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what's the most potent liquor LEGALLY available in Ireland?
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14-01-2012 12:07am#1
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If it has methanol then its not pure ethanol!johnnyskeleton wrote: »Medical grade pure ethanol, although it is not safe to drink. It contains methanol which can be lethal to humans.
Yes, and the physical limit for normal distillation is ~96%. It can be gotten past this by chemical 'drying', so you can get lab grade ethanol which is 99%+ but it should not be drank as it is typically dried using benzene or other toxic substances. When opened in air it draws in moisture and dilutes itself back down anyways.There's no legal limit on alcohol strength.
In the US some states have restrictions on high strength stuff, everclear being a popular 95% vodka there, this is partially why myths/rumours start here.
Methanol is created during fermentation, not distillation, beer & beer have methanol in them, if you distill wine you can separate out the methanol to a good extent so 1 unit of alcohol of wine should have more methanol than 1 unit of alcohol of brandy made from the same wine.johnnyskeleton wrote: »The higher the ethanol level the greater chance methanol will be produced which is why illegal distilling of absinthe/moonshine etc got the reputation for causing death or blindness.
Most commercial vodkas are distilled in fractionating stills past 90% and then diluted back down. When you use a fractionating column you can separate out the alcohols easier, so in fact the higher the ethanol the easier it would have been to remove the methanol at the start (which anybody with sense will do). This is why a well distilled vodka will typically have far less methanol than a brandy would.
The reputation of blindness from illegal alcohol is since criminal gangs typically steal alcohol for industrial use, isopropanol or methanol, then they rebottle and sell as vodka. I have searched a lot and have never once found a case of somebody going blind from illegal alcohol which was made from normal sources (fermented grain/fruit/sugar), it is invariably industrial alcohols. Even if it is poorly made there is no extra methanol in it than the original brew/wash contained. The only real way to blind yourself at home would be to make a massive batch of wine/cider and carefully separate out the methanol at the start in a fractionating still and drink it.
Hobby distillers use sugar to ferment partially because it only contains bare trace amounts of methanol. A glass of unfermented apple juice would contain far more methanol than gallons of poorly distilled sugar-vodka.
I would estimate the strongest I tasted was about 60%, since it is often so vile some presume it is higher. I gave some 95% stuff to an old guy who gave it to a seasoned poitin drinker who couldn't believe how strong it was. Most poitin is probably distilled twice, a 10% wash distilled twice will get to about 60-70%, depending on when you make cuts.morcheen k wrote: »any idea what strength poitín was,or did it vary a lot around the country,not that it would have been measured i guess
Like cocaine poitin would be diluted/cut along the supply chain too, I have tasted poitin that was probably 30-35% before.
Most hobby distillers dilute from 95% back down to 40-60%. One advantage of 95% stuff is that it does not dilute your mixer down.0 -
I would estimate the strongest I tasted was about 60%, since it is often so vile some presume it is higher. I gave some 95% stuff to an old guy who gave it to a seasoned poitin drinker who couldn't believe how strong it was. Most poitin is probably distilled twice, a 10% wash distilled twice will get to about 60-70%, depending on when you make cuts.
Like cocaine poitin would be diluted/cut along the supply chain too, I have tasted poitin that was probably 30-35% before.
Most hobby distillers dilute from 95% back down to 40-60%. One advantage of 95% stuff is that it does not dilute your mixer down.[/QUOTE]
i had about 1/2 a bottle of poitin my old man brought back from Galway about 25 years ago.i gave it to an old jamaican boy,after i had a small drop :eek::eek: he mentioned how strong it was and asked for more
i remember my grandads always kept some for the cattle,to give them a 'clear out' if they were not well . 0 -
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