If boiling, all the ethanol will be gone from the pot if boiled long
enough. You are right about the azeotrope, but that is present in the
distillate. The remains in the pot will be alc free (pretty well).

the problem arises when you want pure alcohol, and due to the water-
ethanol azeotrope you can't get better than around 95% alc. by
distillation. Unless you add benzene, which forms a higher bp
azeotrope with water. Not a good solution for making 100 % alc. that
you want to drink though, chances of benzene traces in distillate.

That's why 180 proof is as high as you get for drinking.

btw, this knowledge gleaned from lab, home, and commercial booze
making :)

alistair

On 13-Mar-11, at 4:11 PM, Karl Ploessl wrote:

> Actually it will not boil off. Ethanol and water form an azeotrop,
> meaning you can't separate by distillation. Before water boils, all
> azeotrop will be boilded off first (azeotrop is 95.68% EtOH/4.39%
> water with a boiling point of 78.2 C)
>
> Karl