Supermarket 96% Alcohol

[Mookie]

Hello everyone,

I have been thinking, why not buying the supermarket 96% alcohol, dilute and flavour it.
It will still be cheap (about 3 dollars per liter at 40%).
As its 96% alcohol it should be pure from any congeners and shouldn't make any hangovers.
Reason for doing it is just being lazy and/or making small amounts of beverage fast. (no fermenting or distilling - only aging)

My questions regarding this idea:
1. Is the 96% alcohol sold in the supermarket a synthetic alcohol made from petroleum / natural gas?
2. If yes, is it differ anyhow from alcohol made by fermenting sugars? Is it unhealthy to drink?

Thanks for a great site and forum!

[eternalfrost]

Hello everyone,

I have been thinking, why not buying the supermarket 96% alcohol, dilute and flavour it.

ummm thats exctly what you do with it always??
try taking shots of 190 everclear and you will just be punching holes in your liver then dead

ethanol is ethanol is ethanol (see law of constant composition)

that last 5% may have more cogners presant then home brew however. but obviously under the legal limit like anyother alcohol sold in a store. and again as safe as anyother legal spirits

[Hawke]

Don't know of any supermarket alcohol that is not denatured. Denatured = POISON!

[Mookie]

Don't know of any supermarket alcohol that is not denatured. Denatured = POISON!

I didn't mean the pharmaceutical alcohol..
I ment the 96% alcohol they sell to put in punch and so.. is that denatured too?

[Hawke]

They may have it where you live, never seen it in our area. If it is sold as a beverage inhancer, You are buying nuetral spirits,. It can be flavored, but you will just be making a cheap copy of cheap swill.
To each thier own.

[Rudi]

why not buying the supermarket 96% alcohol, dilute and flavour it.
!

They sell 96% alcohol where you live at the supermarket

[eternalfrost]

[EuroStiller]

I know the product he is referring to. It is a rectified spirit from Warsaw, Poland made from potato and grain and is called Polmos Rektyfikowany 96% or Spirytus Rektyfikowany 96%. In my area it is available at my MEGA, MEGA, liquor store. I have often used it as a base for homemade liqueurs, as quite often it is less expensive then Everclear.

So Mookie to answer your questions:
1) It's made from the fermented sugars in the potato and grain then distilled by rectification to as pure as it can be and still remain legal and available for public consumption.
2) Technically, ethanol is unhealthy for: a) those prone to addiction, b) consuming more than 3 units per day - a regular strength glass or small bottle of beer/lager or a glass of wine or a small measure of spirit or a single can of strong beer is around 4 units of alcohol c) Binge drinking, or getting wasted on the weekend does more harm than daily drinking. d) Alcohol overindulgence can be responsible for a laundry list of medical issues.

But, like all of us, we do it anyway.

If you looking for a way to stretch a buck, this is not the way to do it!

If your making liqueurs with things that need to macerate (herbs and spices) and then be strained out before the addition of a sugar syrup, like classic European home made liqueurs, without a still involved, you have the correct product.

Ethyl Alcohol from the pharmacy isle is DENATURED. Please do not even consider drinking or using it for anything but cleaning a scrape! During my rotation, I had to pump quite a few stomachs of not only kids, but also adults who drank it!

I kinda agree with Hawke. Just tell us what you are trying to/ wanting to do, and maybe somebody in the group will know what/ how to do it.

EuroStiller- The Doctor

[blanikdog]

There was something similar to this available in Australia some fifteen years ago - maybe it still is, I don't know - and the kids used to buy it and get very pissed and very, very crook. I am under the impression that it's now banned. I'll check it out.

I think it was flavoured and one added sugar and water. I tried the Kahlua but it wasn't up to much.

[EuroStiller]

I think it is hard to get down anything higher than 50- 75% abv for sipping, maybe shots every now and then. No way anybody should DRINK the 96%, its insane, it is like signing a death warrant! If they could even get it down!

ES- the Doctor

[Rudi]

I seriously doubt the funstoppers would alow 95 % to be sold in a supermarket /bottleshop in Aus but I'v been wrong before

[Freedave]

Thanks for that pic frost. that is exactly what we have here in our liquor stores in Wisconsin. i bought a bottle a year ago ($15.00) for old times sake. in college we would sneak a bottle in a bucket of wopatoolie(sp?).

euro summed it up the best as far as uses for it. i can imagine a few people that would want a bottle around just for fun. but as we all know we can make it our selfs almost that strong. whats a few % among friends.

[blanikdog]

I forget what it was called, Rudi. It had an odd name. It was in a small - maybe .375 ml bottle - and sold in supermarkets. They were in various flavours.
From memory some of the kids died as a result of drinking it neat which caused a bit of a fuss.

EDIT: I just checked with the missus and she remembers it too.

[stoker]

here we have it in supermarkets too, but it's quite expensive. (heavily taxed)
one of the things they use it for, is for making Advocaat.

[BW Redneck]

I remember everclear. We used to be able to buy 190 proof in a state store, but a few years ago, they banned it for the same reasons here. People try to drink it straight and really mess themselves up. Now, the limit is something like 151.

[Mookie]

Thank you everyone for your replies, very much appreciated.

My main concern was the source of alcohol, I don't want to consume synthetic alcohol.
I did some research on this and I found out that the FDA approve synthetic alcohol for food and drink, link:
http://www.fda.gov/ora/compliance_ref/c ... 5-100.html
And quoting:

POLICY:
Synthetic ethyl alcohol may be used as a food ingredient or in the manufacturing of vinegar or other chemicals for food use, within limitations imposed by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the Alcohol Administration Act, and regulations promulgated under these acts.

So, today I called the manufacture of the 96% alcohol sold in my supermarket and tried to find out the source of the Alcohol.
They said that its natural and not synthetic, but they are not making it - they just import it from South Africa and that they can't give me further details about the source materials or the distilling process.

In the past, I got drunk from some of the same company beverages (Arak, Vodka, Tequila) and got really nasty hangovers,
So if they don't make it, apparently their other alcoholic beverages are from this 96% alcohol diluted and flavored. - So I'll definitely pass it!
I guess that they are just using the same alcohol for making those drinks..

Also been that cheap for 96% alcohol (about 6$ for 750ml bottle) - so is it just probably full with heads and tails?
Can they sell something and claim it is pure 96% ethyl alcohol while its just full with the nasty stuff?

[vajravarahi]

If you're in the US, the government has numerous regulations regarding the labeling of beverage alcohol. If the product comes from South Africa, it's supposed to say that somewhere on the labeling. For something that's simply labeled "neutral spirits" or "alcohol", it is a distilled from "any material". That means potatoes, or beets, or sawgrass.

Do they actually say anything on the label about it being "pure", or are you making that assumption? The measure alcohol by volume or it's corollary proof, express the ratio of ethyl alcohol to water on a volume/volume basis of those two ingredients. To get the actual volume of water for a given alcoholic proof, use Table 6 of the Gauging Manual.

[VicBill]

Hi,

Just for comparison, 1 litre of 96% ABV here in Oz would attract over $60 in tax.

Maybe that's why there are so many people from Oz on this forum.

VicBill

[The Chemist]

Along with Everclear, there is also McCormick Grain Alcohol and Diesel Grain Neutral Spirits. Both 190 proof. For those interested, Everclear does contain a small amount of citrus-type 'flavoring'. Or it did around 10 years ago, last time I checked.

[tennessee.boy]

Availabilty of so-called "pure grain alcohol" such as Everclear varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The odd little wrinkles in liquor laws from one state to another are one of the more interesting things to me about travelling around the USA. Everclear is very pure, very strong, and well-suited to making homemade liqueurs--I have friends that make a nice coffee liqueur for Christmas from it.

How it stacks up on the hangover front I couldn't really say, as who gets drunk on coffee liqueur? Or perhaps I'd better not ask that.

Back in my college days, we'd occasionally make a party punch we called "aviation fuel." It was an unstable mixture of grain alcohol, frozen lemon-lime drink concentrate, sparkling water, lemon-lime soda, and dry ice. One person had to be on continuous duty adding ingredients and stirring. When done well, it was very cold, slushy, very strong, and not entirely unpalatable.

[The Chemist]

Ahhh...college days when "not entirely unpalatable" was good enough...

[Bsnapshot]

Ahaaa Yes Freedave I remember those wapatoolie parties in Wisconsin. We used to use Everclear to in ours just because it was strong and cheap. Now my wapatoolie parties just have rum and vodka in them and they taste a lot better.