Moonshine methanol and how to avoid?
Ok sounds sketchy yes but i was watching a movie on moonshine and always wondered "how do they know the moonshine doesn't have methanol in it?"
How do they prevent it in a legal still?answer #1
The whole methanol thing was a big myth. Most people got sick from moonshine because old stills were built using old car parts that often had lead solder or other nasty stuff hanging around on them.
Yes, there is methanol produced in imperfect fermentation, but no more than you would make in home brew beer and wine. Distillation doesn't CREATE anything, it REMOVES stuff. Even if there is a little bit of methanol in the liquid before you put it in the still, a good still properly used will remove everything but 96% alcohol and 4% water.
moonshiner: just make sure you dump the first part of the 'run ' since methanol has a lower boiling point and will show up first
