How many calories in boiled down grain alcohol?

The alcohol evaporates. It’s less dense than water and evaporates more quickly (and at a lower temperature.) I’m assuming this means any component of the spirit your using that is not alcohol remains (sugar?, particulate, etc.)

Hard to say, really.

When you distill liquor from its native 18% up to various higher points, you use a still because it allows you to separate alcohol and water—alcohol boils at a slightly lower temperature than water, so through successive boilings and distillations you can increase the amount of alcohol in it.

When you bake or cook with alcohol, you’re usually using something with less than 50% alcohol, so the alcohol can mostly get cooked out (and more so if you’ve mixed that alcohol with other liquid), however 190-proof everclear cannot be further distilled—it just sticks around at 95% alcohol due to some funny chemistry.

The aromatic terpenoid you mention has a high solubility in alcohol (which is why you use that to draw it out), and then as you cook it down, both the alcohol and water will evaporate out of it. The alcohol won’t denature into sugar, so I’d guess you’re still dealing with a pretty close to 95% alcohol solution. Maybe closer to 75% by the time you’re done.

(This is all different if you’re in california and can’t buy Everclear 190, and did this with Everclear 151…)

You’re looking at something like like the same calories per gram as sugar, assuming 75% alcohol content.

Oh, you clever little fish.

@Grumpyfish – Thanks for the explanation!!