Find a dog and give it to him. It'll show your friends that it won't kill them. Plus I never met a dog who didn't like an occasional beer. Everyone is happy!
Help! Skeptical Friends!
- Thread starter Bowow0708
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Ooo. But as long as you eat totally dead food you never have to deal with any of those gross microorganisms. Minute rice, wonder bread, pasteurized cheese product, cold cuts, canned vegetables, pasteurized fruit juices, meat cooked until charcoal, and wash it all down with ultra-pasteurized BMC. Yum yum.
Give me living food any day. I ferment my drink, I ferment my food.
Sanitation good, sterilization bad.
LandoLincoln
Well-Known Member
Your article says it is. And it is.
gr8shandini
Well-Known Member
Read a little further. Paragraph 3 starts with:
It then goes on to cite some recent incidents which were due to people either deliberately spiking their product with methanol, or using old radiators as condensors and leaching antifreeze and lead out of them.
Think of it this way, a pint of 5% beer has roughly the same alcohol as a shot, right? So even if the distillation process yielded a shot that had 10 times the normal ratio of methanol to ethanol, you'd get the same amount in 10 beers, right? If that were true, I think a lot of us would have ended up blind after over-indulging at a homebrew party.
Tenspeed said:
+1. I prefer my steaks still moo-ing. Cooked for 30 seconds each side just to warm it up... I think people are paranoid About germs because maybe they had sheltered lives? I've got my fair of cuts, scars, skin rubbed off, dirt in my blood just like most boys growing up and I'm fine.
But back to the op, if they truly will not try it after everything you've told them about it being safe, sanitary and delicious, you've invited them to a brew day? Then maybe GOOD beer isn't for them? Or you could bottle in a brew they like and trick them?
Greenbasterd
Well-Known Member
the higher the % you bring your mash to the more methanol is created, its basically non existent in beers. but you start to get some in wine. turbo yeast can bring abv up to 20% but its makes alot more methenol.
so that's not exactly true
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Nice post. You ever read a James Herriot book? He was an English veterinarian and later author of many books in the mid 1900's.
He once wrote about a man whose living was disposing of dead cows. Long story short, the "cow disposer's" (I'm sure there is a correct name) children climbed on the dead cow's carcasses and bones for fun.
The kids were healthy as hale. JH's theory in a nut shell. With exposure to those germs the children built immunity to them. I'm sure there is cutoff point.
If you have any love for animals and have the time pick up a few James Herriots books. "All Creatures Great and Small" is a good place to begin.
zeg
Well-Known Member
Yes, but it also makes the assumption that the concentrated methanol and other unpleasant/unsafe compounds were properly removed by a conscientious distiller. That's part of the problem. Obviously, distilling can be done safely---no one disputes the safety of commercially distilled spirits. Thus, if done properly at home, it's safe. The entire issue is whether you can trust that the moonshiner is, in fact, using proper equipment and techniques.
I don't know how wrong one would have to go in order to make poisonous bathtub gin, but there does seem to be a bit more to the idea that distilling carries real dangers. The fact that it's illegal in my jurisdiction is enough to keep me away.
gr8shandini
Well-Known Member
Zeg,
First, let me say I am also neither advocating for, nor actively distilling anything at home. I'd have little interest in it even if it were legal since I don't have the patience to age anything for several years. However, since this old wives' tale apparently bleeds over into people's perceptions of homebrewing, I feel like we should be trying to debunk it, rather than following along.
If you read the article carefully, it says that it's produced in non-toxic amounts which can be eliminated entirely by disposing of the foreshots. It goes on to conclude:
Doing a little more research, it seems that the only way methanol can be formed during fermentation is if methyl esters are present - as they are in many fruits and berries. Thus the higher methanol content of wine vs. beer that Greenbasterd alluded to. So I will grant that it could be theoretically possible - albeit highly unlikely - to produce a dangerous brandy. However, it seems that fermentation of grains or pure sugars will produce zero methanol, and thus most rotgut produced by even the most careless moonshiner would be safe (so long as you're not using old truck parts in your still).
http://homedistiller.org/intro/methanol/methanol
http://moonshine-still.com/distillation-purity/
I guess I'll stop now lest this turn into a "distillation" thread and get the lock. I'll just end by saying that I encourage everyone to research for themselves and see what you find instead of believing what your grandmother told you about the hooch they bought in the '30s.
First, let me say I am also neither advocating for, nor actively distilling anything at home. I'd have little interest in it even if it were legal since I don't have the patience to age anything for several years. However, since this old wives' tale apparently bleeds over into people's perceptions of homebrewing, I feel like we should be trying to debunk it, rather than following along.
If you read the article carefully, it says that it's produced in non-toxic amounts which can be eliminated entirely by disposing of the foreshots. It goes on to conclude:
Doing a little more research, it seems that the only way methanol can be formed during fermentation is if methyl esters are present - as they are in many fruits and berries. Thus the higher methanol content of wine vs. beer that Greenbasterd alluded to. So I will grant that it could be theoretically possible - albeit highly unlikely - to produce a dangerous brandy. However, it seems that fermentation of grains or pure sugars will produce zero methanol, and thus most rotgut produced by even the most careless moonshiner would be safe (so long as you're not using old truck parts in your still).
http://homedistiller.org/intro/methanol/methanol
http://moonshine-still.com/distillation-purity/
I guess I'll stop now lest this turn into a "distillation" thread and get the lock. I'll just end by saying that I encourage everyone to research for themselves and see what you find instead of believing what your grandmother told you about the hooch they bought in the '30s.
My grandma was one of the best shiners I ever knew. Her keg charred moon was clear & smooth. I litterally cut teeth on it. she had this cut lil smile when p[op told her I liked it when my teeth would hurt comin in. some things are so dear you never forget them. She was hard to get next to,but once you did she was a friend for life. Her ...let me see...grandpa was the Apache chief. she looked like she could be Geronimo's sister. From what I've found,he could be my 3 times removed uncle. she had the same sort of way about her. A hard worker,she would make the best batch of whiskey or cherry wine you ever had. Easy to drink & get you,as pop used to be so fond of saying...higher than a Georgia pine. I learned pretty early on what he ment.
Where I'm going with this diatribe is simple. I grew up from a toddler on home distilled & fermented spiruits & wines. And I'm here,healthy as can be at middle age from hard manual labor all my life. If they still won't drink it,I'
ll personally get together with you & them & explain it in simple terms as well as scientific. I also got straight "A"'s in the living sciences. So much so that the teacher had me helping him with the other students. So let me talk to these small minded paranoid types. I've had enough of this yuppie BS.
Where I'm going with this diatribe is simple. I grew up from a toddler on home distilled & fermented spiruits & wines. And I'm here,healthy as can be at middle age from hard manual labor all my life. If they still won't drink it,I'
ll personally get together with you & them & explain it in simple terms as well as scientific. I also got straight "A"'s in the living sciences. So much so that the teacher had me helping him with the other students. So let me talk to these small minded paranoid types. I've had enough of this yuppie BS.
