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Comment by Cthulhu_ | Hacker News Reader

Isn't it also the same with alcohol, at least the beverage that people drink? Wine especially is very susceptible to conditions; soil, weather, strain, location, barrels, harvest time, aging conditions/temperature, etc.

Sure, the alcohol chemical is the same everywhere, but so is THC/CBD when you want to reduce it like that. Watered down ethanol is probably a thing but few people drink it like that.

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That affects the taste of the alcohol, but not really the psychoactive effects. Booze is booze is booze.

I used to think so too, but apparently not. Ethanol is chemically the same everywhere, but there are lots of other compounds and different alcohol compounds in booze as well and apparently make a difference in your high and how much your head hurts afterwards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_(chemistry)

What part of that link backs up your claim?

It's a list of some molecules considered alcohols, not things you'd find in an alcoholic beverage.

Granted, I was not happy with that link and am also not so much with this one:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fermentation#Byprodu...

Still, there is the information inside, that not just ethanol gets produced by fermentation, but also other alcohols and the main point was, alcohol is not the same as ethanol.

Huh. I didn't expect so much methanol to be present in booze! (Methanol is incredibly toxic, but ethanol is an antitoxin, so that explains why wine doesn't kill people.)

That’s the angel’s share — the first bits of distillation you need to throw out.

Edit: I’m wrong! That’s the term for the part that evaporates during aging.

But this article explains what happens to the methanol at distillers and it’s pretty fascinating: https://www.whiskyandwisdom.com/bringing-balance-to-the-fore...

That was not my experience at all when I used to drink, and I don't think I'm alone in this. The feeling from different alcoholic drinks differed significantly.

I disagree - personally I have vastly different effects wether I drink beer, whiskey, wine or jägermeister and I’m sure most people feel the same.

A good portion of drunkenness is purely psychological. Tell people that fruit juice is alcoholic, and they start acting drunk, even though they're sober. I imagine it's mostly that, plus the different alcohol concentrations.

For some people that's definitely true, placebo is a real thing after all. But it's not like that with everyone, and even if "booze is booze is booze" is true, just like with cannabis, there is more stuff in the drinks than just alcohol, that might also change the effect you get from drinking.

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