Is 70% alcohol legal in Ireland ?

Jumboman

I just seen a spirits in an off licence that was 70% alcohol. I'm wondering is this legal in Ireland ? I thought they werent allowed to sell spirits that was more than 50% alcohol.


Has anyone here ever drank 70% spirits ? I would imagine at 70% its very hard to drink.

OldBean

It's 100% legal.

Jumboman

OldBean wrote: »

It's 100% legal.

Not if Róisín Shortall gets her way...

minidazzler

Yes it's legal.

I've had every level of spirit up to 95%, it's more novelty than anything, it's like drinking fire. I got the 95% stuff in America though, where it is illegal in some states, so I had it brought in from Oregon

rubadub

This rumour/myth usually comes about since people see restrictions on some flights for alcohol over a certain %. This is usually since it is a fire hazard, then people wrongly think it is not let in the country they are flying to at all.

I prefer drinking neat spirits at a high %, 60% would be my favourite for vodkas.

Most vodkas are distilled to above 90% and diluted back down. High strength stuff is useful for extracting stuff to make liquers. it is also useful if you use low amounts of mixers, less dilution effect. I am surprised somebody has not jumped on the eco friendly bandwagon and promoted high % stuff as being less wasteful, like double strength detergents etc.

Here is a 90% poitin on sale in dublin http://www.celticwhiskeyshop.com/Knockeen_Hills_Extra_Strength_Poteen-z-product-product-218-context-distillery-page-1.htm

johnnyskeleton

In some countries there is a maximum strength for certain names to apply eg Scottish whisky (although it's a pretty high percentage eg 95%). there are also technical difficulties with producing ethanol closer to 99%.

_blank_

Jumboman wrote: »

Not if Róisín Shortall gets her way...

Not any more. \0/

rubadub

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

In some countries there is a maximum strength for certain names to apply eg Scottish whisky (although it's a pretty high percentage eg 95%).

Heres the irish whiskey law
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1980/en/act/pub/0033/print.html

distilled at an alcoholic strength of less than 94.8% by volume in such a way that the distillate has an aroma and flavour derived from the materials use

94.8% is very high purity wise, I would have thought they would insist on lower to try and retain more aroma/flavour.

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

there are also technical difficulties with producing ethanol closer to 99%.

There is a limit to how pure you can get with regular distillation, its about 96%, and it's physically impossible to go higher (with normal distillation). They can use other methods to "dry" alcohol out to get it closer to 100%. But if you leave a bottle of 99% open it will absorb moisture from the air and dilute itself back down to around 96%. 99%+ would only be needed for chemistry purposes, and the processes used often leave traces of other poisons in it (besides the booze)

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

MadsL

The Czechs recently had to ban alcohol percentages higher than 30% after a spate of methanol deaths. :eek:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Czech_Republic_methanol_poisonings

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/26/czech-republic-alcohol-ban-_n_1917496.html?utm_hp_ref=food&ir=Food

rubadub

MadsL wrote: »

The Czechs recently had to ban alcohol percentages higher than 30% after a spate of methanol deaths. :eek:

I would guess this has nothing directly to do about worrying about high %.

My guess would be they tested loads of alcohol on the market and the bootleggers did not bother counterfeiting any spirits below 30%. Counterfeit drinks below 30% might be more noticeable as it would be typically liquers etc which are harder to fake, as its not just booze but taste they would have to fake.

I have yet to hear of methanol poisoning from home made spirits, it is invariably stolen industrial alcohol. That's why this comment is a bit strange.

Michal, 38, who makes his own plum brandy, or slivovice, illegally, throws away some of each batch to reduce the risk but now will take more precautions.

"This really scared me. I will distil all of my last year's production again to make sure there is no methanol," he said.

Unless he mad the comment before hearing it was industrial methanol.

miju

Jumboman wrote: »

Has anyone here ever drank 70% spirits ? I would imagine at 70% its very hard to drink.

I've a bottle of 40% Raki and 70% Raki as well, have to say 70% goes down alot easier than the 40%