Enough with Ethanol, let's distill 1-Propanol!

[jheising]

Sorry for the cheeky thread subject, but does anyone else out there have "naughty" thoughts about 1-Propanol, like I do? What do I mean, you ask?

If you take a look at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Propanol), you'll come across this gem:

1-Propanol is thought to be similar to ethanol in its effects on human body, but 2-4 times more potent.

But all joking aside, it is interesting as a thought experiment don't you think? Since 1-Propanol is created from the fractional distillation of fusel oils, it's certainly possible for a distillery to produce it. A few questions come to my mind:

1. Has anyone ever tasted pure 1-Propanol? The effects are similar to ethanol, but is the taste (or lack thereof) similar?
2. I wonder if it'd be economical to build a specialized still to pull it out from tails distillate?
3. Is there enough of it in beer or wine to make an appreciable amount? Is there a another/better way to produce more fusel oils?
4. What would the TTB think about it? If it's 2-4x more potent, would that mean you could reduce taxes by 2-4x on finished products made with it? (i.e. low proof products, but with the same punch as products with 2-4x more alcohol)

Obviously, unlike ethanol, there isn't a rich history of the understanding of the effects on the human body, but everything I find online (which is limited I admit) says that the chemistry should be very similar to ethanol. To be clear, 2-Propanol is known to be really bad for you, so not all Propanols are created equal.

Anyway, I thought it'd be an interesting discussion if it hasn't already been discussed before. Curious as to what other people think.

[Panoscape]

If you're going down that path, you might want to check out Tert-Amyl alcohol.

[jheising]

Hah— a rodent anesthesia! Not sure if that is in the same class, but I guess enough ethanol will probably put a rodent to sleep too : )

[mendodistilling]

Its ld50 is 4x lower too, not good! You can contact moonshine university and see if they can get you an isolated sample to smell/taste. David Defoe runs flavor man and can probably do this.

[jheising]

Interesting, but yeah I guess that would stand to reason— your body can only get so inebriated before it shuts down. But I still wonder about the proof tax implications. Thanks for the tip on moonshine-u! It also appears you can order it from Sigma-Aldrich (http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/product/sial/402893?lang=en&region=US)