Swabbed With Vodka, Now Taste Anise

[dctune]

The general thought there is that rubbing alcohol has additives that are not fit for human consumption so only the "pure" stuff will do.

Gotcha. And makes sense. There was a girl in my 6th grade class who had to get her stomach pumped after she drank some rubbing alcohol.

I’ve also personally never been comfortable with using hydrogen peroxide for mouthwash. But there’s a lot of folks who do it. Not for me.

 

[dctune]

Baby wipes likely have fragrances and other foul tasting chemicals.

For sure. Though the ones we have specifically do not have a fragrance or chemicals. Otherwise, I would have just wetted a paper towel. Which is what I’ve always done before.

Fortunately, the wipes (or paper towels when I use those) aren’t in contact with the inside of the bowl for more than maybe 3 seconds. Just a quick dab. I mainly use them to clean the rim and sides. So far, no ill effects on finishes.

 

[Briar Lee]

So it seems Everclear is the spirit of choice. I’ll see if I can snag it here in KY. But I have a Q for everyone. And it might be a dumb Q. But as the saying goes: there’s no dumb Qs, just dumb questioners. So I might be checking both boxes here.

If Everclear is 90% alcohol, why is it preferable to just using rubbing alcohol?

Never use rubbing (wood or methyl) alcohol inside a pipe because methyl alcohol is a deadly poison even in small amounts. Beverage alcohol is ethyl alcohol, whether in wine, beer, or hard liquor. And I won’t touch moonshine because of the very real danger of it containing fusil oils that can make you go blind or kill you. Use factory booze.

Vodka and Everclear are virtually the same product as far as they are distilled from “neutral grains” and are supposed to be tasteless. To get up to 95% alcohol Everclear must be distilled more than once. Vodka is grain alcohol cut with water to lower the proof.

I use Everclear 190 proof (95%) because it has more solvent action than 80 proof (40%) vodka, and alcohol dries quicker than water.

No matter which kind of booze you’ve used to clean your pipe a few days ago the alcohol is long gone by now, evaporated away. Rum might leave a little rum taste, grain alcohol in theory leaves no taste at all behind.

Most all commercial pipe sweeteners use ethyl alcohol as the main ingredient. Alcohol somehow does, temporarily sweeten pipe smoke.

My opinion of what’s causing your pipe to taste like sweet anise, is that you’ve softened the tars and resins in the airway and that goo, is ghosting your pipe with anise.

Try deep cleaning your pipe with vodka, and letting it dry a day before smoking it.

My kids are all grown up enough now to not get into my Everclear, but if there’s a kid in the house Everclear presents a danger some fool kid like I was fifty years ago might chug it and die of alcohol overdose or burn their mouth.

Of course, a kid can figure out a lot of ways to not live to comb gray hair, but most survive to adulthood anyway.

 

[dctune]

Never use rubbing (wood or methyl) alcohol inside a pipe because methyl alcohol is a deadly poison even in small amounts. Beverage alcohol is ethyl alcohol, whether in wine, beer, or hard liquor. And I won’t touch moonshine because of the very real danger of it containing fusil oils that can make you go blind or kill you. Use factory booze.

Vodka and Everclear are virtually the same product as far as they are distilled from “neutral grains” and are supposed to be tasteless. To get up to 95% alcohol Everclear must be distilled more than once. Vodka is grain alcohol cut with water to lower the proof.

I use Everclear 190 proof (95%) because it has more solvent action than 80 proof (40%) vodka, and alcohol dries quicker than water.

No matter which kind of booze you’ve used to clean your pipe a few days ago the alcohol is long gone by now, evaporated away. Rum might leave a little rum taste, grain alcohol in theory leaves no taste at all behind.

Most all commercial pipe sweeteners use ethyl alcohol as the main ingredient. Alcohol somehow does, temporarily sweeten pipe smoke.

My opinion of what’s causing your pipe to taste like sweet anise, is that you’ve softened the tars and resins in the airway and that goo, is ghosting your pipe with anise.

Try deep cleaning your pipe with vodka, and letting it dry a day before smoking it.

My kids are all grown up enough now to not get into my Everclear, but if there’s a kid in the house Everclear presents a danger some fool kid like I was fifty years ago might chug it and die of alcohol overdose or burn their mouth.

Of course, a kid can figure out a lot of ways to not live to comb gray hair, but most survive to adulthood anyway.

All great info and advice.

And that’s an interesting point about going blind. I had some dear friends who were missionaries in Nairobi, Kenya for several years. One of the things they were absolutely taken aback by at first were the papers apparently always reporting about who had either died or gone blind from drinking stuff brewed &/or distilled locally. The blindness part always struck me as particularly odd. Now I know! Thank you!

Also, thankfully all the anise flavor has smoked out as of now. Glad it was temporary.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

So it seems Everclear is the spirit of choice. I’ll see if I can snag it here in KY. But I have a Q for everyone. And it might be a dumb Q. But as the saying goes: there’s no dumb Qs, just dumb questioners. So I might be checking both boxes here.

If Everclear is 90% alcohol, why is it preferable to just using rubbing alcohol?

If you have access to Isopropyl Alcohol then there's no reason to use Ethanol.

Methanol is dangerous, especially in pure form, though the moonshiners will tell you the risks are overstated.

 

[instymp]

Vodka can be made from potato's and grapes also, if one has allergies to grain. I believe.
I think most of the going blind from moonshine stuff was related to shine made using old radiators and such.
Good shine won't make you blind but will make you blind drunk if consumed in quantity.

 

[captainsousie]

I feel the need to clarify a common misunderstanding. Rubbing alcohol (isopropanol) is not the same as wood alcohol or methanol. It is not good to consume but is fine for topical use. It also will not cause the nasty effects of methanol.

 

[captainsousie]

Vodka can be made from potato's and grapes also, if one has allergies to grain. I believe.
I think most of the going blind from moonshine stuff was related to shine made using old radiators and such.
Good shine won't make you blind but will make you blind drunk if consumed in quantity.

Many of the issues with bad 'shine come from not removing the heads or tails (or in some cases drinking only those ??). Higher alcohols are pretty nasty things.

 

[dctune]

Vodka can be made from potato's and grapes also, if one has allergies to grain. I believe.
I think most of the going blind from moonshine stuff was related to shine made using old radiators and such.
Good shine won't make you blind but will make you blind drunk if consumed in quantity.

?‍?

 

[dctune]

I feel the need to clarify a common misunderstanding. Rubbing alcohol (isopropanol) is not the same as wood alcohol or methanol. It is not good to consume but is fine for topical use. It also will not cause the nasty effects of methanol.

This is a helpful distinction.

 

[anotherbob]

Anything over 150 proof is illegal in California, Hawaii, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Washington.

to sell right? I know it was in Pa for a while but bringing it from Maryland was fine.

 

[anotherbob]

Farmer - my horse is ill.
Other farmer - When my horse was ill I gave it turpentine.

2 weeks later
Farmer - I gave my horse turpentine and it died.
Other farmer - Aye, so did mine.

reminds me of this bad joke.
When someone has a bad cough. Tell them "oh that sounds real bad just like the cough my uncle had before he died"
When they ask what he died from "he got shot or hit by a car"

 

[anotherbob]

I don't feel like the vodka would have that flavor. Maybe it brought it out. Like maybe it's in the tobacco you smoked a few GlPease blends seem to have really super light flavors added. Maybe before the pipe was clean the slight ghost covered it up. And yeah the touch he uses seems to be something you might not notice till half way through a tin.

 

[dctune]

I don't feel like the vodka would have that flavor. Maybe it brought it out. Like maybe it's in the tobacco you smoked a few GlPease blends seem to have really super light flavors added. Maybe before the pipe was clean the slight ghost covered it up. And yeah the touch he uses seems to be something you might not notice till half way through a tin.

I didn’t think it would either. But it was consistent across all the pipes I cleaned and with smoking dif tobaccos. However, I suppose it could have been ghosts from a specific blend I had smoked in all three of those pipes previously, and not the vodka.

 

[dctune]

reminds me of this bad joke.
When someone has a bad cough. Tell them "oh that sounds real bad just like the cough my uncle had before he died"
When they ask what he died from "he got shot or hit by a car"

I wanna die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather did. Not awake and screaming like everybody else did in the car he was driving.

 

[anotherbob]

I wanna die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather did. Not awake and screaming like everybody else did in the car he was driving.

that's a classic bad joke.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Baby wipes likely have fragrances and other foul tasting chemicals.

Not the unscented ones, they're fine to use especially in pipes like meerschaum and cobs where any carbon build up is undesirable.

 

[Chasing Embers]

The general thought there is that rubbing alcohol has additives that are not fit for human consumption so only the "pure" stuff will do.

SPC uses denatured alcohol for their estate restorations.

 

[Briar Lee]

Shorty before Decoration Day in 1937 16 year old J W Ray, a shirttail relative of my father’s mother, a devout Campbellite, and descended from dark horse Missouri cavalrymen (8th Mo State Militia Union) ) was headed for a dance when in the woods near Jordan, Missouri he encountered a moonshiner named Rolf England. The boy knew better than to drink moonshine, but since England was a neighbor, on a dare he took a long drink from what later was supposed was the first run of the still.

This caused him to become violently I’ll, and soon to bleed from his eyes, and although the case became hopeless he refused to play a Judas and name the moonshiner.

The night riders were preparing torches and preparing to ride, if J W Ray died, to administer vigilante justice to a grown man who knowingly allowed an innocent boy to drink from his still, when Campbellite Reverend Guy Howard saw the impending violence and ran through the woods to warn England. Howard later wrote that England denied it, but his eyes betrayed his guilt.

Howard returned to the Ray home before J W died in agony, and the night riders then found that England and his family had slipped across the county line to Benton County, where the law was stronger, and were dissuaded from pursuit by Howard, and their wives.

My friend J C lovingly helps maintain the grave of J W Ray, who is to this day used as a lesson never to drink moonshine, by Campbellite mothers to their sons.



Rolf England repented of his wicked ways and on his good behavior lived to a ripe old age.

But his brother that lived in Benton County continued to make moonshine until he was finally caught one too many times and sent to prison. On his release he too, gave up making moonshine.

Some speculate that it was his moonshine and not Rolf’s, that killed J W Ray.

But all agree, that if you can’t afford $8 for a cheap fifth of safe factory liquor, it’s best to stay dry.

 

[Carol]

I'm a newbie here, so maybe shouldn't get involved. But I have to this time. Drinking alcohol, like vodka, moonshine, etc, is Ethyl alcohol. Ok in moderation. But rubbing alcohol is Isopropyl alcohol, a poison. And as others have said, also contains other chemicals. You don't want that stuff in your pipes.