Alchoholic Drinks as a substitute for X
February 20, 2022 3:26 PM Subscribe
Very random question here: I spilled some beer in my fridge, and thought "oh no, how will I clean that up, and the fridge gunk that I spilled it on".
Turns out, all I needed was a sponge: the beer itself was a very good cleaner.
(N.B. this was a 9% ABU IPA, if that matters).
My question: surely I'm not the first to notice this - I'm sure there is a long history of using alcoholic drinks for other uses. In the movies, they pour whiskey on the injury. In my life, apparently, I mop up spaghetti stains with beer. What else?
(Bonus points for super old historical texts)
Turns out, all I needed was a sponge: the beer itself was a very good cleaner.
(N.B. this was a 9% ABU IPA, if that matters).
My question: surely I'm not the first to notice this - I'm sure there is a long history of using alcoholic drinks for other uses. In the movies, they pour whiskey on the injury. In my life, apparently, I mop up spaghetti stains with beer. What else?
(Bonus points for super old historical texts)
IIRC a rag soaked in whiskey or vodka is supposed to sooth a toothache
posted by muddgirl at 3:47 PM on February 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by muddgirl at 3:47 PM on February 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Threadsit: more bonus points for info about the type of alchohol - does beer vs. wine matter? or is it only the % or proof that is important? Can you clean wounds with Sangria? Can you spritz your clothes with Gin?
"They had to make due with Gin, with Gin, they had to make due with Gin"
posted by soylent00FF00 at 3:49 PM on February 20, 2022 [4 favorites]
"They had to make due with Gin, with Gin, they had to make due with Gin"
posted by soylent00FF00 at 3:49 PM on February 20, 2022 [4 favorites]
You can spritz your clothes with gin, but they will smell a little like gin. Gin has flavor agents in it that vodka doesn't. Anything that is mostly alcohol plus water will kill bacteria and evaporate without a smell. The smell of alcohol that has spilled and dried is mostly the smell of what else was in it (so, sugars, botanicals, and so on) plus any bacteria that is feasting on the sugars.
Cheap vodka can work similarly to vinegar as a cleaner. But vinegar is still cheaper.
posted by blnkfrnk at 3:53 PM on February 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
Cheap vodka can work similarly to vinegar as a cleaner. But vinegar is still cheaper.
posted by blnkfrnk at 3:53 PM on February 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
I've used a 151 proof rum floater to sanitize a pelican bite.
posted by credulous at 3:53 PM on February 20, 2022 [47 favorites]
posted by credulous at 3:53 PM on February 20, 2022 [47 favorites]
Gripe Water, you know, for babies.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 3:54 PM on February 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Cold Lurkey at 3:54 PM on February 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
Having gone through an entire year of sanitizing lab benches with 70% ethanol because COVID: high proof alcohol is actually not that great at removing gunk, because it evaporates pretty quick and has no surfactants. Your beer probably worked better because it could soak.
posted by deludingmyself at 4:03 PM on February 20, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by deludingmyself at 4:03 PM on February 20, 2022 [7 favorites]
Response by poster: to sanitize a pelican bite.
Did you get bit by a pelican (the sea bird) or (the kayak)? More importantly, was Jimmy Buffet playing in the background?
Details matter, people. :-)
posted by soylent00FF00 at 4:04 PM on February 20, 2022 [4 favorites]
Did you get bit by a pelican (the sea bird) or (the kayak)? More importantly, was Jimmy Buffet playing in the background?
Details matter, people. :-)
posted by soylent00FF00 at 4:04 PM on February 20, 2022 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: high proof alcohol is actually not that great at removing gunk
I think I read somewhere that alchohol + water is best, since water is also "the universal solvent" - might have been a study about killing COVID particles?
posted by soylent00FF00 at 4:13 PM on February 20, 2022
I think I read somewhere that alchohol + water is best, since water is also "the universal solvent" - might have been a study about killing COVID particles?
posted by soylent00FF00 at 4:13 PM on February 20, 2022
Pure grain alcohol can be used to preserve scientific specimens though if you swap out the government supplied ethanol for methanol from your Air Force acquaintances you can still preserve your specimens and make field work more enjoyable.
posted by Mitheral at 4:38 PM on February 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Mitheral at 4:38 PM on February 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
Alcohols are amphiphilic: like soaps they have a charged ("polar") end and a non-charged ("non-polar") end. The non-charged end can help dissolve bits of dirt, while the charged end likes water and can be washed away with it, dirt included.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 4:40 PM on February 20, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 4:40 PM on February 20, 2022 [7 favorites]
club soda is pretty good at breaking up stains and sticky spots, maybe the carbonation in the beer was also a helpful factor?
posted by euphoria066 at 5:34 PM on February 20, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by euphoria066 at 5:34 PM on February 20, 2022 [5 favorites]
I think I’ve seen a Ruth Goodman show where she is using beer to polish Victorian ?leather? and wooden paneling, because Victorian sources recommended it. I found it hard to believe it wouldn’t wind up sticky.
posted by clew at 5:47 PM on February 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by clew at 5:47 PM on February 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
You can use beer as the sole leavening agent in some beer bread recipes.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:55 PM on February 20, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:55 PM on February 20, 2022 [3 favorites]
People use red wine to dye their hair or fabrics.
Here's 11 ways to use wine around the house from Bob Villa.com
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:59 PM on February 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
Here's 11 ways to use wine around the house from Bob Villa.com
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:59 PM on February 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
I've used a 151 proof rum floater to sanitize a pelican bite.
This is an amazing first line of a yacht rock song.
posted by degoao at 6:01 PM on February 20, 2022 [20 favorites]
This is an amazing first line of a yacht rock song.
posted by degoao at 6:01 PM on February 20, 2022 [20 favorites]
Ancient people ascribed a lot of health benefits to mead, here's a story about modern people who think it may help fight anti-biotic resistant infections in horses and humans.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:04 PM on February 20, 2022
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:04 PM on February 20, 2022
club soda is pretty good at breaking up stains and sticky spots, maybe the carbonation in the beer was also a helpful factor?
Carbon dioxide gas dissolved in liquid creates carbonic acid. This is why club soda cleans well and I'd reckon this goes a long way to explaining the beer as well. Ethanol is pretty close to neutral pH.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:28 PM on February 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
Carbon dioxide gas dissolved in liquid creates carbonic acid. This is why club soda cleans well and I'd reckon this goes a long way to explaining the beer as well. Ethanol is pretty close to neutral pH.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:28 PM on February 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
Use vodka in place of a portion of the water in pie crust dough (and other pastry doughs) to limit gluten development, giving you a tender flaky crust. This works because gluten doesn't form in alcohol.
posted by theory at 7:36 PM on February 20, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by theory at 7:36 PM on February 20, 2022 [6 favorites]
Many years ago I got new neighbors and along with them came cockroaches. A friend came over for dinner one night and brought a bottle of red wine. We drank it out of tumblers. About an inch of wine sat in a tumbler overnight. The next morning it was full of dead cockroaches. I tried buying another bottle of the same wine but couldn't find it and my friend couldn't remember where she had bought it. I tried trapping cockroaches with other red wines but it never worked again. Or maybe all the alcoholic roaches died that night and the sober ones survived.
posted by mareli at 7:50 PM on February 20, 2022 [17 favorites]
posted by mareli at 7:50 PM on February 20, 2022 [17 favorites]
Further to the cockroach trick is the gardener’s time-honoured Slug Pub. Dig a hole with a trowel, place a glass in the hole with the rim at ground level. Pour an inch or so of beer into the glass. Leave it overnight. Slugs crawl in, can’t get out but they die happy.
posted by Pallas Athena at 8:49 PM on February 20, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by Pallas Athena at 8:49 PM on February 20, 2022 [8 favorites]
>. This is why club soda cleans well and I'd reckon this goes a long way to explaining the beer as well.
It's a pretty standard
trick to clean old coins and chrome with soda, presumably the mild acid does the trick.
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:52 PM on February 20, 2022
It's a pretty standard
trick to clean old coins and chrome with soda, presumably the mild acid does the trick.
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:52 PM on February 20, 2022
> I think I read somewhere that alchohol + water is best, since water is also "the universal solvent" - might have been a study about killing COVID particles?
As deludingmyself referred to indirectly, 70% ethanol or isopropanol + 30% water is the standard for killing biological stuff. Note that you don't actually want to go too much lower (less killing) or too much higher (evaporates too quickly, and and it's been proposed that it can cause proteins (and other stuff) to aggregate so fast that they effectively form a bit of a protective barrier around the offending biological entity before the alcohol can get in.)
For cleaning, it depends a bit what kind of thing you're trying to clean: some things are more hydrophobic and may dissolve better in high alcohol (some kinds of inks, for example), but a lot of common gunk (e.g. fridge gunk) tends to be stuff that water is as good or better for. As also discussed in other answers, acidic stuff like vinegar (or basic stuff) can often help with cleaning too.
posted by ASF Tod und Schwerkraft at 11:43 PM on February 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
As deludingmyself referred to indirectly, 70% ethanol or isopropanol + 30% water is the standard for killing biological stuff. Note that you don't actually want to go too much lower (less killing) or too much higher (evaporates too quickly, and and it's been proposed that it can cause proteins (and other stuff) to aggregate so fast that they effectively form a bit of a protective barrier around the offending biological entity before the alcohol can get in.)
For cleaning, it depends a bit what kind of thing you're trying to clean: some things are more hydrophobic and may dissolve better in high alcohol (some kinds of inks, for example), but a lot of common gunk (e.g. fridge gunk) tends to be stuff that water is as good or better for. As also discussed in other answers, acidic stuff like vinegar (or basic stuff) can often help with cleaning too.
posted by ASF Tod und Schwerkraft at 11:43 PM on February 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
When I worked at a midlevel restaurant in Spain almost 20 years ago, they gave us cheap gin to hand rinse the silverware: the boss maintained that dishwasher residue was never quite gone until doused in some real rotgut stuff.
I was sacked from that job for incompetence, which I readily admit to, but I think the real reason was because I could explain the menu better than anyone else to Americans and that always meant huge tips. We'll never know.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 3:09 AM on February 21, 2022 [5 favorites]
I was sacked from that job for incompetence, which I readily admit to, but I think the real reason was because I could explain the menu better than anyone else to Americans and that always meant huge tips. We'll never know.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 3:09 AM on February 21, 2022 [5 favorites]
Shellac starts out as a resinous shelter created by the lac bug. The raw lac is melted down into flakes that you dissolve in pure ethyl alcohol to apply. It's a furniture polish, candy sealer, fingernail top coat, binder in inks,..+
posted by brachiopod at 7:12 AM on February 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by brachiopod at 7:12 AM on February 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
Veterinary hospitals usually keep a bottle of vodka or Everclear on hand as an antidote to antifreeze poisoning. They also often keep a bottle of gin or whiskey on hand, but that is for the usual reasons.
Don't administer alcohol to your pet without a doctor's guidance. Get to an emergency vet if you suspect antifreeze toxicity - time is of the essence.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:35 AM on February 21, 2022 [3 favorites]
Don't administer alcohol to your pet without a doctor's guidance. Get to an emergency vet if you suspect antifreeze toxicity - time is of the essence.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:35 AM on February 21, 2022 [3 favorites]
I used to have a toddler who enjoyed hiding apple cores around the house, and I therefore have extensive experience of fruit fly infestations, and the best way to get fruit flies drunk and drown them. A shallow vessel of red wine is OK, but much better is cheap red vermouth. 20% ABV and more sugar. Kahlua also worked well.
posted by altolinguistic at 7:58 AM on February 21, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by altolinguistic at 7:58 AM on February 21, 2022 [2 favorites]
Hairspray, which is full of cheaper alcohol, is recommended to clean ballpoint pen stains, and probably others. Alcohol is a solvent. My mom carried a flask in her luggage, it came open, removed color from several items.
You can use everclear to flame a plum pudding (steamed fruit & nut cake) and you can also burn the tablecloth and table.
posted by theora55 at 8:30 AM on February 21, 2022 [3 favorites]
You can use everclear to flame a plum pudding (steamed fruit & nut cake) and you can also burn the tablecloth and table.
posted by theora55 at 8:30 AM on February 21, 2022 [3 favorites]
70% ethanol or isopropanol + 30% water is the standard for killing biological stuff
"20/80", or 20% isopropyl and 80% water is pretty good for removing radioactive contamination. It might work better at higher concentrations, but I'd rather not turn my radioactive thing into a radioactive and on fire thing.
It almost works too good though. It removes the loose surface contamination that could spread to people, but it also then makes fixed contamination that would have been fine as-is leach out and become loose surface contamination, which is not the greatest. Once you use it, you're committed to repeated water wipes until all the leaching stops.
So in case that ever comes up in everyday life.
posted by ctmf at 10:39 AM on February 21, 2022 [6 favorites]
"20/80", or 20% isopropyl and 80% water is pretty good for removing radioactive contamination. It might work better at higher concentrations, but I'd rather not turn my radioactive thing into a radioactive and on fire thing.
It almost works too good though. It removes the loose surface contamination that could spread to people, but it also then makes fixed contamination that would have been fine as-is leach out and become loose surface contamination, which is not the greatest. Once you use it, you're committed to repeated water wipes until all the leaching stops.
So in case that ever comes up in everyday life.
posted by ctmf at 10:39 AM on February 21, 2022 [6 favorites]
In college, I spilled a vodka cranberry on my white shirt. It dried clear... so vodka, for fresh food spills.
posted by DoubleLune at 10:49 AM on February 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by DoubleLune at 10:49 AM on February 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
In Russia, we made compresses with rags soaked in vodka and wrapped them around our neck for sore throat. I don't remember exactly how (I think there was newspaper and a platic bag involved?) and not sure whether there's any science behind that.
posted by never.was.and.never.will.be. at 2:05 PM on February 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by never.was.and.never.will.be. at 2:05 PM on February 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
Cash. In early colonial Australia, there was a hard currency shortage (literally: the colony was so import-dependent that it couldn't keep enough coins or money), so spirits were used as a form of payment and exchange, as well as as a ration for convict labourers. The colony's officers earned the nickname Rum Corps for cornering the market and the monopoly on imports and manufacture.
Bottles of spirits frequently act as cash in modern crisis economies, e.g. the former Soviet Union in the 1990s; they're standard volumes, they store well, they have an inherent value (in that you can always find someone willing to buy or work for one).
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 3:58 PM on February 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
Bottles of spirits frequently act as cash in modern crisis economies, e.g. the former Soviet Union in the 1990s; they're standard volumes, they store well, they have an inherent value (in that you can always find someone willing to buy or work for one).
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 3:58 PM on February 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
Someone once spilled a whole beer right into my long hair at a concert and my hair was sooo smooth and soft afterwards.
posted by potrzebie at 4:24 PM on February 21, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by potrzebie at 4:24 PM on February 21, 2022 [4 favorites]
> "20/80", or 20% isopropyl and 80% water is pretty good for removing radioactive contamination. It might work better at higher concentrations, but I'd rather not turn my radioactive thing into a radioactive and on fire thing. [...] So in case that ever comes up in everyday life.
Admittedly I've always been a Contrad/NoCount person when it comes to cleaning up radioactive contamination, but I'll actually keep this in mind - we've got to decommission some equipment soon.
posted by ASF Tod und Schwerkraft at 8:15 PM on February 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
Admittedly I've always been a Contrad/NoCount person when it comes to cleaning up radioactive contamination, but I'll actually keep this in mind - we've got to decommission some equipment soon.
posted by ASF Tod und Schwerkraft at 8:15 PM on February 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
A few years ago, a colleague spilled beer on his laptop and a bunch of it leaked down through the keyboard. It stopped powering up after that, so he gave it to me to try and fix (I am the general fix-it person at my job, at least for anything out of warranty).
I opened it up and cleaned the innards with denatured alcohol, and lo and behold, it powered right up after that. As such, I suggested in the future that if he ever spills beer on his laptop again, just follow it up with something much stronger.
posted by aecorwin at 11:29 AM on February 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
I opened it up and cleaned the innards with denatured alcohol, and lo and behold, it powered right up after that. As such, I suggested in the future that if he ever spills beer on his laptop again, just follow it up with something much stronger.
posted by aecorwin at 11:29 AM on February 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
Pure alcohol is hygroscopic. I've only done this once but it seemed to work….if you need to take something like an antique chair apart, alcohol on the hide glue in the joint will draw out the water and make it brittle enough that a sharp smack will fracture the glue.
posted by brachiopod at 6:27 PM on February 23, 2022
posted by brachiopod at 6:27 PM on February 23, 2022
Response by poster: So many good answers. I hard to mark the Ukraine one as the best given current events.
I suggested in the future that if he ever spills beer on his laptop again, just follow it up with something much stronger.
Simpsons did it? e.g. alcohol being "the solution to, and cause of , all life's troubles"?
posted by soylent00FF00 at 6:31 PM on February 26, 2022
I suggested in the future that if he ever spills beer on his laptop again, just follow it up with something much stronger.
Simpsons did it? e.g. alcohol being "the solution to, and cause of , all life's troubles"?
posted by soylent00FF00 at 6:31 PM on February 26, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 3:43 PM on February 20, 2022 [3 favorites]