I picked up a bottle of 151 proof Bacardi at the liquor store the other day. The bottle bore warnings that the stuff was flammable, and not to remove the little metal screen at the bottle’s mouth. (The little screen was advertised as a “flame arrester”).
Question. If those little screens really work, then why doesn’t Everclear (190 proof) utilise them? Is there some sort of legal requirement?
I’ll only drink hard liquor if I wanna get bombed–120 proof or better. Ever try straight Everclear? :eek:
I don’t think, Father Pacell that this line of thought, and the consumption that goes along with it, is a good idea. Experimentation is not a good idea.
“Ever try straight Everclear?”
What? As a paint remover? 
Peace,
mangeorge
I’ve never seen Bacardi with a screen on top so it must be a rather new gadget. As far as Everclear, I normally use it as an addition to other drinks but I occasionally sip it straight. Downing a full shot of it is a mistake that most people only make once.
Flame arrestor screens work. Prevention works better. Don’t pour from the bottle onto a fire. If you follow this important safety tip, you don’t need the screen.
Anyway, there is no safety hazzard. The bottles, while glass, are made strong to prevent breakage from handling. A standard bar trick is to put a little 151 or Everclear in an empty bottle. Shake it. Light it. You get a poof of flame out of the bottle as the alcohol mist ignites, then the flame burns back into the bottle.
It’s nine years old, at least. It was in use in 1992, when I first had 151.
My friends and I drank a lot of 151 early in our college careers. It was much easier to sneak a fifth of 151 into your dorm room than it was to sneak in (and out, once the cans were empty) a bulky case of beer.
Now…what was the question…? … 
Haven’t thought about Bacardi 151 in years, and never really drank it. However, in the elevator just now there was a Sparkletts delivery man, and someone was talking about how difficult it must have been when they still used glass bottles. I joined the conversation by saying that the glass bottles were being phased out just as I started college, and how some folks in the dorms used to like to coat the inside of a glass Sparletts bottle with Bacardi 151, and throw in a lighted match. A blue ring of fire would work its way up the inside of the bottle and “whoosh” out the top. But as I say, the glass bottles had just been discontinued, so, sadly, I was not privileged to witness this wonder of physics.
NB: J. Robinson hosts a series called Beyond Bizarre. I think it’s on A&E.
I did some research into flame arrestors a couple of years ago when we were looking into making a flame emission spectrometer to work in hazardous environments.
Flame arrestors are quite common in industrial exhaust systems, oil refineries, and other applications in which flammable exhausts are burned off or may spontaneously ignite, but the flame cannot be allowed to back up into the rest of the system. These are frequently made of corrugated metal rolled up into a cylinder. Smaller ones are made of several layers of screens.
The principle was never fully explained, and I’m not sure if the designers even have a good analytical understanding of flame arrestor design. But apparently, it has something to do with keeping the temperature of the gases below their ignition temperature. However, there are some surface effects that come into play that dominate the volume of gas, since the flame arrestor design presents a huge surface area to the passing gases, and none of the gas is more than a fraction of a millimeter from a surface.
It appears that Bacardi is trying to protect themselves from lawsuits by idiots pouring 151 Rum onto cherries jubilee, or some other flambe food.
I once did a shot of Everclear. Honest. As Turbo Dog stated, it was a “mistake” made once. The mistake was that I did it for $5. When I got my vision back, I took the $5. I should have held out for at least $10. Somehow, I was able to keep it down, but my toe-nails are still curled up backwards.
A year or so later, I did a shot of 151 on a dare. I almost brought it back up for all to see, but I drank a bit of water and that seemed to help. The dare was to do the shot and not drink anything else for 1 minute. I stood by a water fountain (dorms) as the seconds were counted away.
dumb… dumb… dumb…
If you want to see a flame arrestor in action, just get an ordinary piece of window screen and a candle. The candle flame will stop abruptly at the screen. Alcohol burns at a pretty low temperature, so a single layer of screening would probably be enough.
On the other hand, I suspect that the screen on the Baccardi bottle is there more for PR than for safety. It’s their way of saying “Look, our booze is so strong, it’s flammable!”.
And this is bringing back so many memories of University.
One night ( I THINK it was on a dare, but I’m not sure) I managed to do (and hold on to) eight shots of 151. I can still drink it, but man, that was the fastest I’ve ever gotten wasted in my life. Eight shots in 20 minutes. One minute I was fine, the next everything seemed to “pop” like when the Millennium Falcon went into hyperdrive. Only it was knee-walking drunk I popped into.
I’ve done flamed shots of both Everclear-based and 151-floated stuff since, and if anyone is stupid enough to pour EITHER onto a flame, then they get what they deserve. Also, you can’t generally get the 190-proof Everclear here in Virginia.