.

Again the simple math:
2 x 1.75 liter bottles is $18.00 USD + 1 Brita filter $5.00 USD = $23.00 USD
1 one liter bottle of Grey Goose Vodka = $22.00 USD
1 one liter bottle of Sky Vodka = $18.00 USD

So if you are into drinking decent vodka, love home experiments, and have way too much free time, we recommend that you go out into the real world and apply yourself to getting a job that pays you enough to not have to attempt this kind of useless scientific experiments at home. |KCDrinker|

The real issue that is left out of KCDrinker's equation is one of time. I think these filtration methods work best for college students who have lots of time and very little money. Personally, I charge $175 per hour for criminal representation and I have more work than I can shake a stick at. So for me, I save time and money by buying high quality alcoholand skip the filters.

If your situation is different and you've plenty of time to spend pouring booze into a filter, I think the Gray Kangaroo will make your drinking more enjoyable and your hangover less toxic.