Powdered Alcohol...

I know we've heard of this, but apparently this company has products that were approved for sale this month. The site says they should be available this Autumn.

Palcohol

Man this stuff is all of the sudden all over the web, wait till some idiot snorts it and dies!

It's been around for a few years now but it just got approved for sale here in the US a couple weeks ago.

I'm sure they'll be idiots that try to snort it, and some may die as a result. But idiots have done idiotic stuff with just about everything so that's not a good reason on its own to dismiss a product.

I think it's a pretty interesting product. I don't drink hard liquor myself, I drink beer, and quality beer too, not industrial beer. So I doubt I'll like it. I've tried bringing a small flask of liquor on backpacking trips but it just doesn't work the same as good beer for me. I get buzzed, but it doesn't make me feel good. Industrial beer is is like that too for me.

If someone ever does come up with a good powdered Ale I'll bring it. Shoot, I'd probably stay out a few extra days too!

A good powered ale? Sounds like blasphemy to me .

Will it burn in my stove ????

TTB (the agency that regulates alcohol in the US) just revoked its approval for this product...so you can expect to wait for while before you see this in the market.

Really?

He should have went with beer instead of cocktails

Seems to me I read that dehydrated wine was airdropped to French Army in the early fifties.

That might be the strangest thing I've heard of!

It's legal in the US, but certain (a lot of) states have banned it.
You can make your own with nothing more than a food processor.
Hope this helps. Cheers!

I don't think it's that simple, Johannes. Dehydrating anything will remove the alcohol. This product dissolves the alcohol into a second compound, then dehydrates (removes the liquid from) that second compound without affecting the alcohol. When you add water, the alcohol combines with the remaining compound and water to become liquid again. Not sure how you think you would do this in a food processor...

http://www.popsci.com/article/technology/how-make-powdered-booze-home

Well that's certainly worth trying. Thanks for sharing the link, I might have to play around with that.

Now I need to find a good beer powder to mix with it.

Or I suppose I could just use grape coolaid and this to make some MD 20/20

Sounds like a concoction arrived at after sampling the products a little too heavily. Since the weight dry is virtually the same wet, why the heck would you bother? I have a bias though, out of firearms and alcohol in the wilderness, I'd choose firearms- so I could go over and shoot the screaming drunk a-hats at the campsite across the lake from me.

It appears that powdered alcohol, home or commercially produced, is mixed with an absorbent powder. If one is looking to save weight and space in a backpack, this would not be moving in the right direction. As for using "palcohol" in a stove, I'm thinking it would gum things up quite a bit. Sugar burns, so the powdered alcohol may burn, but probably not in a satisfactory way for backpacking purposes. Now, for avoiding spills or carrying alcohol where liquids but not powders are of concern...HMM!

Agreed! And then you have the remarkable experience of tasting that dextrose....yum. So you don't really dry the alcohol--you a powdered compound into the alcohol until it has absorbed all the alcohol...which can then be dissolved in water.

Yeesh.

From the how-to article:

"If you store your powdered alcohol in a sealed container with one of those (non-edible!) silica gel packets, some of the water will be selectively absorbed by the silica, and the powder will become more powdery."

Even Everclear has some water in it, so there could (in theory) be some weight savings if you removed water that way.

I'd think the containers needed to carry the powder could by lighter than those used for liquids too, so this could be handy for drinks like hot cocoa and other powdered drink mixes.

If there was a beer powder to mix with it you could save a lot of weight. Even a beer flavor concentrate could save a lot of weight. I don't know how you'd carbonate it, maybe one of those BB gun CO2 cartridges and a special keg like cup.

We have to be positive. It could happen. Backpackers are pretty innovative, and so are beer drinkers. I'm keeping the faith they can do it because programmers are generally lazy. If we can't make an app for that then it probably won't get done.

They've already done this with Pat's Backcountry Brew (https://www.patsbcb.com). Not light, but lighter than carrying a six pack with you. Haven't tried it (I'm not a beer drinker), but it seems interesting, especially in colder weather when you can get ice cold water.

...and then take their booze?

Well shoot, I'd give that a try. I usually carry in a couple pints in cans now. If it was tasty and I could get 3 pints (or better) for the weight on two I'd do it. Doesn't look like they sell it anywhere near me, but I might be able to get a local store to order some for me. It's worth a shot! (<- good pun eh? :D)

I'm not a big beer drinker, so this one is not for me. Still, I'm interested in knowing about how the set up compares to carrying a few beers. You would need the concentrate, safe water, preferably cold, the CO2 cartridge, and the charging unit. It sounds like a lot to carry. I can see its value for long-term camp or cabin. This product might cut a lot of weight and storage space. If cost-effective, some place like the Phantom Ranch on the Bright Angel Trail in the bottom of the Grand Canyon could put this set up to great use. They have to carry in beer on mule-back to sell to visitors. It may even make soda possible there. When we visited, it was iced tea or beer. With temps as high as 120 F some afternoons, even someone who rarely consumes beer thought a cold one tasted great. REI showed one of the soda flavors on clearance last night, so you might find at least the accessories at REI.