INFO - Do they really put ethanol into beer, wine and spirits? Yes, no kidding!

What is ethanol? Ethanol is basically a grain alcohol used for beverages and fuel. It is also called ethyl alcohol or drinking alcohol. What most people don’t know is that ethanol is used as a solvent intended for human contact or consumption. Ethanol burns cleanly and has a long history of being used as fuel. In fact, ethanol is what Henry Ford’s Model T vehicle ran on.

People in the Midwest have been making ethanol for a long time because of easy access to the ingredients they need to make it. Sugar ethanol is also easy to make. It was not uncommon for people to have homemade distilleries used to make what was once called moonshine or white lightning.

Besides being used as fuel and in alcoholic beverages, ethanol is also used in medical wipes and most common antibacterial hand sanitizer gels. Ethanol is effective against most bacteria, fungi and many viruses, but is ineffective against bacterial spores.

Ethanol is also sometimes used as an antidote for methanol poisoning and ethylene glycol poisoning, despite ethanol’s own toxicity at high doses. Since ethanol makes a good solvent, it is what most manufacturers used to make perfumes, paints and tinctures.

Pure ethanol is tasteless and odorless. Pure or highly concentrated ethanol may bring about permanent damage to living tissue on contact. It also cools unbroken skin because of its rapid evaporation. Ethanol is also a known depressant and is considered to be a drug. Death from ethyl alcohol poisoning is possible when the blood alcohol level reaches at least 0.4%. The use of ethanol is prohibited if the person is also taking barbiturates, benzodiazepines, narcotics, or phenothiazines. Ethanol is not a known carcinogen, but can aggravate existing cancer.

Did you know that your favorite whiskey or gin contains the same chemical that runs a flex-fuel vehicle? Your beer and your glass of wine likewise contain ethanol. As a matter of fact, each of the following beverages contain the same exact amount of ethanol. Even though they look and taste very different from each other, the intoxicant in each beverage is exactly the same.