A few weeks ago, I got caught barehanded without Purel and disinfecting wipes, so felt the need to make the homemade concoction. Originally, recipes called for two parts 91% isopropyl alcohol and one part aloe vera gel. Easy I thought. Ha, you laugh. You were right. Bottles of pure aloe vera were easy to get, but finding alcohol of the correct potency proved unsuccessful.
A week later, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) announced that 60% alcohol was satisfactory, upon which my husband calmly turned to me and said, “Everclear.” “Huh?,” I replied. “Everclear,” said my man of few words and began searching the internet.
Moments later, he triumphantly pointed to a photo of a clear bottle of booze on his iPad. In California, Everclear grain alcohol comes 120 proof, meaning it’s 60 percent alcohol. What??? After a week of fruitless hunting for isopropyl alcohol, it turned out this handy substitute was at the liquor store in a nearby town. Within forty minutes, I burst through our door with a 750 ml bottle in each hand – a gleeful buyer of some of the last bottles in the area.
With the hard part over, mixing up the brew was relatively easy. Or so I thought. Two parts alcohol to one part aloe vera, what’s so hard. From the 750 ml bottle, I marked the top, then poured out 250 ml into a measuring cup. Squeezed enough aloe vera into the Everclear bottle to reach the marker. Shake and done…well no, it was a mistake. The green globules simply float around the booze.
I had to pour the mixture into a clean bowl and beat it with a whisk. Like magic, the brew thickened and become cohesive. Now too thick to get it back in the bottle, the green gel was dumped into a one-gallon plastic bag. I cut a corner and squeezed the precious sanitizer back into the Everclear bottle. Later I’ll screw on a pump purchased from a restaurant supply store (search the aisle that has bottled flavorings for coffee- heck, if you’re “shelter in place” then order by mail).
Now that we’re all gathered at home, I have time to ask my human computer about his knowledge of Everclear and it’s alcohol content, which can be up to 190 proof – an unbelievable 95% alcohol. He doesn’t drink, except for an occasional beer, so his detailed knowledge of specialty booze surprised me. Thirty plus years of marriage and still a man of mystery.
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