[sparks]

A bit of an odd question, but i was wondering, while our teacher taught us about esters, whether if i hypothetically drank ethanol and ethanoic acid, my stomach acid would work as the catalyst and form an ester in my stomach. I am obviously not going to attempt this, i was just curious to see if it was feasible.

[Arkcon]

There's some supposition that esters form under aqueous conditions, for example, people claim that the complex flavors in wines as they age is the result of trace amounts of esters formed between organic acids and alcohols.  However, generally, esters form when the reaction is driven towards products by removing the water that's formed.  So no, not really likely in your stomach.

[Babcock_Hall]

The ethanol may form a small amount of fatty acid ethyl esters in the serum.
http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh294/245-255.htm

[sparks]

Okay, thanks for clearing that up