So how do I get all the water out of Everclear?

[JulesMaximus]

Why on earth would you want to? Not for drinking I hope...

 

[norseamd]

Yeesh!!!!!

The problem with anhydrous (100% water free) ethanol is that it desperately wants water. The OH group rips water out of its surroundings like a chainsaw in a furniture store. It's unpleasant.

When you drink anhydrous ethanol, that water gets ripped out of you. It pulls it directly from the cells of your cheeks, tongue, esophagus ... whatever it touches until it gets diluted to ~95%. This hurts more than straight-from-the-350 degree oven pizza.

If you consumed this alcohol as a vapor the pain would be excruciating, and might cause chemical pneumonia.

If you inject it, there will be significant cell death in the area of the injection site.

If you are planning on getting sloshed from your laboratory stash, here are some tips:

• Make sure it is Ethanol. Other alcohols can be fatal.
• Make sure it has not been Denatured. Denaturing is mixing with other substances to make it undrinkable.
  
• Make sure your lab is moron free, and no-one returned their "extra" material back to the shelf container.
  
• Add at least 10% water. (50% Coke or 50% orange juice would taste better.)
  
• Don't drive or operate heavy machinery.
  
• Don't give yourself alcohol poisoning. An ounce or two will be more than enough to completely slosh a person not used to drinking. A 6 pack of 12 ounce cans of 5% beer contains 3.6 ounces of alcohol. 90% ethanol packs this same punch into just 4 ounces, just over two shots.

I, personally, wouldn't drink the stuff from the lab. It's fairly trivial to brew and distill alcohol. That would be safer and educational too. There are lots of websites that describe brewing alcohol. If you need a way to distill it, here is a copy of the Guidebook to Constructing Inexpensive Science Equipment, Volume two - Chemistry.

... and here is an example of what "trivial to brew" means

From Caveman to Chemist: Mead

Yes, bread yeast will work. Don't sell it or share it; that'll ruin your life. There are laws enforced by very unfriendly people on this topic.

https://www.quora.com/What-will-be-the-effect-of-taking-in-100-alcohol

 

[BrainEater]

Reflux the ethanol (boil) with fresh quicklime for several hours, then redistill.Take that distillate and then reflux again with powdered magnesium.Redistill again.
That should getcha there.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Just drink more. Keep drinking until you pass out. And repeat that every time you think about starting a new thread.

 

[BrainEater]

I will add this :
I'm fully aware that anhydrous ethanol is basically only used for chemistry , or bragging rights.\
----
If you don't already know how to purify ethanol (organic chem 101) you probably should not be doing the chemistry to purify it.
That does not mean I won't tell you.

I'm ordering some 3A Zeolite tomorrow just to play around with.( I've never tried this method)
I use molecular sieves everyday.Easy peasy baby !

 

[Red Squirrel]

Boil it just below the water boiling point. You then need to capture the alcohol (now a gas) and get it to condense back into liquid. To get it to condense you can probably just have it go through a coil of copper pipe that's sitting in cold water that you just keep adding ice to. The result at the end should be higher concentration alcohol than what was in the original container. I've never done this before but in theory I think it should work. Can probably use chemistry glassware with the rubber caps that let you put tubes in them. Though I don't know what kind of reaction alcohol might have with rubber, so maybe that's not the best bet...

Disclaimer: this is kinda a dangerous process, do at own risk.

 

[BrainEater]

Haha !
Once again , we Canadians helping the Americans with their booze !!

 

[WelshBloke]

Boil it just below the water boiling point. You then need to capture the alcohol (now a gas) and get it to condense back into liquid. To get it to condense you can probably just have it go through a coil of copper pipe that's sitting in cold water that you just keep adding ice to. The result at the end should be higher concentration alcohol than what was in the original container. I've never done this before but in theory I think it should work. Can probably use chemistry glassware with the rubber caps that let you put tubes in them. Though I don't know what kind of reaction alcohol might have with rubber, so maybe that's not the best bet...

Disclaimer: this is kinda a dangerous process, do at own risk.

That will get you to 96% alcohol by volume max if you know exactly what you're doing and have some serious equipment.

 

[WelshBloke]

Well, I'm surprised that the Scottish person didn't already have a default titration of whisky in their bloodstream high enough to counteract methanol ingestion.

Probably just a ploy for free whisky. (They give you a LOT!)