The episodes "The Naked Time" (Star Trek, 1966) and its sequel, "The Naked Now" (Star Trek: The Next Generation, 1987) involve forms of polywater intoxication. In the original episode, a scientific research outpost falls victim to polywater, which causes the crew to become so incapacitated that they all died after shutting off environmental controls in the compound. In the sequel, a Starfleet vessel is discovered adrift, its crew frozen in various states due to polywater intoxication.
The story "Polywater Doodle" by Howard L. Myers (writing under the pseudonym "Dr. Dolittle") appeared in the February 1971 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. It features an animal composed entirely of polywater, with the metabolism described by Richard Feynman. (The title of the story is a pun on "Polly Wolly Doodle".)
Polywater is the central idea of the 1972 espionage/thriller novel A Report from Group 17 by Robert C. O'Brien. The story revolves around the use of a type of polywater to make people controllable and incapable of independent thought or action.