Question by Give A Dog A Home: How can I extract “pure” alcohol from existing alcoholic drinks AT HOME?
I became allergic to the ingredients in alcoholic drinks, but I’m not allergic to alcohol itself. I really miss being able to have a drink with my friends and get a bit silly. So – I remember, as a teenager, lots of so-called tricks for extracting alcohol from various drinks (usually the method was to freeze the drink and collect what stayed liquid) but I’m pretty sure most of these techniques are old-wives(or teenager’s)-tales. Since I really want to be able to share a drink with my friends as normal and you can’t legally buy so-called “pure” alcohol (well as pure as you can get without it just evaporating) anymore in the UK I need to find out how to extract the alcohol from alcoholic drinks. I don’t really care what drinks I use – but I DO need to be able to do this extraction at home. This means I can’t make my own drinks or build a still (far too much work, expense and VERY illegal and dangerous). I don’t react too badly to champagne or pear cider and these are fairly “pure” drinks without too many toxins and the other ingredients I’m allergic to so I want just the alcohol from the drinks with as few other bits and bobs left over as possible from whatever drinks I’m using (probably spirits) to get the alcohol from. If you can help I will be eternally greatful and toast my first drink in years to you. 🙂 Cheers!
Additional: If the Vodka comment is accurate then I’d better add that I am SOMETIMES alright with Vodka and SOMETIMES I have the exact same problem with it as with all other drinks. My allergy/intolerance is most likely from a condition called Fibromyalgia. My symptoms, when I have a drink, are akin to an extremely bad hangover within minutes of having a few mouthfuls of drink. Strange since I used to be a heavy-weight with a cast-iron stomach when I was a teenager and could easily outdrink any guy who cared to try to contest me (I’m a rather petite woman by the way). Trial and error with new drinks to see how they affect me is very painful if I get a ‘bad’ drink. I have no idea what quality of Vodka I’ve tried since I developed this allergy – they probably weren’t “good quality” brands mostly. (Which brands are good quality brands??) ALSO: I have always had an intolerance to yeast – this may be a big part of the problem…. but it was never a problem with drinks until a few year
s ago. :/ How well I react to drink varies with how well I’m doing with my Fibromyalgia. There’s a good few variables when I’m trying out new drinks. All I really know is that the “purer” it seems, the more likely I am to react normally instead of badly. I had an allergy test from a Chinese health store that said I was either intolerant or allergic (it did not specify which) to all the alcoholic drinks they tested for – but I can sometimes “get away with” some Vodka, pure-tasting white wine (Champagne, some types of light-tasting white wine that aren’t too dissiminlar to Champagne, and Pear Cider). My Doctor won’t give me an allergy test but says it can’t be to the alcohol itself…. which makes me believe there MUST be a way to get JUST the alcohol without the allergens. My research so far tells me I should be fine with alcohol – but finding the info on how to get alcohol without an illegal still is beyond me. 🙁 I’m crossing my fingers someone will know more about this as I’m
at a bit of a dead-end right now. I’m happy to try any method of extracting alcohol as long as it isn’t illegal because it’s dangerous.

Best answer:

Answer by injanier
No need to go through all that. Any good quality vodka will do – nothing there but alcohol and water. If you’re allergic to vodka then sorry, your problem is with the alcohol itself.

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