Wood Alcohol from fermenting?

[SchillingBrewing]

So I have a friend that tells me his dad knows of some people who started being something like a cider and ended up with wood alcohol (methanol).

My question: Is methanol even a possible by product of fermentation?

I was always under the impression that methanol only when distilling a wash.

 

[Psycotte]

There are trace amounts of methanol in all fermentations. In beer or cider its not at issue. Of course if you distill it then because methanol has a lower vaporization point than ethanol the first runnings of any distillation contain the highest amounts of methanol and with very larges batches can be harmful or fatal if not thrown away.

 

[JLem]

Methanol is definitely a product of fermentation, but it is in such tiny, tiny amounts that it is negligible. The problem comes in distillation, which concentrates the alcohol...which is why the first bit of distillate (mostly methanol) is discarded.

No need to worry about methanol when brewing or making cider/wine/mead.

 

[SchillingBrewing]

Awesome. I didn't think it was a problem but this guy seems to think that you can make pure wood alcohol from fermenting. I was pretty sure you couldn't and now you have just confirmed my suspicion.