Powdered Alcohol Just Approved for Sale in the US

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Better living through chemistry. The sale of powdered alcohol has just been approved (again) for sale in the US, but sales have already been banned in several states as being too dangerous in a powdered form.

The main concerns are around the safety of the product. Will people snort it? Will it be easier to spike drinks or for kids to get their hands on?
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Who exactly is the target audience for this? Sold and regulated like alcohol, and you have to shake/stir it for a minute or two so it's not like you could just add it to whatever beverage.
 
Burticus said:
Who exactly is the target audience for this? Sold and regulated like alcohol, and you have to shake/stir it for a minute or two so it's not like you could just add it to whatever beverage.
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I know that ill be hopping on this stuff for hiking trips. Should be able to take way more booze now woot
 
chockomonkey said:
I know that ill be hopping on this stuff for hiking trips. Should be able to take way more booze now woot
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So if you use stream water as your source of liquid will it the alcohol part sterilize it so no worries of crypto or giardia or any of those other nasties? :D
 
Capsule sales about to go through the roof.
 
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sfsuphysics said:
So if you use stream water as your source of liquid will it the alcohol part sterilize it so no worries of crypto or giardia or any of those other nasties? :D
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Thats a really good question. I'm guessing not, but bonus points for the first company who comes out with specific hiking powdered alcohol just for this purpose
 
Powdered detergents were invented because they saved the manufacturers a fortune on shipping costs. Probably not the motivator now, since consumers show they prefer to pay more for liquid detergent, but it's something.
 
Does this article or any articles as such have any serious relevance to computer related hardware website? Not.
 
If this has no odor, all married men who want to drink before going home without getting caught will buy this stuff.
 
Apparently they use a particular chain of sugar molecules that can absorb up to 60% of its weight in alcohol and still stay crystalized, adding it to water dissolves the sugar and releases the alcohol. That would make this powder ~75 proof (maybe? I guess proof is ABV not ABM, might be significantly less when measured by volume), not sure how much the sugar will sweeten the final solution. Still for carrying around a flask of 151 would probably last you a lot longer and not require as much mixing.
 
Can't wait to start hearing about retarded college kids dying because they snorted it.
 
Cruise ships, stadiums, and event locations are going to be pissed at the decline in alcohol sales.
 
I will bet there are a bunch of lawyers just waiting for the first death or injury case. I see these companies being sued out of existence after all the misuse cases.
 
A partnership with Tang would be quite profitable for Philip Morris (owns Kraft brand unless that changed). They were never too concerned about health anyways.
 
Is there any possible way to use this to make SRB's?

rocket-boosters.jpg
 
The moment I read this, I instantly thought "This has to be bullshit of some kind, alcohol is basically a pure substance". Sure enough a little research later..It's bullshit. Thunderfoot basically summed it up, it isn't powdered alcohol it is tiny amounts of it being carried in a powder. So yea they are basically selling to suckers willing to somehow pay more for alcohol then it currently costs.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
The moment I read this, I instantly thought "This has to be bullshit of some kind, alcohol is basically a pure substance". Sure enough a little research later..It's bullshit. Thunderfoot basically summed it up, it isn't powdered alcohol it is tiny amounts of it being carried in a powder. So yea they are basically selling to suckers willing to somehow pay more for alcohol then it currently costs.
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Like big bags of bug poison that are really just big bags of saw dust with some poison sprinkled in?
 
Sp33dFr33k said:
I will bet there are a bunch of lawyers just waiting for the first death or injury case. I see these companies being sued out of existence after all the misuse cases.
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How will they be sued out of existence? It is basically a mild alcohol.
 
MrCaffeineX said:
All it takes is one Darwin Award winner to ruin it for everyone else...
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It barely even qualifies as wine...If someone "Overdoses" on this stuff it was only a matter of time before they killed themselves with watered down beer.
 
sfsuphysics said:
So if you use stream water as your source of liquid will it the alcohol part sterilize it so no worries of crypto or giardia or any of those other nasties? :D
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Depends on where you are hiking, I personally will drink from some of the streams in the goat rocks, plus there are natural springs there that are very safe and OMG do they taste good! Or we use glacial water. I would take some of this with me =)

https://www.google.com/maps/place/O...2!3m1!1s0x549721faf0aeff5f:0x6521dc6d07d1e5de
 
-Dragon- said:
Apparently they use a particular chain of sugar molecules that can absorb up to 60% of its weight in alcohol and still stay crystalized, adding it to water dissolves the sugar and releases the alcohol. That would make this powder ~75 proof (maybe? I guess proof is ABV not ABM, might be significantly less when measured by volume), not sure how much the sugar will sweeten the final solution. Still for carrying around a flask of 151 would probably last you a lot longer and not require as much mixing.
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No. This stuff is about 10% alcohol by volume.
 
SRTie4k said:
Can't wait to start hearing about retarded college kids dying because they snorted it.
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Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

I'd be okay with this. Less people to poison the gene pool.
 
david_ said:
But can I put it in a syringe and have a hooker spray it in my mouth?
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Mugato said:
Depends on where you are hiking, I personally will drink from some of the streams in the goat rocks, plus there are natural springs there that are very safe and OMG do they taste good! Or we use glacial water. I would take some of this with me =)

https://www.google.com/maps/place/O...2!3m1!1s0x549721faf0aeff5f:0x6521dc6d07d1e5de
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Crazy I have never paid any attention to those mountains. Been to packwood lots of times but just because it's a close store to visit from skate creek lol

TMYK
 
chockomonkey said:
Thats a really good question. I'm guessing not, but bonus points for the first company who comes out with specific hiking powdered alcohol just for this purpose
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You're better off with chlorine tabs for that. They're more compact and will do a better job of actually KILLING things in the water. Alcohol will kill SOME things, but some, it just makes them dormant. Also, the carrier medium is a type of sugar. Some things that aren't killed are going to go bonkers in a sugar medium.

Also, the alcohol content is fairly low (10% by volume). Simply eating it straight gives you a (by volume) equivalent of wine. Actually mixing it into water dilutes it still further.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
The moment I read this, I instantly thought "This has to be bullshit of some kind, alcohol is basically a pure substance". Sure enough a little research later..It's bullshit. Thunderfoot basically summed it up, it isn't powdered alcohol it is tiny amounts of it being carried in a powder. So yea they are basically selling to suckers willing to somehow pay more for alcohol then it currently costs.
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I didn't watch thunderfoots video, but they have a wiki on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_powder

They sell various flavors, and even the strongest mixed drinks aren't pure alcohol by a long shot... even pure vodka is only like 40% alcohol. Secondly, this line from the wiki will explain why you're going to end up with a larger mass of powder alcohol than you would pure alcohol:
According to food chemist Udo Pollmer of the European Institute of Food and Nutrition Sciences in Munich, alcohol can be absorbed in cyclodextrins, synthetic carbohydrate derivative. In this way, encapsuled in small capsules, the fluid can be handled as a powder. The cyclodextrins can absorb an estimated 60 percent of their own weight in alcohol.
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So the question then becomes, what is the commercial application for this?

It wouldn't be more compact to ship than pure alcohol, so maybe I could see is that you could smuggle the flavored powder (your favorite mixed drink) and add it to a bottle of cold water and shake it and have a proper alcoholic mixed drink that tastes like you'd expect it to. But if you were just doing it purely for the sake of pure alcohol, that wouldn't really make sense since you'd get more alcohol by volume in its liquid form. So it wouldn't be something you add to your orange juice or something really.

So limited commercial market for it.
 
VICE has a pretty funny article about it. They got some and carried it around NYC in a Tupperware, but solidified it with Everclear :eek:
 
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