What happened to all the sugar?

[Duncs]

I made 25 litres of 20% "alcohol" using the Alcotec 48 turbo yeast and 8kg of sugar, after about 10 days the hydrometer was down to about 0.980 and was very dry tasting. I then added the activated charcoal to attempt to remove the off flavours (didn't work) and added it to bottles along with the various flavourings.

When it came to drinking it, I found that it didn't get me drunk in any way what-so-ever, even after a whole 70cl bottle. So, what happened? where did all the sugar go, could it have been converted into something other than ethanol? what have I been drinking?

 

[graysalchemy]

Methanol? :lol: :lol:

 

[Duncs]

That was one of my first thoughts :lol: , but 20% methanol in a 70cl bottle is more than enough to turn you blind.

I'll have to keep up the ethanol intake as that's used as a treatment for methanol poisoning :whistle:

 

[alanywiseman.]

I agree, You need plenty of ethanol just to make sure!!! :lol: :lol:

 

[calumscott]

hang on a mo...

8kg in 25l is a beersmith estimated OG 1.123. Down to 0.980 gives 19.2%

A whole 70cl means 134ml ethanol (if we ignore the volume of the flavourings).

That would be the equivalent of around 4 and a half pints of decent beer.

You should have got at least a buzz off that!

How very strange...

A quick google suggests that carbon can catalyse the production of ethene plus diethyl ether, acetaldehyde and l,l'-diethoxyethane from ethanol but in temperature ranges way outside (I would hope) your average home so that can't be right.

19.2% isn't enough to burn... I guess you could gently warm some up to make whatever's there more volatile and try to light it Christmas Pudding style? That said, that only proves that you've got a flamable hydrocarbon...

...erm...

http://www.eng.umd.edu/~nsw/ench485/lab9e.htm :wha:

 

[Moley]

70cl of 19.2% abv is about the same as half a bottle of vodka or Scotch, so that would put me on my back if consumed in one evening.

Flowers of Wine, or mycoderma, can turn alcohol back into carbon dioxide and water, but I doubt if that could happen in 10 days and I assume there was no white skin on the top of your brew.

I don't understand either :wha:

 

[calumscott]

Is there a commercial "send it away and have it analysed" lab anywhere...? I would have thought just an ethanol assay would be quite cheap...? (Said he knowing feck all about the industry...)

Would be really quite fascinating I reckon.

 

[Duncs]

No, there was no white skin on top, fermentation went off without any issues. It's there any way that the alcohol had sunk to the bottom or floated to the top? I can't see how that could be possible :wha:

 

[bobsbeer]

I'm not really surprised you were not drunk if you are a regular drinker. According to my calculations 8kg sugar in 25lt only gives you about 17% ABV. So depending on the length of time it took to drink a 70cl bottle it is not a lot of alcohol.

 

[Duncs]

It wasn't just me, there were a few of us sampling it, a bottle each. One of us did say they felt "something" and they are not regular drinkers

 

[oldbloke]

Any volume loss when it went through the charcoal? It's the only additive you mention so I have to make a wild guess that your alcohol somehow stuck to it.

 

[Duncs]

Didn't notice any volume loss, certainly not 20% anyway. I think I'll have to put this down to "Something went horribly wrong with this batch, better luck next time"