From what I heard, rice wine (sake) and vodka are better for the printhead, and it is not a perfect replacement, but look at the page linked here:
http://open3dp.me.washington.edu/category/formulas/
It has quite a few recipes tested on a Zcorp machine. There are all sorts of powder recipes and a few binder recipes that might be interesting. Original Zcorp binder has no alcohol in it, but if you understand what the binder has to do (temporarily melt the powder so it fuses with itself, then vaporize and re-solidify the powder), Alcohol mixes serve great. Pure alcohol might actually be worse. In all recipes described in the link, they actually dilute even the vodka they use. http://open3dp.me.washington.edu/2009/09/xb1-experimental-binder-1-400-class/
Pure alcohol does not dissolve most powders, it is the water that does the dissolving. Its the alcohol that helps the water to vaporize. Hope this information helps. I always wanted to experiment with powders myself, but it is the part I enjoy the least, and constantly swapping out powders on Plan B is laborious. (On the next printer I will fix this).