# Dehydrated Alcohol? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 6, 2012, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dehydrated-alcohol/643245 "2012-12-06T22:48:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dehydrated-alcohol/643245/21 "2012-12-07T12:51:16Z")
The Museum of Hoaxes on [powdered alcohol](http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/powdered_alcohol). ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dehydrated-alcohol/643245/22 "2012-12-07T13:27:56Z")
Powdered alcohol exists: > **[Alcohol powder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_powder)** > > Alcohol powder or powdered alcohol or dry alcohol is a product generally made using micro-encapsulation. When reconstituted with water, alcohol (specifically ethanol) in powder form becomes an alcoholic drink. In March 2015 four product labels for specific powdered alcohol products were approved by the United States Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) which opened the doors for legal product sales. However, as of 4 January 2016, the product is not yet available for sale and legaliza... I remember reading a while back about it being a problem among Kenyan school children, or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dehydrated-alcohol/643245/23 "2012-12-07T14:24:48Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Will either of these methods leave the ethanol in a drinkable state on rehydration? No need to rehydrate; you can drink it neat, although I don’t think I’d enjoy it. I doubt the FDA would approve of either method. I’d be wary of the benzene azeotrope for health reasons. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dehydrated-alcohol/643245/24 "2012-12-07T15:38:07Z")
Here you go: > **[Everclear](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everclear_%28alcohol%29)** > > Everclear is a brand name of rectified spirit (also known as grain alcohol and neutral spirit) produced by the American company Luxco (formerly known as the David Sherman Corporation). It is made from grain and is bottled at 60%, 75.5%, 94.5% and 95% alcohol by volume (120, 151, 189, and 190 U.S. proof respectively). Due to its market prevalence and high alcohol content, the product has become iconic with a "notorious reputation" in popular culture. Sale of the 190-proof variant is pr According t... ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dehydrated-alcohol/643245/25 "2012-12-07T16:27:06Z")
Oddly, in a way the old joke about “dehydrated water- just add water!” has come true. You can buy trace minerals to add back to your distilled water so that it doesn’t taste so flat. ---
**Author:** ![dauerbach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c2a13f/32.png) [@dauerbach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dauerbach)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dehydrated-alcohol/643245/26 "2012-12-07T16:56:38Z")
Water and alcohol form a lesser boiling azeotrope. For that reason Pure Grain Alcohol is 5% water. You can throw in benzene and the lesser boiling azeotrope will now be over 99% but will contain trace benzene and therefore cannot be used for human consumption. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dehydrated-alcohol/643245/27 "2012-12-07T16:59:19Z")
> [@dauerbach](#): > > Water and alcohol form a lesser boiling azeotrope. For that reason Pure Grain Alcohol is 5% water. You can throw in benzene and the lesser boiling azeotrope will now be over 99% but will contain trace benzene and therefore cannot be used for human consumption. Could you use a dessicant to remove the remaining water? ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dehydrated-alcohol/643245/28 "2012-12-07T18:10:08Z")
I would imagine if you took some wine and cooked it off at about 160 degrees you would have most of the alcohol out of it. Now seperate your alcohol and continueto cook off the remaining water in the wine. Once the water is cooked off add the alcohol back to the dry wine mix, ship it out and customer could re add water when he decided to drink it. YUK! I used to work for a coffee company and experimented around with making coffee extracts for vending purposes. The powders are hydroscopic and tend to clog and gather around moisture. The coffee extract tasted fine when hydrated. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dehydrated-alcohol/643245/29 "2012-12-07T19:07:15Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > I would imagine if you took some wine and cooked it off at about 160 degrees you would have most of the alcohol out of it. Now seperate your alcohol and continueto cook off the remaining water in the wine. Once the water is cooked off add the alcohol back to the dry wine mix, ship it out and customer could re add water when he decided to drink it. YUK! > I used to work for a coffee company and experimented around with making coffee extracts for vending purposes. The powders are hydroscopic and tend to clog and gather around moisture. The coffee extract tasted fine when hydrated. This actually may work. I wasn’t looking for a powered form (but that would be acceptable), but just a lighter weight/volume, a way to carry low proof drinks over long distances by foot. Perhaps slowly reducing wine then adding brandy to re-proof it would be a way of doing this. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dehydrated-alcohol/643245/30 "2012-12-07T19:12:41Z")
If you did this in a vacuum you could do it with a much lower temp. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2012, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dehydrated-alcohol/643245/31 "2012-12-07T19:52:19Z")
Maybe powdered sugar would work. Just takes a while after adding water. Add yeast in the sugar for a quicker result. Pop goes the weasel! The trouble is a lot of food/drink mixtures include oils and other organics which don’t turn to dry powder. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dehydrated-alcohol/643245/32 "2012-12-08T03:41:34Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Could you use a dessicant to remove the remaining water? Mol sieves, as mentioned. Again, it depends how pure you want it. 99.9%? 99.99? I don’t have my purification guide handy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dehydrated-alcohol/643245.md?page=1)