Palcohol (powdered alcohol)

[Brian-M]

So it gets lighter when you add water??

No. Powdered alcohol is only about 12% alcohol by volume. The rest of it is sugar. Lots and lots of sugar (in ring-shaped molecules). When you add water, the sugar dissolves, releasing the alcohol.

So when you add water, you have the weight of water, the weight of the alcohol and all the weight of all the sugar they used to make it into a powder.

For the same amount of alcohol, spirits weigh less than powdered alcohol even before you add water to the powder. Adding water to the powder only makes the difference greater.

 

[Brian-M]

Again, about snorting, they reversed what they claimed earlier:

Think of it this way, if you want to get the same amount of alcohol in your body from snorting powdered alcohol as you'd get from drinking three cans of beer, you'd have to snort more powder than you can pack tightly into an empty beer-can.

Now which is going to be quicker and more enjoyable, chugging three cans of beer, or snorting enough powder to fill an empty beer can?

 

[dirtywick]

Plus, you know, if you're going to snort something...

 

[Aepervius]

Maybe it is snortable? Weaponized, it could be used in smartbombs.

Snortbomb ?

 

[Aepervius]

Think of it this way, if you want to get the same amount of alcohol in your body from snorting powdered alcohol as you'd get from drinking three cans of beer, you'd have to snort more powder than you can pack tightly into an empty beer-can.

Yep roughly.

Alcohol by % in US beer is 5% by volume as far as I can tell maybe slightly more. Assuming 1 liter (3 cans of 33 cl), That means around 5 cl of alcohol barely. 5 Cl of alcohol is 40 grams, so if by weight the product above is about 50% weight alcohol cyclodextrin (somebody mentionned 60% but 50% is approximate enough and I do not need a calculator to divide/multiply by 2), then we are speaking of a 40 grams packets cyclodextrin. Cyclodextrin is 1.5 g per cm^3, unfortunately I do not know the density of cyclodextrin with alcohol mixed which could be smaller. But we are speaking alone for cyclodextrin 25 cm^3 or about something the size of 4/5 of the can of beer.

 

[Foolmewunz]

@Emily's Cat,
Drop in. I make and sell a Rum Raisin gelato with actual rum. I also do a Brandied Cherry with Remy Martin. Ice cream and gelato don't get hot enough to burn off much of the alcohol.

As to baking? Sorry but Palcohol won't increase the booze level over using regular spirits in your baking. (And that's important to note... you can use booze in baking and still get quite the kick out of it.) This is because whatever liquid you use in your batter/dough will reconstitute the alcohol, so it will not be acting as a dry ingredient like flour or sugar, but will be a wet ingredient. The water in milk or coffee or juice will suffice to reconstitute it.

What does happen if I understand the science correctly, is that alcohol mixed with cooking liquids creates an azeotrope, which means that it combines with water to make a liquid where the ratio cannot be changed by distillation. In short, if you bake something for 30 minutes using booze, you'll still have about 30/35% booze concentration in that azeotrope. So unless you cook your cakes to the point that they have no moisture at all, whether it's Courvoisier or Palcohol, you'll still have a fair amount of alcohol in your baked goodies. Emphasis is that we're talking 30/35% of the original proof of the liquids, not 30/35% of the cake.

 

[bobdroege7]

One thing I can think of that would make palcohol a better option than traditional booze would be in making edible inebriants. I imagine you could add it to frosting to make alcoholic cupcakes, or to french onion dip for some extra fun chips, or to chocolate sauce on top of ice cream. I'm sure there are lots of other possibilities where you could add it to a food item without substantially altering the consistency, but where regular booze would make it too runny.

I'm curious about whether or not it retains its alcohol content when cooked. Regular alcohol evaporates out at a relatively low temperature. So in baked goods, it leaves b behind flavor but very little actual inebriating elements.

The only way it will work is to make it bacon flavored, or combine it with bacon.

I go wilderness canoeing in the boundary waters of Minnesota and I typically bring a flask for each day.

I'll pass on the sugary alcohol powder.

 

[Psi Baba]

I wonder if you could just eat the stuff dry, like Lik-M-Aid/Fun Dip. Maybe they could package it like Pixie Sticks! Market it as adult candy.

 

[3point14]

When there's moral panic because a drug now comes in a different carrier albeit in entirely the same chemical composition as before then the problem really isn't the product.

 

[Emily's Cat]

@Emily's Cat,
Drop in. I make and sell a Rum Raisin gelato with actual rum. I also do a Brandied Cherry with Remy Martin. Ice cream and gelato don't get hot enough to burn off much of the alcohol.

Next time I cross the Pacific, I certainly will!