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Step 6Poison!
Some myths:
Methanol (wood alcohol) makes you blind. If you hear about people being blinded by illicit booze, they did not actually distil it, they made some sort of punch with denatured alcohol or antifreeze.
Neglecting to watch the temperature, or heating the wash too quickly, can result in concentration of higher-order forms of alcohol called fusel alcohols or fusel oils (because they look oily). A small amount of fusel alcohols are naturally present in whisky, and can give a spicy, hot or solvent-like flavour. If you get those flavours in a distilled spirit, watch out for a hangover. Be aware: Very high concentrations (usually caused by incompetent distillation) can cause acute illness, including headaches, nausea, vomiting, clinical depression, or coma. Such liquor may be referred to as rotgut.
If in doubt, you can always pour what you have made so far back into the vat and distil it again.
Some people distil the wash twice. They throw away the residue of the first batch, and put the spirits through again. Second distillations should be done more slowly, and greater care taken to watch the temperature, as the temperature of the vapours will change more quickly.
Disclaimer:
I have not actually distilled alcohol for quite some time, and then I used proper glassware. I used to work in a lab with a license to distil one litre per year, and not for human consumption. Do not rely solely on this Instructable to inform your distilling activities - do some research of your own, check the local licensing laws, and remember to take it easy if you actually dare to drink the resultant liquor.
Take plenty of water with it, and do not even think about driving or operation hazardous machinery, even after a small snifter or two, since you will not know the exact amount of alcohol you have consumed.
- It is a popular myth that illicitly-distilled booze makes you blind.
Methanol (wood alcohol) makes you blind. If you hear about people being blinded by illicit booze, they did not actually distil it, they made some sort of punch with denatured alcohol or antifreeze.
- Some people say that illicit booze gives you a bad hangover.
Neglecting to watch the temperature, or heating the wash too quickly, can result in concentration of higher-order forms of alcohol called fusel alcohols or fusel oils (because they look oily). A small amount of fusel alcohols are naturally present in whisky, and can give a spicy, hot or solvent-like flavour. If you get those flavours in a distilled spirit, watch out for a hangover. Be aware: Very high concentrations (usually caused by incompetent distillation) can cause acute illness, including headaches, nausea, vomiting, clinical depression, or coma. Such liquor may be referred to as rotgut.
If in doubt, you can always pour what you have made so far back into the vat and distil it again.
Some people distil the wash twice. They throw away the residue of the first batch, and put the spirits through again. Second distillations should be done more slowly, and greater care taken to watch the temperature, as the temperature of the vapours will change more quickly.
- Home-made still tend to explode.
Disclaimer:
I have not actually distilled alcohol for quite some time, and then I used proper glassware. I used to work in a lab with a license to distil one litre per year, and not for human consumption. Do not rely solely on this Instructable to inform your distilling activities - do some research of your own, check the local licensing laws, and remember to take it easy if you actually dare to drink the resultant liquor.
Take plenty of water with it, and do not even think about driving or operation hazardous machinery, even after a small snifter or two, since you will not know the exact amount of alcohol you have consumed.
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please let me know the whole process & quantity ratio of sugar, water, yeast etc for 40 litre.
Mail at sirnava@gmail.com
Thanks
When first using my still, how do I calibrate the amount of methanol that will come off before I reach the ethanol? Thanks for your help.
This guy puts new meaning in choose your poison!
A lot of no no's in this, worked in a lab ay? As a lab technician or janitor?
You can get lots of methanol from realy anything you distill including just a simple wash of sugar-water-yeast.
People going blind from a punch mmmm better stay away from wine champagne and beer.
Using a bed post as a column is a good idea if it's made from 304 or 316 foodgrade stainless steel or waterpipe copper tubing somehow i don't see that. You will get contaminents in your wash that will cause you harm in the long run from mostly anything else.
Things like using epoxy to seal up joints is bad you need to use lead free solder or silver solder for that.
It's lucky that you have never done any of this yourself or you might be writing this instructable in hospital.
If you realy want to build yourself a quick or complex still try this place for more info first http://homedistiller.org/
If you want to distill just small amounts glassware is the safest and most accurate way.
Serg
As head of a large industrial lab. As a high school science teacher. As a published science writer.
Let me know when you've actually read the Instructable properly, plus all the replies I've made to other people who have not read it properly (like the other people who think that yeast produces methanol in anything other than trace amounts). If you still have any smart comments to make, make them then.
Poor quality home distilled spirit : methanol 0.0186%
Methanol : usual fatal dose 100-250 mL
So, to get a fatal dose of methanol from poor quality spirits, you would have to drink over 500 litres of the spirit at a single sitting.
Also
The lethal dose of methanol is at least 100 ml that is equal to about 80000 mg or you need 27000 liters of mash at least to get that amount.
That is, to produce a single lethal dose of methanol, you have to collect all the methanol from nearly thirty tonnes of fermented grain and water.
>end<
here's the full link, so everyone can see
As everyone can see, you're distorting what the webpage states. After a discussion of proper distillation techniques - incluiding throwing away the heads, they (correctly) point out that the methanol content will be minimal; even if you do a poor job. But that is with *throwing away the heads*, which is exactly what we've been saying you have to do all along.
But you're counseling people to not throw away the heads. If you do this the amounts of methanol are much, much higher.
For example, most wines have a methanol content of >0.1%; some fruit juices have methanol contents even higher then that - meaning, of course, if you distill them, and don't toss the heads, you'll concentrate them along with your ethanol. Even with grains you'll get methanol produced, although it'll be lower then fruit-based ferments.
As stated before, my personal experience with brandies is 3-5% of total distillate is methanol/other lower-boiling point compounds. I used to do a lot of sugar mashes, and even then I collected 1-2% the final volume of these lower temperature fractions.
"The lethal dose of methanol is at least 100 ml"
Firstly, that is out-and-out wrong. Methanol has an LD50 of ~1ml/kg, and since most of us aren't 100kg, you're toxic limit is way off.
Secondly, I never said anything about death. I specifically said "mild toxicity, i.e. possible blindness", not once did I say "death" or "lethal dose".
Blindness occurs at doses as low as 0.1ml/kg, and permanent eye damage occurs at doses about 1/5th of that. Meaning for me (at 65kg) I'd have to drink a meager 6.5ml of methanol to blind myself, and a minute 1.3ml to begin seeing minor damage to my eyes. That's not very much.
In the case of my Brandies, if I were to put those heads back in I'd have a methanol content of ~3%, meaning to get my 1.3ml worth (onset of eye damage) I'd have to drink a mere 43ml (1.45oz, just shy of 1 serving) to hit a point where damage is possible. 5 servings gets me upto 6.5ml; onset of blindness.
Lastly, there is a growing body of medical evidence that long-term exposure to minute amounts - parts per *billion* range - can have damaging effects of the neurological system, including the onset of a Parkinson's-like disease. Chronic higher doses have a large range of known effects - including, but not limited to - reproductive disorders, teratogenic effects, optic, liver, kidney, and heart damage.
But hey, its your life. If you'd rather continue on in your delusion, and poison yourself slowly, that's your business. But to falsely claim that there is no danger - when there is a well established danger - is just wrong.
All this argument has happened because people - yes, I mean you - are not reading what I wrote.
Check Step 5 - I specifically say not to collect the condensate until the temperature at the top of the column reaches 78oC - by that point, all the methanol will have evaporated.
I have been discussing the product collected if you follow what I write. You seem to have assumed, that just because I did not use the term "heads" that I am some sort of ignorant fool that is quite happy to encourage others to poison themselves.
"The lethal dose of methanol is at least 100 ml"
Firstly, that is out-and-out wrong. Methanol has an LD50 of ~1ml/kg, and since most of us aren't 100kg, you're toxic limit is way off.
First you recommend http://www.homedistiller.org/, then you criticise me for your recommended site quoting numbers you do not agree with.
Wikipedia agrees with those numbers
According to the official MSDS; "Methyl Alcohol (Methanol) Oral rat LD50: 5628 mg/kg" (I mass about 70kg, so (a rat my size) needs a touch under half a litre to kill me)]
The reference you gave us says that says a 100ml dose is fatal.
The official HSE data says it needs 500ml to kill 50% of those who drink it.
What do you say?
(Still in debate about being a scientist? I'll cut you some slack, since you're a newbie - wait until you know me better before you cast doubt on my credentials.)
* I can't find a picture of a Twadell meter, just 11000 pages of Twadell genealogy, but it's very similar to a hydrometer
I have one similar to this but better quality all glass no paper inside
http://www.hitimewine.net/istar.asp?a=6&id=777174!2338
So that's a "yes", then.
Of course, other substances dissolved in the drink will affect the reading of an alcometer, which is where this whole silly argument came in - the prohibition-era moonshiners adding stuff like methanol and lye to their mixes to try and fool the authorities.
As I said in the actual Instructable, I would be breaking the law (here in the UK) if I actually did this now, with no licence, and when I used to be allowed to do it, we checked the density volumetrically.
Changing the subject ( a bit) - you can make a basic fluid-density meter from a straw and blob of clay - it can quite clearly chow the change of density as salt is dissolved in water. Next time I make them with my classes at school, I'll publish an 'ible about them.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pblv1
>>Sheila Dillon tastes her way through the long tradition of turning fruit into alcohol. She hears from eau de vie producers in the Alsace region of France and from cider brandy distillers in Somerset.<<
Apparently it is perfectly legal to own a still in the UK, it is just illegal to use one without a licence.