minimize methanol in Hard cider and Applejack? With heating?

[hillbilly2]

Hey I'm new here
and I just made my first bottle of apple jack with partial freezing.
So now, I was wondering is there a way to reduce the methanol in the drink, I know it shouldnt do any harm in those small amounts but I'd rather be on the safe side.
So I thought maybe since methanol has a boiling point of 64.7°C (148.5°F) and Ethanol a boiling point of 78.37° C (173.1° F) I could just heat it to around 70° C or like 160° F.
Would this take away the methanol but leave the ethanol?
Has anyone experience with this or knows an other way to reduce the methanol without distilling it?
Thank you!

Jacob

 

[Maylar]

There's no other way. But the levels are small enough that nobody bothers.

 

[wooda2008]

Hey I'm new here
and I just made my first bottle of apple jack with partial freezing.
So now, I was wondering is there a way to reduce the methanol in the drink, I know it shouldnt do any harm in those small amounts but I'd rather be on the safe side.
So I thought maybe since methanol has a boiling point of 64.7°C (148.5°F) and Ethanol a boiling point of 78.37° C (173.1° F) I could just heat it to around 70° C or like 160° F.
Would this take away the methanol but leave the ethanol?
Has anyone experience with this or knows an other way to reduce the methanol without distilling it?
Thank you!

Jacob

This won't work. There have been studies done on professional still runs that show methanol comes over throughout the distillation, not just the beginning.
There are a lot of chemistry/science explanations for this, but I won't get into detail. Bottom line is all heating will accomplish is to cook off your flavor.

In reality, as long as your liver has ethanol to metabolize, it will for the most part ignore the methanol. The methanol won't get metabolized into formaldehyde, which is the real problem.

Put another way, with the ratio of ethanol to methanol in your Jack, you will be long dead from alcohol poisoning before the methanol becomes an issue.

If you get a headache from drinking your Jack, drink less. If a pint of your cider doesn't give you a headache, neither will 4oz of jack. If one serving does hurt, you need a healthier fermentation.

 

[hillbilly2]

If one serving does hurt, you need a healthier fermentation.

Thanks for the asnswers!
I did in fact got a light headdache after i drunk only a little bit of my cider, although this could have been just imagination Im not sure.
It had a quite strong bitter flavor to it and it had also a little bit of an other smell not to strong but noticeable.
Is this normal What could i have done wrong?
I just used fresh apple cider, in wich i dissolved sugar and put it with some yeast in a glas bottle I sanitized with boiling water and then I let it sit in a normal temperatured room with a Airlock for 9 days.
How can I get a healthier fermentation?

Thx

 

[wooda2008]

Longer fermentation, lower starting gravity, cooler fermentation temps.
Yeast make nasties when they're stressed. Find and fix what's stressing them.