Moonshine doesn't burn (methanol test)

[rezaking886]

Hello brothers,
So today I got my moonshine DISTILLED, and then I decided to make a methanol test (burn a small amount of it), well, it didn't burn to be honest,
But I did distill it again (65 degrees celsius) and discarded any methanol that I got. My question is, Is the moonshine safe to drink now?

 

[bernardsmith]

I think your alcohol needs to be 100 proof to burn. If it's less then you may have real difficulty burning it.
But the amount of methanol in any wash or mash is going to be no more than a maximum of 10% of the TOTAL amount of alcohol in your wash. In other words, if you made a wash of 4000 ml (1 gallon) and that wash was 12% alcohol it would contain 480 ml of alcohol and of that 480 ml 48 ml could be methanol. Since methanol boils off before ethanol, the first 48 ml you collect you label methanol and everything else is your drinkable spirit. If you made 5 gallons ( 20 L) ml of that same wash then 2400 ml would be alcohol and so the first 240 ml you collect should be labeled methanol.

That said, if you removed 100% of the methanol in the wash during the first run then there is no more methanol to be removed in any subsequent run, Distillation does not make alcohol. It removes water from whatever alcohol you started with.

 

[rezaking886]

oh thanks, well, I did remove the first bowl. Don't worry so much since all of it was drank days ago

 

[bernardsmith]

And I guess I am a contrarian. If you made a gallon of wine at 12% ABV that wine, all other things being equal, would have exactly the same amount of methanol as the same wine you call "wash" or "mash" before you distill it and so if you drank that gallon of wine you made from the fruit or flowers or honey you would have drunk every last drop of that same methanol you would collect and toss or call cleaning or lighting fluid if you distilled that 1 gallon down to a pint (12% of the gallon) . When we drink wine (with all that same methanol) we don't give it a thought but when you are making spirits that same methanol now takes on a new character: poison.

Sure, if you drink enough methanol it will make you blind or even kill you. It is , like ethanol, poisonous. Even if you never separated the methanol from the hearts it would do you no more harm than the ethanol was doing, (although, it's true, ethanol does not affect the optic nerve in the same way that methanol can) unless, of course you are cutting your spirits with methanol or you are only drinking the methanol or you are drinking spirits as if it were water. BUT methanol tastes like crap so you cut it and remove it.. because it tastes like junk.

 

[Nanuk-O-Dah-Nort]

There is something to be said about Nuclear aging, which if raised to the boiling point of Methanol, it'd evap first, then you'd be left with more pure ethanol.

I'm going to start doing this on store bought liquour. Gets rid of headaches.