Home Distiller

Is that an accurate test?

Once you know from practical experience the product doesn't give a hangover, then safe to say it has no methanol? (Or rather not enough to give concern.)

As THM said, other factors can give you a hangover, things like dehydration for example. But if you don't get one then I suppose it's reasonable to assume that there's not enough methanol to worry about.

Seems an awfully back-asswards way to test for something as nasty as methanol--just throw out the first bits and don't worry about it!

Yeah, not the best scientific method, control group A are still alive and sighted whereas control group B ...

When offering a first drink to a friend who was sceptical of home produce I'd say 'No hangover = No methanol'. I believed this to be true 10 years ago when I last used a pot still and I'd test new product by drinking a very small amount and gently increasing the volume each night. (The first bit was always junked so never did get a bad hangover from sugar wash.)

Thought I'd check with the forum before saying 'No hangover = No Methanol' again. I hope it is true because the saying does help with the sceptics.

Congeners and fusel oils cause hangover too, don't they?

yep

along with dehydration, and vitamin deficiencies.



A tall glass of water in between every drink, and a couple multi vitamins before bed help TREMEDOUSLY

if you're drinking methanol, something is seriously wrong and you need to take a step back.

i don't know the exact percentage of methanol in my products, but i'd assume, and hope, that it's close to zero.

Uncle Jesse, I've absolutely no desire to drink methanol. Many years ago the guy who got me into distilling told me that if you drink enough to get you where you want to be and wake up with no hangover at all, then there was no methanol in what you supped.

That right?

it's not methanol which gives hangovers. well, i can't say methanol won't give you a hangover, but in a properly made distillate, you shouldn't have any real amounts of methanol. the congeners in the heads and tails is what will hang you over...

these are removed via careful cuts.

someone posted a nice link about hangovers a while ago .... I googled for it and I think I found the same link:

click

Jesse, glad to see you posting again.

Just back from vacation myself.

Here's a related (and maybe stupid) question: If I'm running a pot still, making corn whiskey, and I make good clean cuts, wouldn't my hearts at 75-85% abv be pretty free of congeners (before I mixed a little heads and tails back in for flavor)? In other words the hearts are mostly ethanol and water, with minor traces of the rest, right? Which should be a pretty hangover-free product if you can live without the flavor the heads and tails add.

I'm just askin because I've never drunk any quantity of the hearts without some heads and tails added back in.

That's what I thought, thanks.

You're quite right. VG. This is what distinguishes quality spirits from bad ones. Well, lets not discount aging, but you only get as good a quality out of the cask as you put into the cask. Careful attention to the cuts is a mark of a seasoned distiller. Once you get it down to a routine, you can experiment going deeper and tasting, and eventually you will find your perfect tradeoff for various recipes.

Charcoal filtering can remove the smells, but not the headaches.

This is why I always encourage beginners to be very conservative with their cuts. Better to sacrifice a bit of drinkable product than to make spirits which give you a headache.

Works for me, Jesse. I'll have to cut a jar of middles to drinking strength sometime, and see how the head feels next morning.