Homemade Hooch kills 51 in Lybia

[tchamber]

They should have stuck to brewing beer.

Alcohol poisoning kills 51 in Libya

At least 51 people have died after drinking tainted homemade alcohol in Tripoli, Libyan health officials say.

They say 378 have been taken to the capital's hospitals since Saturday, and the number may rise further.

A hospital official told the BBC the deaths occurred from methanol poisoning and that many patients were undergoing kidney dialysis for treatment.

The consumption and sale of alcohol is illegal in Libya, but it is available on the black market.
Premises surrounded

The Libyan health officials say 38 people have now died in Tripoli hospitals and another 13 as they were travelling to neighbouring Tunisia for treatment.

A state of emergency has been declared in the capital's hospitals.

The alcohol in question is a cheap local brew known as Bokha. It is distilled from various fruits like figs, dates or grapes.

But industrial spirits - like methanol - are sometimes used to increase the potency of the drink, the BBC's Rana Jawad in Tripoli reports.

Health risks after drinking methanol include kidney failure, blindness, seizures and death.

The interior ministry's spokesman, Hussein al-Amry, told the BBC that special units had surrounded locations where the homemade alcohol was thought to have been brewed.

The spokesman added that the ministry was prepared to use force if the owners did not comply with an order to vacate the premises.

Alcohol is also smuggled into Libya from Tunisia, Algeria and Malta.

 

[stjackson]

Don't let any Alabama state legislators see this...the last thing they need is more ammo in the "homemade alcohol is dangerous!" argument.

 

[unionrdr]

That hooch was liquor,not beer. Distilling has the risk of methanol. but I forget how it's avoided. It's some kind of by-product.

 

[fizgig]

you dump the first and last runnings that come out of the still as methanol boils before ethanol and then the heavier alcohols come at the end.

this sounds more like it was cut with methanol on purpose to have that large of an effect that quickly or something in their process was way off. if those hilljacks on TV can make it, it can't be super complicated.

 

[Revvy]

This isn't he first time someone over the years has posted something like this, and it seems repeated that the problem is that they're cutting what they fermented with an industrial spirit.

They should just make apfelwein instead. All the hit, all the headache, and none of the methanol poisoning.

 

[johntwyles]

I am thinking of starting a distillery and brewery and am learning all I can before I even start. I know that I will get methanol from distilling my mash for liquor, but is methanol present in beer due to fermentation also?

 

[Bobby_M]

Yes, methanol is present in beer at low concentrations, probably about 20ml in a 5 gallon batch. Don't drink 5 gallons of beer in one sitting.

 

[Gameface]

I think it's important to reiterate that the hooch makers are suspected of ADDING methanol to their product. As in they had a container of industrial methanol spirits and they dumped it in with what they were making. Pretty important point, imo.

 

[johntwyles]

Actually, where I was headed with that is "do I need to distill out the methanol?"

 

[m_stodd]

Actually, where I was headed with that is "do I need to distill out the methanol?"

You're thinking of opening a distillery and brewery, but it sounds like you have no industry experience, and very little industry knowledge. Am I missing something.

If you have a solution of water, ethanol and methanol and want to distill to separate the water from the ethanol, the methanol must be distilled, it has a lower boiling point (146F vs 173F).