I found this post on mycotopia... I was wondering, if it would work as he says it would. The reason being, I live in a state where the highest proof alcohol I can procure (for extractions of various things, essential oils, etc.) is 160 proof vodka.
Would 160 proof vodka work? I would want to remove the water from it, to prevent complications in the extraction.
Anyway... this is the post..
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Go get yourself some Agrosoak. They sell it in the garden section of the large home improvement centers, and at good gardening shops. It is even used in those cold headbands you can buy for the summer heat. (You soak the headband in water, it swells, you strap it to your brow. It gets cold by evaporation from the agrosoak inside. Pretty cool...)
Buy a Liter bottle of Grain Alcohol (190 proof, 95% alc. by volume) or get your buddy in a state that sells it to send you some. A couple of brand-names are "Everclear" and "Clear Spring"... I'm sure you see the trend.
Get a scale that will weigh in tenths of grams, if you want to be accurate.
Weigh out 2.75 grams of Agrosoak.
Open the fresh bottle of grain and pour in the agrosoak. Cap it tightly (Pull off that damned sealing ring if you have to).
Shake by slow inversion... that is, by rolling the bottle end-over-end in your hands. Turn it on its side and roll it around, too. You want the agrosoak to move around all over the bottle, but you don't want to shake vigorously (Doing so will cause higher pressures in the bottle. Not usually dangerous, but why risk it?).
Let the closed bottle sit in a sunny window to warm it gently. Shake whenever you feel like it, but at least 5 times during the 12 hour period.
You will notice the agrosoak crystals growing, but you will also notice that this does not increase the liquid level in the bottle. They are absorbing only the water (and any other smaller molecules), though this phenomenon would occur even if they absorbed everything. They are effectively trapping all dissolved water in the alcohol, concentrating the alcohol. When you notice that they have stopped getting larger, this means that all available water has been absorbed.
Wait at least 12 hours after this "growth stopping" point before using the alcohol, this will ensure maximum removal of water.
That's it! You can leave the agrosoak in the bottle. I suggest you use a coffee filter held tautly over the spout when pouring the alcohol to avoid the accidental use of any smaller agrosoak crystals.
Never leave your bottle open. Never allow your extractions to be exposed to much open air, if possible. Pure ethanol is hygroscopic in air... it will absorb water from the air until it reaches about 95%, again. Whereupon, you will have to add more agrosoak. The .25 gram excess agrosoak will allow you to absorb up to 5 ml more than the original 50 ml present in the liter of grain. This allows for multiple bottle openings, moist air intake by pouring (liquid to gas volume exchange inside the bottle), etc. Try to only open the bottle in a dessicated or dehumidified atmosphere. Please look at this link-->MSDS ...especially if you wish to consume this alcohol after using the agrosoak in it.
In a nutshell, I would suggest you add a small amount of clean (rinsed with distilled water) activated charcoal pellets to the alcohol before drinking it. This addition may even remove the impurities for which one would normally have to distill the alcohol! Do it!
-ion
By the way, this MSDS is for a different configuration of the polymer. In other words, the absorbtion rates and such are not accurate for Agrosoak brand co-polymer of polyacrylamide, but the hazards and impurities are very close (if not exactly the same).
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This is quite interesting. It sounds logical and should work, but one problem you may find is that you may have to add much more agrosoak to a less than 95% alcohol solution. Also by using a less pure ethanol solution originally you may end up with more impurities and thus the added step at the end of using carbon (activated Charcoal) becomes more important and almost necessary. Other than those trivial problems this process should work. Yes this will concentrate the proof to almost 200 if done correctly and that is gonna be one gross-ass drink.
-------------------- "It's only wrong if you get caught. If consequences dictate my course of action I should play GOD." Maynard James Keenan, Tool
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