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Misc Alcohol - Reducing alcoholic drinks into less liquid

Seattle_Stranger

Seattle_Stranger

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Completely out of curiosity, I'm wondering if there is a way to take, say a shot of whiskey, and reduce the volume of liquid so it contains the same amount of alcohol as 1 shot? I read something about how a Russian scientist made an alcoholic powder, which sounds cool but I read it still takes a lot of the powder to get you drunk. Basically, I'm just wondering if there is some way to fit a shot of alcohol into 1 capsule, simply for the novelty of it.


Thanks!
 
Now I've seen everything.

I don't know, we'll see what people have to say.

Do you mean like a liquid alcohol capsule or a capsule filled with alcohol powder?
 
There is some powder that forms a solid when combined with alcohol, though I can't remember what it is. In any case, a shot has multiple grams of alcohol in it, and you can't fit that in one capsule. One way to concentrate booze is freeze distillation. Add an ice cube to the spirit, then put it in the freezer. The ice cube will grow, and you'll be left with a liquid that's more concentrated than what you started with.
 
tricomb said:
Now I've seen everything.

I don't know, we'll see what people have to say.

Do you mean like a liquid alcohol capsule or a capsule filled with alcohol powder?
Click to expand...

?? Why do you say "now I've seen everything"?

I mean either way that will allow it to fit into a size 000 capsule or two, be it liquid or powder. Powder would be interesting and probably easier to cap up, but to my understanding you can't simply 'powderize' alcohol, it needs to absorb into an already existing sugar-like powder. However like I said I read it still takes a lot of powder for full effect. I'm looking for a way to simply reduce the liquid volume of alcohol to a small enough amount where I can perhaps squirt it with an eye dropper into a few size 000 (1g) capsules.

You don't see a good occasional use for getting a couple shots worth of alcohol into your system as easily as popping a couple caps?

Vader said:
There is some powder that forms a solid when combined with alcohol, though I can't remember what it is. In any case, a shot has multiple grams of alcohol in it, and you can't fit that in one capsule. One way to concentrate booze is freeze distillation. Add an ice cube to the spirit, then put it in the freezer. The ice cube will grow, and you'll be left with a liquid that's more concentrated than what you started with.
Click to expand...

This sounds very interesting! I'm going to look more into this.
 
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It looks like none of the alcoholic powder companies are still in business. It wasn't a way to reduce the volume of alcohol, it is a highly absorbant powder that absorbs alcohol, so you need a lot of the powder to equal one drink. I believe a similar product is still produced in small quantities as a food flavouring.

You can't actually reduce the volume of alcohol, all you can do is reduce the amount of water in an alcoholic beverage. There is no way to get enough alcohol to equal one shot into a capsule. If you had a beverage like whisky that was 50% alcohol, even if you were able to remove all the water from it you would still end up with at least half a shot of alcohol to equal the amount of alcohol in one shot of whisky.

In addition, I don't think gel caps can hold alcohol. The 2-piece capsules you can buy are not really good at holding any liquids. I think the alcohol would leak through or dissolve the capsules.

I think the best solution is to buy a beverage with a high alcohol content (*one intended for consumption). You can buy Everclear grain alcohol which has a version containing 75% alcohol and one containing 95% alcohol (although the 95% one is not as widely available).
 
Ya there is a way. You reduce pure ethanol with sodium borohydride (NaBH4) under mild conditions to form NaB(OCH2CH3)4 powder. Similarly to how hydrogen is bound to boron in NaBH4 and lots of it can be stored at standard pressure, up to 4 ethanol molecules can be stored per molecule in NaB(OCH2CH3)4.

I am 90% sure that NaB(OCH2CH3)4 will release it's ethanol content when placed in contact with water, yielding nearly 100% concentrated ethanol and some boron oxide. You can then freeze the solution in order to precipitate the mildly toxic boron salts. Never done this so it's just in theory.
 
^Even if that works, it sounds highly dangerous to consume, and one certainly shouldn't consume the powder. And can a person even purchase pure ethanol? Isn't it usually contaminated with things like methanol?
 
In some places, 190-proof (95% ethanol, 5% water) alcohol is widely available, as long as you're of alcohol purchasing age. It depends on your local laws. I, for example, have to drive town to North Carolina to get it.

220px-EverclearHiRes.jpg
 
You mean if there's a way to get more easily more hungover?

I thought it was a better idea to dilute your drinks more so you wake up with less of a hangover.

Like two parts water for each glass of wine and then a few more pints.
 
Swimmingdancer said:
^Even if that works, it sounds highly dangerous to consume, and one certainly shouldn't consume the powder. And can a person even purchase pure ethanol? Isn't it usually contaminated with things like methanol?
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The hydrogen you get out of NaBH4 is pure, non toxic, why would the ethanol be toxic. With the right procedure it's just as pure.
 
Ksa said:
The hydrogen you get out of NaBH4 is pure, non toxic, why would the ethanol be toxic. With the right procedure it's just as pure.
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I don't fully understand the chemistry, I was just asking if it's possible to buy pure ethanol because you said "You reduce pure ethanol with sodium borohydride", so I thought you meant you need to start off with pure ethanol. Anyway, even if you do end up with NaB(OCH2CH3)4 powder, you would not want to eat that, you would then have to further process it to make liquid ethanol and remove the boron oxide, correct? Plus the OP was wanting a way to make a concentrated or powdered form from normal alcoholic beverages (which they could then consume as-is). Consuming pure ethanol is also not a great idea because it is so easy to overdose on.

I still think the easiest and safest thing would be to buy an alcoholic beverage like Everclear that already has a high alcohol content. There is simply no way to fit a shot of whisky into a gel cap.
 
i'm not sure you can make powder alcohol but if you want to take a bottle of 80 proof and make it at least twice as strong you put it in a metal container and heat it up so the alcohol turns to steam the run it through a metal tube which you cool with water and collect the alcohol that drips out of the tube like moonshine
 
I say just drink it! When I drink I take a 2 shots and sip on a beer. I enjoy the taste and the warm feeling that comes with the shots. It's very enjoyable as long as you don't over do it.

<3 Zoeylynn
 
Swimmingdancer said:
I don't fully understand the chemistry, I was just asking if it's possible to buy pure ethanol because you said "You reduce pure ethanol with sodium borohydride", so I thought you meant you need to start off with pure ethanol. Anyway, even if you do end up with NaB(OCH2CH3)4 powder, you would not want to eat that, you would then have to further process it to make liquid ethanol and remove the boron oxide, correct?
Click to expand...

You got it right.

Swimmingdancer said:
Plus the OP was wanting a way to make a concentrated or powdered form from normal alcoholic beverages (which they could then consume as-is). Consuming pure ethanol is also not a great idea because it is so easy to overdose on.

I still think the easiest and safest thing would be to buy an alcoholic beverage like Everclear that already has a high alcohol content. There is simply no way to fit a shot of whisky into a gel cap.
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Alcohol is a liquid, just like hydrogen is a gas. They cannot be turned into powder. You can attach it to a compound though, like B and release it later. That's how they get hydrogen in space, using lithium borohydride. LiBH4 is powder form hydrogen basically...but additional treatment is required to release the hydrogen, aka adding water.

Even if you can't eat it directly, it's a pretty powerful method. The only problem is that the powder is very flammable and in the case of LiBH4 it's rocket fuel.
 
I don't see how you can reduce alcohol further (in a simple way) without a grain still. The powder method seems like it would need a lab.

Why do you need alcohol in such concentrations anyway? Ingesting pure ethanol will kill you.
 
I've totally ingested pure (well, 95%) ethanol before without a problem (minus extreme burning and the extreme desire to vomit afterwords).

Seriously, you guys have never taken shots of Everclear before?
 
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