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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi
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To: Ilaine who wrote (21979)4/16/1999 7:39:00 PM
From: nihil  Read Replies (1) of 71178
 
The trouble with 'shine is it can make you blind. The old hill boys used run off whiskey in stills soldered (with lead bearing solder) together from copper plumbing. This killed you over time. They also cut with industrial alcohol (methanol -- very toxic. These were not honorable businessmen and were one of the principal causes of ecology and socialism and state liquor stores after prohibition.
The great traditional distillers used pure corn mash -- maybe a little sugar as a started -- and fractionally distilled to avoid the amyl alcohol that gives you that rotten taste and headache of raw whiskey. Really good 'shine is filtered through activated charcoal (the absorptive element in charred barrels) and can be turned into pure 86 proof grain neutral spirits (43% ethanol by suitable filtration) which is the nectar of the gods (unflavored grain vodka). In chemical labs fifty years ago you could draw 95% untaxed alcohol or even absolute ethanol (used to remove traces of water from lab glassware (avoid acetone)) and cut it with distilled water. Very cheap. We flavored it with dextrose and citric acid -- good on the long night watches of a complex organic synthesis. It got my seniors through Prohibition, and attracted many youths to chemistry. I would be surprised if untaxed labrohol isn't behind the burst of new drugs that extend our worthless lives to day. We used to toast each other "Better things for Better Living through Chemisty!" I'll still drink to that.
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