Request for a voice of reason (who actually knows these things...)

[thanate]

So Brian was talking to his friend on the phone, and asked: "When we distill alcohol-- what's the difference between that and percolating?" (and later on: "This might be the best thing ever, or it might explode, I don't know.")

Does anybody know how a coffee percolator works? My pathetic websearch skills are not finding the answer to this. But it doesn't make sense to me that this would involve the same process at all-- I mean, to make coffee, you've got to drip water through coffee grounds, yes? So distilling would produce water that was less coffee-filled than filtration, right? And none of us (Brian, Carey or me) has any actual idea of how the percolator works, except that they have a glass bit on top where you can watch things steam. But if nothing else, if this were actually a viable option, surely one of us would have heard of it before, right?

Brian says he wishes to fight for the legal right to kill himself by distilling his own alcohol...

----

Ok, TR came in at about 3:15 or so and delivered an impassioned lecture on causing oneself blindness or death by distilling alcohol at uncontroled temperatures, explained the actual premise of distillation, and then gave Brian a phone number for a friend of his who actually makes various sorts of distilled alcohols (mead, and strong cider, and absynthe, which is actually what Brian has been trying to make for the past month or so and failing miserably.) Carey and I listened to them and laughed our heads off... I guess occasionally these people are worth keeping around for the entertainment value alone...

Comments

[rosnbery.livejournal.com]

Distilling is also completely different than percolating.