{"id":7653,"date":"2017-07-20T23:16:32","date_gmt":"2017-07-21T05:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brutalhammer.com\/?p=7653"},"modified":"2017-07-20T23:16:32","modified_gmt":"2017-07-21T05:16:32","slug":"in-the-clear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brutalhammer.com\/in-the-clear\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Clear?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Good news: As of this month, Everclear “Lite” (the 151 proof version) is legally available in 49 of 50 states. Virginia approved<\/a> the sale of some high-proof grain alcohol in the Commonwealth beginning July 1st, leaving Vermont the only state still holding out.<\/p>\n The bad news: Full-bore 190 Everclear is still illegal in more than a dozen states, Virginia included.<\/p>\n How come? University of Virginia president Teresa Sullivan, during the debate over grain alcohol legalization, likened Everclear to a “date rape drug.”<\/a> That’s what most of the opposition amounts to wherever the subject is debated. Neighboring Maryland, when it outlawed the high-proof stuff in 2014, did so on the grounds of curbing “college sexual assault.”<\/a><\/p>\n Everclear’s evolution into a so-called rape drug is a recent development.\u00a0The brand first\u00a0appeared back in 1950, a creation of the long-gone American Distilling Company. Booze distributor Luxco acquired the label in 1981 and still owns it today. Through all these years it’s never been advertised, never pitched to entice college students or the party crowd, and barely acknowledged. If anything, Luxco has tried to clean up<\/a> Everclear’s image, quietly pointing out its uses as a blank canvas for adventurous mixologists<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cAre we dumping it into a trashcan? No. We\u2019re creating something with it, something that is not available in stores. That appeals to me.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n