Booze science, from Industry City Distillery

If you’ve ever seen one of those old-school sci-fi movies and the evil scientist is standing next to a bunsen burner with a glass beaker hovering above it, there’s a good chance you were looking at a lab-scale glass fractionating column. It’s a tool for separating different chemicals in a solution into its component parts.

The team at Industry City Distillery in Sunset Park has taken that approach to production scale in order to create a nearly pure alcohol solution that’s flavor neutral, called Technical Reserve.

The distillery has built a custom glass fractionating system, apparently christened Victor, to make the purest alcohol possible in one distillation.

At 96.5 percent alcohol by volume, Technical Reserve is not for drinking straight. It’s for DIY mixologists making bitters, tinctures and other secret weapons in the crafting of cocktails. The appeal of Technical Reserve is this: it won’t interfere with the flavors of other ingredients.

The folks at Industry City also went way out of their way to design a bottle and cap that would not react to the liquid inside. That way, your spirits won’t collect unwanted flavors in transit.

The stuff is only available in very limited quantities. Industry City Distillery told us Technical Reserve retails for $28 a bottle at most stores.