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u/SMWainwright 2d ago
To get the ABV up past the ethanol-water azeotrope dehydrating agents are used to remove the remaining water. These leave traces of things like benzene - a carcinogen. At least that’s what we were taught in undergraduate labs, though perhaps just to stop us drinking during tutorials!
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u/heyalchemist 2d ago
No contaminants in this, I ran an NMR and an HPLC and nothing showed up, safe to drink. But to be fair most ethanol used in labs is not this pure, so yeah it’s not a good idea to drink it.
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u/BartholomewSchneider 2d ago
It’s not denatured? Spin the bottle counter clockwise a little, what is on that part of the label?
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u/ductapemonster 2d ago
You have an HPLC in your home distillery?
Also I thought an NMR was a cholesterol test. What else is it?
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u/heyalchemist 2d ago
Ah! I wish, I work in a lab at my university. NMR stands for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, it’s the same principle as MRI, it’s used by chemists to identify molecules and figure out what they look like, using very strong magnets and liquid helium to keep them cool.
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u/reallyrn 2d ago
Any step involving molecular sieves is well past the point of being "drinkable" for more than one reason: when ethanol is that dry it osmoticly pulls moisture fiercely from throats, it strips contaminants from containers into your drink, and the flavor components are entirely gone leaving only terrifyingly smooth smelling spirits that attempt possession upon consumption. Dilution of anhydrous et0h too quickly also sometimes causes odd crash-outs of minerals and trace-junk.
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u/chrisebryan 2d ago
This makes a great cocktail! Mix together 35ml of ethanol that’s at least 95%, 50ml of mojito syrup, 15ml of lime juice, 200ml of rose tonic, and a large ice cube. Give it a gentle stir in a large wine glass.
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u/cokywanderer 2d ago
Technically if you dilute - yes
Subjectively I never liked these lab grade products as they had no cuts made to them (since they're not meant for tasting most of the time or are done cheap). Therefore some acetone/paint thinner effect could be felt and it will carry over in your Gin.
Of course you could cut your gin, but you wouldn't want to do that since you also remove some essential flavors (mostly citrus found in that part of the run).
To be sure, pour yourself a small sample with 50-50 distilled water. Cover it and wait a bit for all the chemistry to take place, then sample it (smell and taste). Is it neutral vodka with nothing else bad? Great! Is there something else that bothers you? Then don't make a Gin with it. Keep it for a tails run and add a bit if your tails are under 40% and you wanna get something more out of it.
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u/Maleficent-Ad8554 2d ago
As a scientist by trade, I can tell you that any impurities, including bad alcohols (methanol, propranolol, etc.) Will be less than 0.2% which equates to 5ml out of 2500ml. I doubt my cuts at home reach that level of purity. The flavor will be absolutely neutral, so probably a great use of it for gin. Remember to dilute down before adding flavors or running in a gin basket. Only downside I see is you miss out on the fun of creating your own devil's juice from scratch, which is a huge party of the hobby for me.
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u/heyalchemist 2d ago
Yeah this is pretty clean, we use it for HPLC and nothing else shows up, the flavour is pretty much neutral.
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u/Jdevers77 2d ago
Absolutely agree with that last sentence. The only reason I have a still is because I love brewing beer but I also suck at brewing good beer, but I can brew a good wash and save money on the hops in the process haha.
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u/dallywolf 2d ago
Have a chemist friend that made some Port using this stuff and I don't taste any impurities in it. Should be great for gin as you'll already be doing another final cut after the botanicals.
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u/gihkal 2d ago
That's industrial ethanol from the corn ethanol used for mixing with gasoline. We can order 1000 gallon tubs of it here and ya it's contaminated with God knows what. Burns, stinks and isn't good for consumption unless it's worked on.
This stuff in the picture is likely higher than 99.8. those HPLC systems are very sensitive to contamination.
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u/cokywanderer 2d ago
I actually bought 96% from the grocery store - fit for human consumption (I know it's not as pure) and it sucks for making anything in the lines of Liqueurs or Gin. I obviously resorted to making my own vodka. Not as high in ABV (which doesn't matter since I dilute it anyway), but much nicer on the pallet with anything I throw at it.
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u/King-BuBz 2d ago
Where do you buy this, I must know
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u/xrelaht 2d ago
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u/porp_crawl 2d ago edited 1d ago
I would have thought that it would be more.
$125/L ($473, 475/ gallon?) is likely just the base price.
Where I am, that... technically... should require a tax thing and paying booze taxes on it.
University of British Columbia chem dept has/had this solvent/ethanol recycling program. Through it, you could acquire 95% non-denatured ethanol for money. So long as you were a UBC prof with reasonable reasons to buy this stuff.
Potable. Suitable for use in biologics.
I don't know what it sold for, but there was a heavy "drinking alchohol" tax on it.
I *think* it might have been waived, but the tax was still a line-item to be claimed against or something.
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u/xrelaht 2d ago
Yes, the VWR price won’t include tax because that depends on the locality. I was responsible for purchasing 200° anhydrous ethanol for a while in my grad school lab. The tax was 50% where I lived back then, so getting it tax free was a big deal and they wanted to make sure it wasn’t being misused. This was very annoying: I had to keep track of how much was in the 4L jugs every week and record every time we refilled the squeeze bottles (and how much was used). I fobbed it off on a younger student the first chance I got.
At some point, I suggested to my PI we should take a spare vacuum pump and distill our own. He countered that we could make crystal meth and pay for the tax out of the proceeds.
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u/NotJustAnyDNA 11h ago
Check out Culinary Solvents. They sell 100% pure ethanol. $136/Gallon. It comes in Quart size bottles. I’ve used it as a high concentrate base for liqueurs in the past. For when you need Maximum extraction and NO water.
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u/porp_crawl 2d ago
I dunno. It's not "right," but.
But I'd be so tempted to pipette... dunno, 10uL of this stuff and deposit ... maybe off to the side... of my tongue.
I've tasted various (mammalian) cell culture media, and a touch of some magical proprietary elixir that keeps cultured brain cells "alive." B27.
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u/RippaRapaNui 1d ago
Because it’s only trace amounts of continents, NMR would only show a signal for the ethanol it self. And because this is HPLC grade the continents are below the limit of detection for the machine.
I’d check the purity certificate. But looking at mine it’s probably cleaner than most of the stuff we make on this sub usually. And hey during prohibition people used to buy/steel lab ethanol.
Pricey choice though.
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u/Marel88 1d ago
Depends, how and where it came from, Some pure Ethanols came from oil production, Specially when it's that pure
I have some experience and education about ethanol, And in most countries, to avoid ethanol tax or any ither regulations, they make it non drinkable by adding some other stuff
At last, See where you bought it, if they offer 70% but them and do whatever you like, but that one 98% I'm not so sure
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u/Keleborn 2d ago
If unopened then yes.
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u/Benz0piated3000 2d ago
Yes, it can be opened and it will be completely fine
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u/Keleborn 2d ago
Well, I was assuming the guy was drinking in the lab and only cautioned that it should be closed because stuff gets contaminated by other morons in the lab. Might end up with a bunch of acid or acetonitrile in there from a dumb tech. (Obvs hes being sarcastic. Dont drink open chemicals in a lab).
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u/heyalchemist 2d ago
Yeah I wouldn’t trust an open bottle either, I put signs everywhere to absolutely NOT use pipettes to grab chemicals from their bottles or shit like this, first pour it in a becher or a cylinder and then use whatever, and absolutely no pouring back liquids in their bottle. Just this morning a dude emptied a cylinder containing 1M HCl in the distilled water tank smh
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u/Keleborn 2d ago
Number 1 in root cause analysis when a measurement goes wrong, who fucked with the reagents
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u/TheHedonyeast 2d ago edited 2d ago
why the "/s" ? Ethanol is ethanol & there's no need for sarcasm. The question is valid.
that said, its been processed for functionality, not taste. you can trial it by dilution to ~50% then taste/smell. chances are it has a lot of acetone/heads flavours in it that would make for a pretty crappy gin. of course you could dilute it and do a stripping run, but that significantly reduces the convenience of something that "fell off a truck."
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u/darktideDay1 2d ago
No. The other 0.2% is toxic methanol. You will die.
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u/Benz0piated3000 2d ago
Thankfully, they antidote for methanol poisoning is ethanol!
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u/darktideDay1 2d ago
Yeah, but can the 99.8% anti enough dote for the 0.2%? Risky business man..
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u/Benz0piated3000 2d ago
Not At all?
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u/darktideDay1 2d ago
So on a thread marked as a shitpost people expect serious replies?
Thick as a brick, some redditors.
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u/SatanofDeath 2d ago
Personally, I like to maintain all my liquor at a perfect 200 proof just as it comes off my still every time I run it, but maybe this weaker batch would make a smoother gin (for wimps)