Last step in the project of building a home soda machine for flavoring cola

Well...

USP is branding. They don't include trace chemicals.

I've seen a *lot* of those bottles. When I was in college we used to use the stuff for cleaning electronics. Without the taxes, it's cheap.

Just asking. I don't think I've bought a bottle of liquor for at least a decade, probably two or more. I still have an unopened bottle of Chevas Royal Salute my MIL brought back from England (duty free) in '84, I think.

There's other ways to remove the last trace of water besides distillation.

Bob

When my brother was in college studying chemistry his professor was Dr. Smith and the good professor would mix a laxative into the ethyl alcohol in the lab producing a mixture known as Smithinol. My brother told of a few idiots who raided the chemistry lab supply room for some ethyl alcohol to make a punch mix for a party. The consumption of the punch caused a complete evacuation of the party goers who partook of the punch. The cleanup of the party location was quite an odoriferous undertaking. ^_^

TDD

Probably castor oil. It dissolves completely and colorlessly in alcohol.

Bob

Here are better pictures of the bottle in my possession.

1. Tax stamp (this bottle is probably from the 70's):
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2. Front of bottle:
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3. Back of bottle:
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   And, yes. It is still mighty potent. Ask me how I know! :)

The first picture had a problem so here it is again:

1. Tax stamp:
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   When did they stop doing these tax stamps anyway?

That's what I was thinking too. I mean it's only seperating one simple liquid chemical from another. I would think there would be many ways it could be done in a manufacturing process and it seems unlikely krw knows what every last manufacturer is going. Also USP is not branding, it's a set of standards the industry sets. For a manufacturer to claim a product is USP, it must meet those standards.

UPDATE:

I visited a couple of liquor stores in town this weekend, here in the Silicon Valley, and I was shocked that neither had ANY grain alcohol whatsoever.

I wasn't expecting the 190 proof (95%) Luxco Everclear because it's apparently illegal in California.

The closest the two local stores had was plain old Vodka. :(

So this search for the highest percentage ethanol I can find in California will be harder than I at first thought.

I don't understand what the big deal is. Just buy one of the lesser brands of vodka. How much alcohol is involved in making cola syrup? It's SODA, not a vodka and coke. Whatever amount of alcohol goes into making a cola soda like Coke, it has to be very small. Isn't it used to just extract the flavoring from some of the other ingredients? Don't you put that other ingredient in just an ounce or so of alcohol and the end result makes gallons of soda? I bet I could find a recipe to make cola that doesn't involve alcohol at all.

Raeco denatured alcohol. 96% ethanol. Paint section of your local hardware. You're looking in the wrong stores.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

How close are you to the border? It was in liquor stores in Tijuana the last time I was there loh these many years ago. That's where I got a bottle.

My general lesson was that if you're using Everclear for anything other than as a cleaner, chances are you're going about the problem wrong. Harsher drink to get drunk faster is pointless as shots of regular vodka work fine without being as harsh. And the folks who are going to be a problem at a party want the Everclear.

That actually might work, since the tincture of essential oils is only used by the drop. OTOH, you don't know what the denaturant is; it could be Bitrex® and even a trace of it would ruin the soda. 91% isopropyl is another possibility, but I don't recommend it.

I would just use 151 proof rum. I know that's food-grade.

Bob

Last time I bought any, the denaturant was methanol.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

That actually might work, since the tincture of essential oils is only used by the drop. OTOH, you don't know what the denaturant is; it could be Bitrex® and even a trace of it would ruin the soda. 91% isopropyl is another possibility, but I don't recommend it.

I would just use 151 proof rum. I know that's food-grade.

Bob

Methanol is too dangerous (too many bums will try to drink it anyway). They generally use something that isn't so toxic but has an effect similar to ipecac.

I'm in the Silicon Valley.

I'm not planning on drinking it; I need grain alcohol to make limoncello (but we're starting to go way off topic on the soda flavoring).

If I can't find the Everclear, I'll start researching how to distill it myself (separate topic).

We got mixed up, on a tangent, during this thread.

The alcohol is not for the soda syrup - so I will take the grain distillation topic to another thread.

Now I'm totally confused. You need alcohol to make limoncello, but you're not going to drink it?

We're beginning to worry about you.....

You can google it up. I used to work in a lab and we were told industrial dry ice we used contained oil from machinery used to produce it. I assumed same might be true for bottled gas.

Well, not in the way that he had meant it (getting drunk).

The desire for high alcohol percentage is mainly to extract the flavor from the lemon zest.

By the time that zest becomes Limoncello, it gets diluted in half by the sugary syrup so, in the freezer-cold shot-glass form, limoncello isn't going to get anyone even close to drunk.