Alcohol of a high quality, especially when produced by top brands, tends to be pretty expensive. Needless to say, many people are seeking the options for purchasing less expensive alcohol especially when they are organising larger parties and really need a great amount of alcohol beverages.
While such an attempt seems to be natural, it is very important to be careful about the choices of alcohol one is making. There are several unpleasant things which can happen to people if alcohol turns out to be of a poor quality. This article will tell you more about the possible outcomes.
Poor organoleptic qualities
Actually, alcohol experts find it a bit challenging for people without a special testing training to be able to identify alcohol of a poor quality especially when it comes to more potent beverages. Indeed, with time a person can distinguish between a beer of a high quality and a beer of a poor quality. For the latter one, it is typical to have a more acute and less balanced taste of alcohol since some of the less ambitious manufacturers tend to add ready-to-use ethanol to their beer instead of letting the drink ferment and have the alcohol in a natural way. The same goes for rather poor types of wine and champagne-like drinks. The reason for such a practice is simple. Adding ethanol will give a finished product with a sufficient amount of alcohol in a shorter way without a need for equipment and infrastructure required for a proper fermentation process.
Still, it is quite possible an unexperienced person will not find anything suspicious in counterfeit drinks with a high amount of alcohol.
Severe hangover
One of the side effects of having alcohol of a poor quality is a severe hangover. This can happen because of all of the residual side products in the alcohol which was not cleared properly. As you can imagine, this is particularly true for potent products.
The most frequently found by-products in such drinks are aldehydes and fusil alcohols. Actually, in the majority of cases these substances are responsible for hangover and they can make a physical condition rather miserable. If you have drunk alcohol beverages of various quality, you have certainly experienced the difference between the intensity of hangover. Of course, there are many other factors which can make a hangover more intense. Yet, it is absolutely true that the less of these by-products there are in the drink, the better a person will feel the next day.
Methanol intoxication
Undeniably, the worst thing which can happen to a person consuming alcohol of a poor quality is methanol intoxication. Even though most of the manufacturers, including the ones who are not particularly concerned about the quality of their products, are still making their best to eliminate methanol in their beverages, there is still a possibility of coming across such products. Actually, the probability of getting poisoned with methanol is particularly high when it comes to the massive events when organisers have to supply many guests with alcohol. Some of the managers of events are trying to save money on alcohol and reach out for cheaper options which can lead to rather unexpected results.
Methanol intoxication of the slightest form can make a hangover experience even more miserable, whereas consumption of this substance in larger quantities can lead to serious problems. Methanol affects the nerves in the eyes permanently which can lead even to a complete loss of vision while it also damages liver and kidney. In addition to it, the substance can also cause pneumonia.
The worst scenario for methanol intoxication is death which can occur within a day or two after consuming even such a small amount of a 40% methanol solution as 15 ml.