Denatured Alcohol Banned in California

I see tech companies set up satellite offices but generally as Derek and Craig describe: Austin, Boulder, LowCal, Route 2 in MA (the original silicon valley) where there’s culture and decent restaurants, lots of other professional jobs and universities.  And, yeah, highly-educated workers often have highly-educated spouses and metro areas offer more possibilities of you each finding a job.

But there are some of us who want the wilderness to be very close and there’d be some fraction of the workforce that also values that (and the cheap, spectacular land).  Such a company would have quite a recruitment draw for some candidates.  That said, many Alaskan job interviews, after both sides have said yes, switch to what I call the anti-interview, “Do you know it can be -40?”, “There can be snow from October through April?”, “Or hardly any useable snow another year?”  “How does your spouse feel about Alaska?”, “Have they been?”,  “In winter?”. because there are so many people (or often they spouse) who bails after the first winter or two.

I haven’t measured 151-proof  Everclear compared to denatured alcohol in actual stove use, but it’s a fair bit less – not only is 25% of your “fuel” actually water (a bit more, since it’s 75% alcohol, 25% water by volume) so it’s 70%/30% by weight and that 30% dead weight also consumes BTUs in heating and boiling away that water content.

(BTUs are consumed to vaporize both the ethanol and the water, but the alcohol then burns, while the water vapor is just lost.)

I calculate that compared to pure ethanol’s heat content of 11,500 BTU/pound (denatured blends would be similar), 151-proof has 8,050 BTU/pound of which 340 are needed to heat and boil away that 30% that is water for a net value of 7,710.

Versus 190-proof netting out with 9,940 BTU/pound.  But you can multi-purpose it as a beverage (mixer, really).

The first list google I found (I haven’t checked them all):

It is legal to sell Everclear 190 in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, and in some military stores within the continental United States. (31 states)

The 151-proof variety is legally available for sale in California, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and some other states. (11 states).

Unsurprisingly, Utah is not on either list.

Hmmmm….I notice no one here is talking about moving to Utah…

I was in Saint George Utah for a conference and went out for dinner at a brew pub (with the brew master from Kodiak Island who’s a great guy to talk beer with), had 2 or 3 different beers, and wasn’t feeling any buzz at all.  Looked closely at the bottles – 3.2% beer!  It seemed so 70’s.

A very small side story. I worked in Nuigini for a couple of years. This country has several dry provinces where alcohol is strictly forbidden but the Russian helicopter pilots [ Hevi-Lift company] could always find vodka, very cheap vodka. It came in 200 litre drums as “helicopter de-icing fluid” and as it was 97.5% ethanol all it needed was a little orange juice and away you went.
No additives or bitterents, just booze, powerful stuff and a glass could maybe kill you if you were stupid enough to drink it straight.

Just picked up four bottles of yellow Heet at Wally World. Seven dollars out the door.  Two bottles still on the shelf

@davidinkenai: Kind of like decaffeinated coffee…what’s the point?

Yellow Heet isn’t safe as a fuel unless you wear gloves and a mask. My $0.02.

Anybody here ever been to Ireland in the ’70s/’80s and drunk real Irish Stout at 9% alcohol? I have and I didn’t know what hit me when I walked out into the cold.

Its funny how alcohol stoves get such a reaction. I tried them and never had much luck.  Eventually I went to cold food only for short trips or an actual canister stove for longer trips. I’m sort of surprised they are still so popular.

@moondog55: I spent the summer of 1983 studying international law at Trinity College of Law in Dublin, with Mary Robinson (a few years later the first woman president of Ireland) as one of my professors. I just might have had a real Irish stout. Or two.

@cameron: I like alcohol because I can make my own never-fail stove, it is quiet, nominally sustainable, and generally lighter on trips of a week or less (13 oz. for my cook kit with 8 liquid oz. of fuel to boil 4 cups of water per day for 7 days vs. 15 oz. for Fire Maple Hornet with small canister and plastic 16 oz (capacity) cup vs. 24 oz. for Windburner with small canister). Caveat: I just boil water. Even when I catch fish I cut them up and make fish soup/stew. If I was truly a backcountry chef and wanted to simmer or bake then I would either go with a Flat Cat setup from Jon Fong or a canister stove.

Cant find any DA around here.  Heet is all that’s left.  I’m sure they’ll find a way to get rid it it also.   Did find Ethanol fireplace fuel on Amazon.  Oh well.  Back to gas canisters.

Being a weight weenie was all that kept me interested in alcohol systems for short hikes.  And having a can of fuel on hand at home.  Canisters always have been the go-to for longer hikes.

If fuel sourcing has indeed become a pain (methanol HEET doesn’t sound as good to me vs ethanol and Everclear is expensive)  switching back to a canister for all trips is not a big deal.  Not using an alcohol system is definitely not an issue I’m going to get worked up over.

Maybe I’ll revisit the magnifying glass apparatus I designed .  It’s burned enough ants and started a few fires.  Prolly could work to boil water

@regis101: Actually, I made a 141 gram roughly parabolic solar cooker from reflectix a few years ago. Took 3.5 hours to heat boil 2 cups of water to 208 *F if I recall correctly. Works very nicely if you set a base camp vs. thru hiking:

Looks good.  With my luck Cali  will find some way of charging me for using their Sun