[Leica] What REAL MEN drink!

[jbm at jbm.org (Jeff Moore)]

2011-01-05-18:12:21 Montie Talbert:
> Locked in my division safe was two one pint bottles of 200 proof
> pure grain alcohol for "maintenance" purposes. I regret to report
> they were never cracked open on my watch.  ;-(
> 
> I've sometimes wondered what a coupla stiff shots of that would have
> been like, never tried "Shine"  ;-)

I doubt you missed much.  We keep some regular commercial grain
alcohol on hand, for things like making home-made limoncello - the
higher-proof alcohol does a better job than the vodka you see in some
recipes of doing that first extraction of tasty essential lemoniness
from the peels.

Anyway, good old "Everclear" is bottled at 190 proof.  (I'd always
heard that it was hard to maintain ethanol at higher concentrations,
because it's so hygroscopic that it sucks water out of the air 'till
it hits 190 or so.  Not sure how true that is.)

And if you take a sip of Everclear as it comes from the bottle - all
you get is some alcohol burn along with the coolness of
rapidly-evaporating alcohol.  Not something I consider a pleasant
beverage.

If you water it down to something people would ordinarily drink, say
80-100 proof, you just get something like a boring, utility-grade
grain vodka .  Still nothing to write home about.

I think what makes that Hudson corn liquor good is all the delicious
corny impurities, but without the extra-deadly special extra
impurities you might find in some homemade hooches.

 -Jeff