Methanol

[StillGate]

Sorry newbie here. Once the methanol is distilled out and discarded, is that all the methanol that is ever produced by this product? What I want to do is take some cheap Vodka and distill it as my first practice run. I would add 2 5ths of 80 proof, water it down to maybe 20%, and distill it. So will I get Methanol from this method?

[Demy]

I believe that in the distillation you will not delete 100% of the methanol but if executed correctly I will eliminate enough to be able to be drunk safely. As for commercial vodka depends on quality, I think a part of heads would you have but you have to go through a reflux column.

[StillGate]

I guess what I am asking is if the methanol is produced during fermentation or during distillation. The vodka I'm using is inexpensive cheap, but well made and triple distilled by a local distillery. It is award winning. So I'm not concerned about excessive methanol content.

[still_stirrin]

Probably not much “methanol” in that cheap-ass vodka you plan to strip. But, that doesn’t mean there are no “heads” in it. In fact, depending on how it was made and whether it was filtered (if it was) would predict better what exactly is in it.

First of all, methanol, ethanol or any of the congeners are a product of the fermentation process; the reduction of sugars by the yeast. Typically, methanol is higher in concentrations (parts per million) in fruit fermentation, wine for example. But, there are other chemicals that also result from fermentation, such as acetone (and other ketones), acetylaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and even other alcohols as well.

If the producer of that cheap vodka did no cuts, or very poorly executed cuts, any of the aforementioned chemicals could be in the spirit. But all is not lost ….. YOU can distill it and MAKE the CUTS …. and clean the crap out! And NO, I’m not going to tell you how many ml’s to cut and discard … you have to use your senses to select the “goodness from the bad”.

StillGate, when you ask a question and receive an answer, study the answer better rather than rejecting it in search of a better answer, or an answer that you’re “expecting to get”. Often times, there is more information in the response than you’ve accepted and so you overlook the info instead of learning from the responder. Let me say this a different way …. you need to learn how to read better.

So, go ahead and redistill that cheap vodka you’ve bought. Learn from it. Learn how to run your still. Learn how to make cuts. Learn what tastes are good and what are bad.

And keep READING the forum! There is so much information here and you need to “dig in”.
ss

[StillGate]

Thank you! And sorry I rephrased my question after the first answer as I realized it was not clear that I was asking where the methanol comes from to begin with. Which you answered that it comes from fermentation.

[Kareltje]

Most methanol comes from breaking down the pectine in the cell walls during ripening of the fruit and during fermentation. Not from distilling.
Some will be eliminated by throwing away the fores and the heads (what you will want to do anyway due to the very bad taste) and by keeping apart the tails. But one never can get rid of all the methanol. Or rather: it takes a large and very specialized still to do that.
During normal procedures there will not be formed enough methanol to pose a problem.

Talks about lethal amounts of methanol in drinks always come from added methanol after distilling. Either by accident or on purpose, but always added from external sources.