Methanol / Methyl alcohol .... Question

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manku007

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Hello Everyone online or Online here :D

I know this is a silly question but it is really a serious thing to me :(

I m little afrid when one of my friend who is doing pharamacy (studing) told me that if u do something wrong then it can be Methyl alcohol which is toxic and if we drink it then it will effect us very badly. :d

Please let me know each and everything about this thing so that I can feel little safe after all this matter is solved. Throw light on each and every point plz that means :-

** How it can be made out of errors or mistake or this is not possible.

** If it is present in our wine can we take a test so that we can check it.

** Any one here in this forum who has this problem before or somthing like that.

I have also searched on wikipedia.org about Methll Alochol :(

Thanks in advanced please please let me know everything I m very confused and afrid of this. :b
 
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I will give this a shot but I am in no way anywhere near an expert or anywhere close.

When we ferment wine or beer we are producing Ethanol which is the conversion of sugar to alcohol. If I understand it correctly the yeast, a living organism, consume the sugar and produce waste in the form of ethanol. This alcohol is safe for consumption and is the alcohol in all alcoholic beverages.

The production of Methanol is done with distillation meaning a still, a device that is used to separate the pure alcohol from the other matters. Methanol and Ethanol can both be extracted from distillation I believe. Methanol is also an alcohol produced from organic matters other than sugar such as wood. But I understand that methanol can be produced from most anything. In whiskey making corn is fermented to produce ethanol but methanol can be produced as well. Any story I have ever heard where someone went blind, a side effect of methanol consumption was from drinking distilled alcohols. We do not use the titillation process when we make wine. This is the major reason why distillation of alcohols is illegal in my country.

Remember, Methanol is produced by distillation. You are not producing alcohol by the distillation process. Hopefully those I know here that are much more well versed on this subject can offer you a more "expert" answer. I would not worry one bit about producing Methanol with your general wine making set up though.
 
Small amounts of methanol are produced when ever anything is fermented but the amounts are ridicoulsly low and diluted by the rest of the batch. If you were to ferment 6 gallons of wine at say 12% abv and then distilled it to extract every bit of the methanol that was produced you would end up with approx. 3/4 of a tsp and even drinking that by itself would cause no bodily harm. Methanol boils at a lower temp then ethanol or water so if you were to distill it it would be the first thing to come out and you would either throw it away or use it as a cleaning agent around the house cause it makes a great sanitizer or paint thinner. Please dont ask me how I know all this!!!!!!!!
 
I've been studing a little online about the next step.. Distilling.
I have only done a couple batches of wine so far and in no way consider myself knowing anything yet.
Having established my credentials I'll now relay what I've read about the distilling process.
All fermenting makes minute amounts of everything from methanol, ethanol and even gets into acetate and other "impurities".
What I've read says that to "go blind" from the methanol would take drinking more than the body could actually handle for a life time, that is how small the methanol percentage is.
It is another deal when you are distilling the alcohol out of the must and ending up with much purer drink.
When distilling they recommend not catching the first part of a run until you reach a temperature range that is okay.
Roughly to get good alcohol from a still, the temp range is around 173-175-180 degress f., 75-90 C. Nothing below the 75 C. The best light rum is around 75 - 83 C.
I hope this has helped.
 
Distilling is illegal in almost every country in the world, unless you have permits from the government.

Also, if you do ingest methanol, the remedy is...ethanol! They bind to the same receptors in the body so ethanol essentially neutralizes methanol in the concentrations you'd normally encounter.
 
Well of course I would only be making E-fuel.. :h
Who would even consider doing something illegal.
Oh that's right,, politicians.
 
In general, you will not have any problems with methyl alcohol when fermenting wine or any sort of fruit juice. It's also known as wood alcohol because it is typically derived from fermenting wood. Don't try and make wine out of a tree and you will be fine.

The errors with distilling are getting fusel alcohols in the heads and tails. Also, people would distill with lead lined radiators or anything else they could find. This made people sick. Always use copper tubing.
 
Distilling is illegal in almost every country in the world, unless you have permits from the government.

Also, if you do ingest methanol, the remedy is...ethanol! They bind to the same receptors in the body so ethanol essentially neutralizes methanol in the concentrations you'd normally encounter.
So let me get this straight. If I fear I have alcohol poisoning I should drink more alcohol! Damn I love this site!!!:r:r
 
From what I've read home distilling is only legal in one country worldwide.
New Zealand
I'm not sure why though.
 
The pnly reason it is legal there is from what I heard it snuck in on a bill by accident and was to much work for them to undo what they did by accident. It is dangerous if you dont know what you are doing or have a leak in your equipment as this stuff is much more volatile then gasoline and under pressure with a flame right under it making it a bomb to put it politely. You should check for steam leaks before every use to make sure!
 
A little bit of US trivia for you. The reason distilling is illegal in the United States is because they want the taxes from it. Google "Whiskey Rebellion". If it weren’t for lost revenue, they wouldn't care. That's why they call the authorities revenuers...
 
There shouldn't be too much pressure involved, the alcohol boils off long before the water starts to boil. You want and need to keep the temps just at the point the good stuff evaporates.
And yes, it's just like "Big Dan" said in "Oh Brother where art thou"
"It's all about the money boys!"
 
For those of you ho dont know, it depends on what kind of a still you are using as some of them have valves which you actually shut off in order for the heads to be separated easier so pressure can get built up.
 
Please Read Full Thanks ......

Thanks Thanks a lot for each and every one, I m very happy to hear all about that hell baby Methanol, I was very afraid of it. :h

The reason why I afraid is because I have read in newspaper last days that about 300 Peoples died after drinking poisonous alcohol, that is a traditionally drink produced by some poor people or some kind of bad people they sell that alcohol in very cheap rates about 5 bottles in one Dollar, so people buy it like a mad person and drink it, after 24 hours they are dead :(, so sad the people who make this alcohol produce it with the help of distillation God knows what do they do to make it and why do they make this kind of poison.

After reading that news my friends try to stop me that I should stop home brewing because of all that accidents, and truly speaking I was also afraid that I was willing to make a good alcohol and if by mistake Methanol comes as a result, then it can damage me as well as my friends who taste my wine :(.

So that's why I was asking this, I know it is little shocking (my question) but believe me no one knows here about this thing or they do this kind of stuff, I m only and only depending on internet and this forum specially. That's why I have asked this ......

Now I think it is clear that if I m using fruit juice, sugar, water and yeast then it is safe to drink that wine and it will not become Methanol. I M RIGHT :D.

Thanks again thanks a Lot, plz if u have anything to tell , then plz tell me ...... :h

Thanks in advanced bye bye all take care ....... :b

Sorry for late answer my Computer was not in a working condition ......

I got some links Please if u have time then have a look on ....

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Will_bad_homebrew_kill_me_or_make_me_blind?

http://homedistiller.org/methanol.htm

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-44348.html

They all are about Methanol I have read half I will read it after one day little busy ...... if any one want to check, that's why I have kept them here, so that I can get more suggestions.
 
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Steve. I think I am going to drink more and go to New Zeland.Where is New Zeland anyway? And what ever happened to the old one? Hic:d
LOL
Troy
 
I frequent both the brew forum and the distillers forum so none of that is new to me as I do both. I brew my own beer, make my own wine and also distill my own alc even though its illegal here and I dont give a shiiiiiiit!
 
Another useless bit of trivia for you. The reason absinth was outlawed was because people were dying from it. It was actually not the ingredients, but what people were putting into it. They were making "fake" absinth and selling it to unsuspecting souls. So it became stigmatized and subsequently outlawed. To this day, it’s production is still limited, but is no less dangerous that any other liquor.
 
So let me get this straight. If I fear I have alcohol poisoning I should drink more alcohol! Damn I love this site!!!:r:r

no, if you suspect you have ingested methanol, then you need to treat with merlot, bud light, or some johnnie walker :)


It sounds like that 'cheap alcohol' was likely made improperly, and was also too strong. It'd be like drinking straight everclear. You'd get normal alcohol poisoning, and these poor people can't just run to the emergency room to be treated.
 
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You'd get normal alcohol poisoning, and these poor people can't just run to the emergency room to be treated.

Yes that is true Malkore, but the thing is that I don't want to first drink the poisonous alcohol and then run to the hospital, that means if I know that is little danger then why do I drink it.

The main important thing is that I want to know that how it can be made so that I don't do that thing, if possible I would also like to know if there is some method by which I can test that methanol is present in my wine or not and how much it is less (negligible) or in much quantity which can effect me.

My city also don't have very good hospital and all that. :(

Can any one let me know the main summary of this topic plz that means what is the final result or overcome of this topic negative or positive
 

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