Salaam alaykum wa rahmutullahi wa barakatu,

Recently, my brother took a class in which the instructor said that it is okay to drink beverages which may contain a very small amount of alcohol because the hadith says that if a lot will make you drunk, then a little is haram and those beverages in large amounts will not make you drunk. He also said vanilla ice cream (which usually contains vanilla extract, which contains alcohol) is halal. This led my brother to believe that all foods which have a minute amount of alcohol (including those to which wine is added) are permissible. I told him that if a food or beverage naturally contains a very small amount of alcohol (e.g. Red Bull drinks, soy sauce, malt beverages), then they are okay, but if someone adds alcohol like wine or beer to food, then it is not permissible because wine and beer are forbidden. He is refuting, saying it is the food as a whole, not what it contains that should be examined and if consuming a large amount of the food (to which alcohol was added) will not make you drunk, then it is okay. Please advise. I hope my question was not too confusing.

Obviously, in cases of necessity, as in medical treatment, if there is only one medicine the patient can use and this medicine contains alcohol, though with proper use it does not cause intoxication, then it could be used as needed.