Rice wine/White Lightning update!!

[Royal Dragon]

Ok, I have been cold distilling my last batch of rice wine in the freezer over, and over again. I have distilled out the water 8 times now, and there is less than 25% of the original gallon left. I just tasted my shine, and it actully BURNED my THROAT on the way down!!

I just had a tiny sip too!!

I think this batch might actually be too strong for making jow? :D

[Oso]

aw, shucks...guess you'll just have to drink it.

[Royal Dragon]

Hee, hee, hee!! I'm afraid I might go blind!! :D

[Mas Judt]

As a medium Alcohol offers two benefits in herbalism - it evaporates nicely, and it inhibits mold and mildew.

I doubt you could make alcohol 'too strong' to make jow.

But I could be wrong being as I only know some hit medicine. Any herbalists out there?

[Royal Dragon]

I have *Heard* that when you get straight shines and stuff like that the alcohal "Burns" the herbs.

I am not sure this is true though, because I know in China they use distilled Rice wine for making herbal formulas, I just don't know if they mean something like a voldka (40%), or if they mean like Everclear which is almost pure alcohal.

I do know this, I can make 2 gallons of 40-50% and make twice as much jow, for half the work, of taking the same amount of alcohal, and distilling it a dozen times in my freezer to get 1 gallon at 80% or higher alcohol content.

So for me, Freezer distilling it 3 times is where I'm stopping...unless I just feel the need to show off my newly aquired Alcohal making skills! :D

[Mas Judt]

I was taught to use as high a proof as possible.

[Royal Dragon]

Have you used everclear? How did it work?

Using the higherst proof possible makes sense to me, as you would get the jow much faster that way.

[Mas Judt]

The stringest things i have used are 120% vodka or rubbing alcohol.

the rubbing alcohol worked excellently.

[omarthefish]

The volume on your stereo goes up to 11 too doesn't it.

[Royal Dragon]

Something cut 120% is really about 60% actual alcohal.

200% doubles the volume, and you have 50% alcohol.

[Dale Dugas]

Everclear is too **** strong. You do not need to have anything that close in strength to make decent medicine. Your medicine will be like mud.

Rubbing alcohol over time will break down into acetone and that is deadly to use on or in us puny humans. Always avoid using rubbing alcohol to make medicine. I know its cheap but chemistry can kill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubbing_alcohol

[Royal Dragon]

What happens if your alcohal is too strong?

[herb ox]

For jow a proper balance of alcohol and water needs to be in place. Some of the herbal compounds are water soluble while others are alcohol soluble. Not to mention part of the jow is a lubricant for the tuina that accompanies the treatment. Too much alcohol and the liniment is too 'dry'. Too much water and the mix will spoil.

This topic has come up quite a few times in this forum - http://martial.best.vwh.net/forum/showthread.php?t=40556&highlight=dit+da+jow

peace out

herb ox

[PlumDragon]

This is actually a pretty complicated topic at its core from a Chemistry perspective and its really beyond the scope of an internet forum. If you are really interested in this topic, I recommend you take a 2-semester general Chemistry College course and either take a follow-Organic Chem class, or get yourself a good O-Chem textbook. Cliffs Notes are: You need a balanced mix of both ethanol and water.
To offer up a bit of rhetoric:

Water is one of the best solvents on the planet. It just doesnt have any invigorating properties. And since its highly polar, while it does a fantastic job of dissolving items that are also polar, it has a more difficult time dissolving substances that are not polar--It would rather H-bond to itself than the alternative.

Alcohol has the interesting property that while it is polar (not NEARLY as much as water though), it can also be used to dissolve polar and non-polar substances, some due to its dielectric constants and dipole moments, and also due to some other things. It also is an invigorator and an antiseptic, which makes it favorable.

Most oils are nonpolar, giving them the soft gliding feel, and tend to dissolve a whole different group of items, but they spoil easily given the common anaerobic environment that is indicative of an infusion. Therefore, they dont well relax some of the boundary conditions inherent in making large batches of herbal "schtuff".

Academically, its important to keep in mind that these are NOT blacks and whites, but shades of gray. Water still dissolves non-polar molecules into solution, just not nearly as effectively as alcohol or an oil (which in the end isnt the best choice for a solvent because of this). Then of course, there is the idea of adding both water, alcohol and oil into the same item, which is kind of what takes place with Thai Oil. Problem being it separates, but fortunately we have created this great ivention called a surfactant...And you use it everyday when you wash your dishes. Its something that might well be worth research for future innovation.

Im rambling now, so...Bottom line is that each and every molecule is going to have a special way of interacting with a water or ethanol molecule. Fortunately, we can get MOST of the stuff out of a given ingredient with water and ethanol mixes. What that means is that each recipe will have an *optimal* proportional mix of water and ethanol. The WORK that is yet to be is to analyze the primary chemicals we are interested in and determine the best solvent to extract them. Coincidentally, its something Im hoping to work on in the future...

For all intents and purposes, between 30-50% alcohol is about where you should be. For all but the people trying to measure stuff with chromotpgraphy, etc, it really makes very little difference where you are inside that region. For the indiscriminating, if you make yoru own stuff, store bought Vodka at 40% is a good bet and its pretty much a guarantee that you will notice NO emperical difference between say, 32% and 46% ethanol in solution...