Hodgkinson - the answer to your chemistry problem

[Karlos]

^^ What he said :-)

If you can buy a big load of epsom salts (that's hydrated magnesium sulfate), then you can bake it dry and grind it into a powder. If you stick this into your alcohol it will mop up any excess water even more effectively than the above salts.

[Karlos]

About 25cm3 of initial mixture remained in the boiling flask, probably mostly alcohol, which had to be discarded due to the process slowing down unbearably towards the end. Oddly, the mixture in that flask had turned slightly brown/orange - Presumably residue from the new rubber bungs used

During my degree I often made "intractable black tar" at the end of fractional distillation of any substance that required heating :-D

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