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I am in complete agreement with what Richard Abrams has written.
Accordingly, I am puzzled as to why some celiac patients feel so strongly
that they cannot use white vinegar, which I have been given to understand is
prepared through fermentation of distilled alcohol.  Perhaps, there is some
component of the alcohol or the fermentation inoculate (other than gluten
peptides) that causes some people to react, somewhat the way a few people
react to sulfites in wine.  I will try to obtain some more detailed
information about the process by which white vinegar is made.

Don Kasarda, Albany, CA

>I have no experience with the manufacture of distilled beverages, but my
>understanding of so basic a chemical procedure as distillation is that
>distillation through a moderately efficient reflux tower is very
>effective at separating volatile from non-volatile components.  Even any
>micro-droplets of pot-liquor carried up as spray should be trapped in the
>upper parts of the distilling apparatus so that non-volatiles such as
>gluten or peptides if they are formed do not get into the distillate.
>What does get over are the volatile components of the fermentation
>mixture, alcohol, esters, and aldehydes and other fusel oil components.
>It is these non-alcoholic volatile organic components that vary depending
>upon the grain that was used for fermentation, and they, especially the
>esters are responsible for the taste of the beverage.  I had hoped that
>someone experienced in the manufacture of alcoholic liquors would have
>answered your question, hence my delay in responding.