Methanol Explained | Alcohol Science

I'm a chemist and once did a summer internship at a company that makes orange juice. I was surprised to see that MeOH is among the minor constituents of orange juice as well. There was a large problem at the beginning of the pandemic with unscrupulous vendors using methanol in hand sanitizers, too.

Yeah, at the distillery where I work the foreshots go back into the low wine and get redistilled. There is no real build-up of methanol, because the amount produced in fermentation of grain is so small, and methanol is also the quickest to evaporate off at ambient temperatures. Pretty much all the cases you hear of about methanol poisoning are due to very callous and heartless people mixing in industrial methanol into cheap, illegal spirits and thus getting greater profit.

Thank you for clarifying such stigmas, I had to search for these myself before. It was very helpful to hear them again, and I also learned some new points, thanks again

Interesting video as usual. Informative and educational. Enjoying it. Thanks Miss Brewbird.

You have provided a great explanation of this phenomenon!

Great info Brewbird!

Thank you for sharing this insightful and helpful information.

I love your video! Thank you for sharingg!!!

Thanks for the informative vid. I love this technical stuff. I was actually surprised that you can drink a whisky to treat methanol poisoning!

Excellently explained, Thank you 🙏

Awesome video for dispelling myths regarding methanol and awesome for everyone on every level of Distilling. 🥃

Congratulations on 5k subscribers! Your test will go well.

Great presentation! I didn't know veggies causes methanol in our bodies... WOW!

holy wow... i just found your video and i think its awesome. i will definitely watch a few more to see your progress.

I question the concept that the "forces" acting on the alcohols are acting stronger on the methanol because of its lower pure boiling point, i feel this is more than offset by the significant difference in the relative polarity of methanol vs ethanol leading to stronger hydrogen bonds between methanol and water. This is shown in studies that show the concentration of methanol increasing through the distillation process and actually peaking in the tails cut. Even a good reflux still will see a tails peak and admittedly a heads peak too. In summary i feel the forces acting on the methanol are indeed stronger but those forces are hydrogen bonds preventing methanol from vaporizing. I welcome your feedback.

Hello, great video as always. I'm really glad you talked about the difficulty in 100% separating methanol because of hydrogen bonding but also explained why that's usually not something to worry about. I learned that methanol doesn't come out all in the fores from the Still Behind the Bench channel and I haven't seen anyone else mention this. So great job!!

Great informative video. You mentioned your experience at the scotch whisky distillery about ageing the whiskey also helped with the evaporation of the methanol. Does it evaporate more readily than ethanol? Another good reason to age your spirits.

Hi Brewbird, and thanks for this video. I have long researched and read articles about methanol, it's source in fermentation and how does it behave in distillation. The new information for me in your video was that apricots are among the low pectin containing fruits. I have always assumed the opposite. And now I'm wondering about persimmon specialy the goue ones that you have to age before you can eat. Any way back to your video, I was hoping that you discuss hydrogen bond with methanol, and is it true that in a pot still it changes methanol evaporation temperature? Thanks a lot for all you do and the efforts you put into your channel.

Good video. Explained well and to the point.👍👍🇺🇸

I was most surprised to hear that an unclean fermentation can lead to higher methanol levels. I wonder how that applies to distilleries using wood fermentation vessels. Great video! Will definitely be referring people talking about removing ALL the methanol to this one so I can say "see, told you so!" LOL Always thought something was up with strawberries too, I noticed that when they're over-ripe that they taste of alcohol.