I was so scared of Methanol that I didn't want to go into doing home distillation. Thank you George, your informative capacity melted this fear off me.
WOW! Thank you George. This is most informative! Oh and thanks for the tip for using tomato paste as a yeast nutrient. I managed to get my stuck fermentation going by adding some! You are a champ!
i dont know how this guy doesnt have 5 million subscribers but he just gained one more. One of the best explained videos ive ever seen on really any topic. Great video.
Jimmy Somethin Yes. Good stuff. I follow distillers from around the globe... It’s hard to follow metrics if you’re used to American weights... And vise versa ... Never mind Brix...🤣👍🥃
Hey George, your videos are the best of them all. You teach the science and art of it. You always say you are available to answers questions. I called and you actually returned my call. I really appreciate it and you. Thank you. Cincinnati, OH - Joker.
Hey George I'm glad you put this video out cuz man I've sure thought thesane thing."well what about all the methanol in wine and beer no oneis going blind from drinking that." Thx i always enjoy your videos.
I've always thought that 2 ounces of methanol mixed with a gallon and a half of 100 proof liquor will not hurt you but I still separate it out. Who the heck needs to wake up with a headache and the jitters. Thanks George!!!
New to stilling, if that is the right term, have not even done my vinegar run as trying to understand everything first. So far, this has been the BEST channel for information, not over explained, not over whelming; like unpacking my still for the first time.... and WOW on the subject of Methanol, and other topics, truly superior! Thank you.
Hello George, been watching you for a while. I really appreciate the amount of your knowledge you dispense. It is so helpful and I learn a lot, Just to add to this, you make very complex information really easy to understand. Quite honestly, it is the sign of a genius. ( You may allow that to go to your head :) ) Anyway, thank you from Langley BC
Yesterday I made my first batch ever. It was from a one gallon batch of persimmon mead I made. It was horrible. Your videos are very informative. I even used a pot still made from an old canning pot (thank you very much) .
Hi George mate i can honestly say if you lived in Australia i would nominate you for the order of Australia medal for your services to the home brew community your videos mate are second to none ever time i have a question i find one of your videos that covers that subject cheers .
I took notes, this is a great teacher. my take away from this alcohol distiller, ethanol 172 degrees f flame test blue or clear cut off temp 204 degrees f methanol 145 degrees f flame test yellow. I know you did a video on the amount of output you can get but can not find it
204 is too high..too much water and it'll be cloudy, collect the last from that run at 198-200, then use everything from 200 to 205(ish) and throw that into your next run just before lighting the still
The American government needs to give us our rights back. It's horseshit some states are banned from producing thier own alcohol without governmental permissions
@@BillMcGirr we're currently passing legislation to prevent people from giving impure potín to them. Leprechauns went extinct 200 years ago for a similar reason.
@@abnormal3542 The leprechaun ☘️ is alive and well here. My Boston Celtics are attempting to take a big giant turd on some California fairies. It’s GLORIOUS… and a beautiful sight to behold. God loves the Irish. And obviously… so do the ladies. Rock and roll brother.💪👍☘️🥃🏀
George you're the very best. It was your videos a couple of years ago that got me started. You made a great point here that I never digested years ago. The "first two ounces" is the methanol. I also like your explaination of what methanol is and where is exists. So I"m running a good batch of Brandy and I always use the flame test. I have an old moonshiner friend that says the taste is the only way to go but I'm not that refined yet. But I'm learning. Thanks again for making this video and helping us folks out here.
Hi george. At 16:55 you wonder whether some industrial (commercial) distillers may not be removing the foreshots, hence hangover headache. They are most likely using a continuous feed process, so are they continually producing foreshots without a way to separate them? thanks
Hi George, great channel and thanks. Is it possible when you give out measurements such as 2 oz, to help us newbies in UK/Europe to also mention what this would be in Milliliters. Just saves us googling what is 2 US Oz for example (almost 60ml by the way ). Thanks
never distilled alcohol before but i recall in highschool chem while fractional distilling all you had to do was hold temp slightly above the boiling point of the most volatile (lowest boiling point) fraction until the temp started to drop then you knew that fraction had boiled off. So one could hold temp at the head around 65*c and once the temp started to dip crank it up to around 80*c.
A boiling point of 67. 7C for the pure liquid does not mean that all methanol will have boiled off in a mixture at that temperature. Just like a boiling point of 77C doesn't mean all ethanol will have boiled off at that temperature. Check out Rault's Law.
Yes, hence the need for fractionating columns and such. It is extremely difficult to get truely pure collection of anything. I think for this purpose the remaining concentration is negligible. If using as a reagent where purity was critical, you would probably need to fractionate.
Hello George my name is Mark, and I am brand new to distilling. I haven't even started my first mash yet. I watched your episode using an electric heater and pid. I sure could use some advice on what to look for in terms of watage I want to stay in the 120 vac area as I have no 220 available with out a lot of work. I Have purchased a ss 8 gallon stillstill
This video is fantastic. I wish when I had turned 21 someone had shown me this video. I knew what methanol was, I knew (theoretically as I've never distilled) it could be in moonshine, but I never suspected that there'd be any in store purchased liquor (that cheap bottle of bourbon and it's headache the next day). This is also the first time I'd seen anyone state the differences in the boiling point of methanol vs ethanol which finally connected the blanks in how safe distilling works (the blanket 2oz statement never sat well with me). I also had no idea and never made the connection that methanol could be in beer or wine. Thank you for this video.
I don't distill anything but I enjoy making mead and from the research I've done, different types of sugars have the potential to produce more methanol. All depends on the sugars being complex or simple to my understanding. I may be wrong.
I think it has more to do with the breakdown of pectin from pectinase enzymes. Pectinase break down pectin into methanol. All fruit have large amounts of both pectinase, and pectin. (Pectin is in all plant cell walls.) There may be other ways for methanol to form, but pectin breakdown will be a major component. It is also going to form in non-fermented fruit juice too, or even fruit itself if it's old. Trace amounts are harmless though, hence we can eat fruit and not even notice. I am curious, where did you read that it depends on the sugar? My current understanding is that yeast metabolism only works on glucose, but they can still absorb a few other sugars, depending on strain (ie some yeast apparently cannot handle fructose,) and then they produce enzymes to split or transform the other sugars into glucose. None of these process should result in methanol, as far as I know. (Though many other compounds can be produced, including diacetyl, isobutanol, and propanol, among others.) That's not to say sugar type couldn't be a factor though! Bio-chemistry is... intense.
@@stephenborntrager6542 Wine yeasts digests sucrose, glucose, fructose. Most beer yeast and bread yeast are better for glucose and maltose fermentation.
@@redstone1999 It's still strain dependent. Lallemand Windsor ale yeast for example cannot use maltoriose despite being classified as an ale yeast. It's intended for full bodied beers. I imagine wine yeast could be used for similar effect, but I've never heard of anybody doing that.
Thank you for all the great information You've been very helpful to me I'm just getting started and I Had a lot of questions but I've been watching your videos for a couple months now and you have answered just about all of them.
You rock. I am learning so very much sir thank you. I've been a fan of moonshining for over ten years. And now I have the time to pursue this Timeless American, and ancient tradition of distilling recreationally, and I'm having a blast doing it. Your videos help this amateur out a lot, thank you. I can't wait to see what other answers you have to questions that I haven't even realized yet.
Good video. But you should look at breakdowns of chemical compounds in heads - there is barely any methanol in there, it's mostly ethanol with some stuff like isobutanol and acetal there in high concentration.
so let me get this straight, (using a sugar wash only) i dont really need to remove the first 2oz because there is not really any methonol in the sugar wash, but just to be on the safe side i should remove the first 2oz from a 5 gallon batch? then for vodka i should use a reflux still, bring it to 145 degrees f and hold that temp for 10 mins after starting my water flow then bump up temp to 172/178 degrees f for the ethonol? but how do i get the 'triple distilled' version of vodka? can anyone confirm my thinkings as correct? thanks and much love from the uk xxx p.s sorry but i have a medical condition called 'dyscalculia' (dyslexia but with numbers instead of letters) so i am too scared to rely on my own number skills to get this right. thanks for any help xxx
About the flame test, what is it that causes the methanol to burn yellow? as far as i know pure methanol burns pale blue, so both ethanol and methanol should look almost the same when burned and ethanol should have a slight yellow flame. Might be some other volitile organic stuff that distill over with the methanol if there is any. I have also seen on parties where people do the flame test when drinking moonshine, and looking for a clear blue flame, and i find it strange because if someone has intentionally added methanol to increase volume it should burn blue anyway, and if the methanol from the mash is mixed with all the ethanol from the mash i dont think it would poison you when considering that most likley it's a pretty small percentage methanol(some people say methanol can contribute to worse hangovers, i dont know, could be)
Great vid. I am new at distilling. As a matter of fact I just bought my first still today. Love Amazon. Lol! Anyway I am terrified of getting all that nasty methanol in my finished product. You have put to rest a lot of my fears. Thank you. Wish me luck...
I've only distilled fruit wine once. I think the fore-shots smelled more like acetone than methanol. Acetone seems more plausible because it is in the metabolic pathway near ethanol, while methanol needs another substrate altogether. Is there any research along this line?
I am not really a researcher, but from a paper I found on "pectinase", the pectin in fruits (or all plant cells, actually) contain a "metyl-ester bond" that is "hydrolyzed" by certain pectic enzymes, and methanol is a product of this process. This would mean some methanol is already in pretty much all fruit, especially ripe fruit. I have never seen any studies showing methanol as a result of yeast metabolism, but I have seen acetaldehyde and diacetyl have been mentioned, along with propanol and isobutanol. So I suspect that there was a large amount of acetaldehyde, and maybe some methanol, but that the methanol was already mostly already present in the fruit mash prior to fermentation. I have heard it claimed that pectic enzymes are hindered by ethanol, so in theory, perhaps very fresh fruit and fast/large amounts of yeast may reduce methanol levels. No data to back that up though.
I read through some more of the comments below. Firstly let me say that George is an awesome guy and sells quality products at a very reasonable price...and those come with free tech support. His malted Barley, Rye and flaked corn are all very nice products. But for all of you wondering, this process happens naturally, EVERY TIME and in EVERY run you do. There is no way to get around it. Same as the fact that you will never extract ALL of the Ethanol from a mash...you will never extract ALL of the Methanol. Don't overthink it, point of this video is to show you how to NOT put the extracted Methanol in with the extracted Ethanol. If you're just starting out, buy good equipment. Buy a still with a thermometer built into the vapor stream and listen to George tell you the collection temps (all stills run a little/slightly different temp) in his other videos. He has told you all you need to know in his other vids.
What if the flame test is not producing a flame? Hydrometer is reading 40 as well, but no flame. The liquid does smell though. This is during distillation.
Very good video. The reason a little methanol in liquor is ok but the same amount on its own is very toxic is because our liver will ignore methanol in the presence of ethanol. But methanol on its own is converted to formaldehyde. The antidote to methanol ingestion is ethanol (usually vodka).
Great and informative video. I'm concerned as to remove the Methanol that its the Mash that you heat to 145degreesF or is that the temperature measured at the still head/top ? (So the mash would be hotter ?) Or is it a matter of balancing up the mash and head temperatures at a lower temperature first (say 110F) then gradually increasing both together to the achieve the 145 F?
im going to do it your way no longer go high ABV until im ready to make fuel alcohol which is my main interest, No benzene, toluene etc, exhaust emissions are far safer, so what if i have to advance timing, boost compression, and rejet, theyve been running pure sugar alcohol in brazil or thereabouts no issues for decades
Thanks man I always learn more and more from u and I've been at this for some time now so keep them coming even though I've learned most of the common stuff I'm trying to learn more about gravity and mash using a hygrometer
Great video George! Chemistry question? I have a family member who will not try my corn shine because she has a corn allergy. Any idea of how much of the allergen comes through following distillation? I just make fruit for her but I was just pondering.
George, I just heard you say your in Texas. I was just getting started and trying to absorb all the great knowledge her but just heard that it's illegal for me to distill alcohol even for private use in Texas. Bummed! Am I uninformed? Can I make spirits for private use here?
Many thanks for your great videos! Are there different temperature set point between a reflux and pot stills. I have used your set point on my reflux with great results. I want to try pot still now. Brewhaus pot temperature setting are completely different than your reflux settings. Please suggest something. Thanks again
I just love the way you explain thank you George, can you please make detailed video how to make wheat wash without yeast thank you so much for grate work subscribed
Hi George thanks for your videos.I want to add some information.We know that we need wood or woody things to produce methanol.Wood contains pectin, and methanol is formed after pectin is broken down by the pectinase enzyme during fermantation .If you use sugar wash to produce alcohol you cant get methanol easily so it is trustworthy and also when you are fermentating beer or wine you are not using woods.In beer fermentation you are using malt only .If you put all the grapes with woody parts without clearing them and also crack the seeds before fermentation you can get methanol.(examine wine production).I want to give this information. Please warn me if I am wrong.
Hello George Not a newby but it been a long time The other day I watch a video where he used freeze fruit wine to remove the water. He ended up with brandy but he didn't cook Seem to me a bad idea The bad menthol would still be still be in the wine ? Could you cook after freeze it Yours truly. Barney It seem a good idea
I was searching for videos on Meth Injection (as in diesel engines), but this gentleman was so interesting I couldn't help but stay tuned. Yes, the Channel would have been a clue, but I only jumped on the title. If he doesn't know his stuff, he sure has me fooled. I like that he seems to be talking to us, the audience; not the camera. He's the kind of guy I could sit with in discussion for hours on end.
So are these temps off the boil vessel or at the top of the Column?. I have a milk jug style still with a meter tall column- and production doesn’t start till the column temp hit 185F??
I cant' get my pot of mash up to 172 degrees I can work up to 139 I live in the Midwest does the sea level have something to do with it I'm on my gas stove and that thing is jets full open should I just get a turkey fryer heat source I refuse to go electric or an out side burner? I bought one one those 8 gallon still on line it works well and my flame is blue like yours and I throw out the first 3 or 4 ounces and I have so far never had a head ache I had a abscess on my tongue I put a shot of 150 proof in my mouth in a matter of minutes the abscess bump and all I had spit it out Good shine Happy Distilling .
My son's father in law is from Romania .I fermented plums and he made brandy twice run through a 5 gallon still .He does not throw out anything .After he cut it with well water the final brandy is quite smooth at about 90 proof .Through his daughter interpreting I was told he never tosses the first part of the distilling .He has a 1,000 gallon fermenting tank from 100 plum trees of fruit in Romania .This was my first experience watching distilling in person .I have learned plenty from your videos .I might be drinking methanol .I had about 10 gallons of must and got about 1.2 gallons of brandy .Call it cultural diversity .They call it moonshine .
and a thought for you people out there. collect the foreshots as uses it in alcohol lamp, you can use methanol in alcohol stoves but it does not burn as hot
It's been tried. Liquor is always a much lower octane then even the stale stove fuel you would throw out. It's also a lot of work to purge bad fuel from most alcohol stoves. So you might only want to keep it in a separate starter fluid bottle and watch it fail to start a few charcoal briquettes in a small grill.
if your Running a t500...what temp is the menthol coming out and what temp is it ethanol coming out ..because it is reading the water temp coming out..???
I was so scared of Methanol that I didn't want to go into doing home distillation. Thank you George, your informative capacity melted this fear off me.
Happy to help
For those of us not using Farenheit, 145 degrees F = 63 degrees C (@6:28). C=5/9(F-32)
Singularly the best and most informational yet Thanks George
WOW! Thank you George. This is most informative! Oh and thanks for the tip for using tomato paste as a yeast nutrient. I managed to get my stuck fermentation going by adding some! You are a champ!
George -GOD BLESS YOU- man you set the chemistry straight. ty for doing a lecture again -YOU THE MANN.
i dont know how this guy doesnt have 5 million subscribers but he just gained one more. One of the best explained videos ive ever seen on really any topic. Great video.
G'day George, Thank you for the metric conversions! Jimmy
Jimmy Somethin
Yes.
Good stuff.
I follow distillers from around the globe...
It’s hard to follow metrics if you’re used to American weights...
And vise versa ...
Never mind Brix...🤣👍🥃
Hey George, your videos are the best of them all. You teach the science and art of it. You always say you are available to answers questions. I called and you actually returned my call. I really appreciate it and you. Thank you. Cincinnati, OH - Joker.
Excellent description we have been dumping way too much to error on the side of caution.
So glad you touched on that , I been curious about the methanols in beer and wine since you don’t distill it out ,
Just now getting into this hobby…I have been watching a bunch of TH-cam. Discovered yours. You make the most sense and I learn from you big time!!
This is the best info on methanol. Keep up the great videos.
Thank you very much you are a great teacher.. god bless you:)
Hey George I'm glad you put this video out cuz man I've sure thought thesane thing."well what about all the methanol in wine and beer no oneis going blind from drinking that." Thx i always enjoy your videos.
I've always thought that 2 ounces of methanol mixed with a gallon and a half of 100 proof liquor will not hurt you but I still separate it out. Who the heck needs to wake up with a headache and the jitters. Thanks George!!!
Thanks for everything you do. You are a pillar of the community.
Thank you for your "clean" english I use your video to increase my capacity of speaking and listening, ciao from italy! 🇮🇹
Wonderful!
New to stilling, if that is the right term, have not even done my vinegar run as trying to understand everything first. So far, this has been the BEST channel for information, not over explained, not over whelming; like unpacking my still for the first time.... and WOW on the subject of Methanol, and other topics, truly superior! Thank you.
Hello George, been watching you for a while. I really appreciate the amount of your knowledge you dispense. It is so helpful and I learn a lot, Just to add to this, you make very complex information really easy to understand. Quite honestly, it is the sign of a genius. ( You may allow that to go to your head :) ) Anyway, thank you from Langley BC
Thanks for the kind words
Hi Paul, where in Langley or BC would you buy methyl alcohol 1 Liter up to 55 gallons ? I have looked :( can you help?
That cleared up a bunch of the myths I've been hearing, thanks. Keep up the good work.
Yesterday I made my first batch ever. It was from a one gallon batch of persimmon mead I made. It was horrible. Your videos are very informative. I even used a pot still made from an old canning pot (thank you very much) .
You're the voice of reason George, Great video mate!
Genius George! If anyone looks to other sources, all I can just say good luck. Thank you for everything and all of your videos!
Thank you for sharing the truth about this George. Another option is to keep the methanol and use it to light a fire or clean your glass.
Hi George mate i can honestly say if you lived in Australia i would nominate you for the order of Australia medal for your services to the home brew community your videos mate are second to none ever time i have a question i find one of your videos that covers that subject cheers .
Thanks for all the information you provide it's helped answer a lot of problems and questions. Dave from Australia
You make learning about home brewing easy and understandable great job Sir love your channel.
I took notes, this is a great teacher. my take away from this alcohol distiller, ethanol 172 degrees f flame test blue or clear cut off temp 204 degrees f
methanol 145 degrees f flame test yellow. I know you did a video on the amount of output you can get but can not find it
204 is too high..too much water and it'll be cloudy, collect the last from that run at 198-200, then use everything from 200 to 205(ish) and throw that into your next run just before lighting the still
The American government needs to give us our rights back.
It's horseshit some states are banned from producing thier own alcohol without governmental permissions
LOL You started drawing the spoon and I cracked up. Bless your cotton socks \m/,
What a good video. Always wondered why some NON-alcohol food products give me a head ache, namely apple cider!
Thanks George! Great lesson in common sense!
Me and my wife where just talking about this. Thanks for the info. Love the videos.
In Ireland when they make the Poitin, they say the 1st cup is for the Fairies, so they through it away, hehe
cunobelinusX31
Those are either some lucky fairies 🧚♀️...
Or some blind ones.🙄🤣👍
@@BillMcGirr that's why they're endangered here
@@abnormal3542
Come to America.
We’ve got fairies EVERYWHERE.
You can take some home with you.👍🥃
@@BillMcGirr we're currently passing legislation to prevent people from giving impure potín to them. Leprechauns went extinct 200 years ago for a similar reason.
@@abnormal3542
The leprechaun ☘️ is alive and well here.
My Boston Celtics are attempting to take a big giant turd on some California fairies.
It’s GLORIOUS… and a beautiful sight to behold.
God loves the Irish.
And obviously… so do the ladies.
Rock and roll brother.💪👍☘️🥃🏀
I love your information. Thanks George!
George you're the very best. It was your videos a couple of years ago that got me started. You made a great point here that I never digested years ago. The "first two ounces" is the methanol. I also like your explaination of what methanol is and where is exists. So I"m running a good batch of Brandy and I always use the flame test. I have an old moonshiner friend that says the taste is the only way to go but I'm not that refined yet. But I'm learning. Thanks again for making this video and helping us folks out here.
Hi george. At 16:55 you wonder whether some industrial (commercial) distillers may not be removing the foreshots, hence hangover headache. They are most likely using a continuous feed process, so are they continually producing foreshots without a way to separate them? thanks
As always brilliant concise description of how to do... George... masterclass..!!
Many thanks!
Thanks for that George, you just reassured a new distiller in the UK.
Hi George, great channel and thanks. Is it possible when you give out measurements such as 2 oz, to help us newbies in UK/Europe to also mention what this would be in Milliliters. Just saves us googling what is 2 US Oz for example (almost 60ml by the way ). Thanks
never distilled alcohol before but i recall in highschool chem while fractional distilling all you had to do was hold temp slightly above the boiling point of the most volatile (lowest boiling point) fraction until the temp started to drop then you knew that fraction had boiled off. So one could hold temp at the head around 65*c and once the temp started to dip crank it up to around 80*c.
though I suppose there'd be a ton of congeners lost that probably didn't need to be.
Absolutely.
A boiling point of 67. 7C for the pure liquid does not mean that all methanol will have boiled off in a mixture at that temperature. Just like a boiling point of 77C doesn't mean all ethanol will have boiled off at that temperature.
Check out Rault's Law.
Yes, hence the need for fractionating columns and such. It is extremely difficult to get truely pure collection of anything. I think for this purpose the remaining concentration is negligible.
If using as a reagent where purity was critical, you would probably need to fractionate.
Hello George my name is Mark, and I am brand new to distilling. I haven't even started my first mash yet. I watched your episode using an electric heater and pid. I sure could use some advice on what to look for in terms of watage I want to stay in the 120 vac area as I have no 220 available with out a lot of work. I Have purchased a ss 8 gallon stillstill
Same here I’m using sugar and honey and I’m scared to death and everything is burning blue and one gallon at a time.
This video is fantastic. I wish when I had turned 21 someone had shown me this video. I knew what methanol was, I knew (theoretically as I've never distilled) it could be in moonshine, but I never suspected that there'd be any in store purchased liquor (that cheap bottle of bourbon and it's headache the next day). This is also the first time I'd seen anyone state the differences in the boiling point of methanol vs ethanol which finally connected the blanks in how safe distilling works (the blanket 2oz statement never sat well with me). I also had no idea and never made the connection that methanol could be in beer or wine. Thank you for this video.
"It's all just basic chemistry, bro" - from Breaking Bad
Thanks for this. You explain this concept really well.
I don't distill anything but I enjoy making mead and from the research I've done, different types of sugars have the potential to produce more methanol. All depends on the sugars being complex or simple to my understanding. I may be wrong.
I think it has more to do with the breakdown of pectin from pectinase enzymes. Pectinase break down pectin into methanol. All fruit have large amounts of both pectinase, and pectin. (Pectin is in all plant cell walls.) There may be other ways for methanol to form, but pectin breakdown will be a major component. It is also going to form in non-fermented fruit juice too, or even fruit itself if it's old. Trace amounts are harmless though, hence we can eat fruit and not even notice.
I am curious, where did you read that it depends on the sugar? My current understanding is that yeast metabolism only works on glucose, but they can still absorb a few other sugars, depending on strain (ie some yeast apparently cannot handle fructose,) and then they produce enzymes to split or transform the other sugars into glucose. None of these process should result in methanol, as far as I know. (Though many other compounds can be produced, including diacetyl, isobutanol, and propanol, among others.)
That's not to say sugar type couldn't be a factor though! Bio-chemistry is... intense.
@@stephenborntrager6542 Wine yeasts digests sucrose, glucose, fructose. Most beer yeast and bread yeast are better for glucose and maltose fermentation.
@@redstone1999 It's still strain dependent. Lallemand Windsor ale yeast for example cannot use maltoriose despite being classified as an ale yeast. It's intended for full bodied beers. I imagine wine yeast could be used for similar effect, but I've never heard of anybody doing that.
I watched some news about Laos Methanol poisoning incidents, thanks to the algorithm for pushing me this useful video
George, thanks very much for a very informative video, perfect explanation.
Love watching your videos
Great video love your work.
Hello there! Pure gold information. A little question, organic sugarcane may be considered as a fruit? I’d think it could be, right? Regards!
Thank you for all the great information You've been very helpful to me I'm just getting started and I Had a lot of questions but I've been watching your videos for a couple months now and you have answered just about all of them.
KINGP3900 I couldn’t agree more with you. I love the way George explains why and doesn’t just say do this
You rock. I am learning so very much sir thank you. I've been a fan of moonshining for over ten years. And now I have the time to pursue this Timeless American, and ancient tradition of distilling recreationally, and I'm having a blast doing it. Your videos help this amateur out a lot, thank you. I can't wait to see what other answers you have to questions that I haven't even realized yet.
Good video. But you should look at breakdowns of chemical compounds in heads - there is barely any methanol in there, it's mostly ethanol with some stuff like isobutanol and acetal there in high concentration.
so let me get this straight, (using a sugar wash only) i dont really need to remove the first 2oz because there is not really any methonol in the sugar wash, but just to be on the safe side i should remove the first 2oz from a 5 gallon batch? then for vodka i should use a reflux still, bring it to 145 degrees f and hold that temp for 10 mins after starting my water flow then bump up temp to 172/178 degrees f for the ethonol? but how do i get the 'triple distilled' version of vodka? can anyone confirm my thinkings as correct? thanks and much love from the uk xxx p.s sorry but i have a medical condition called 'dyscalculia' (dyslexia but with numbers instead of letters) so i am too scared to rely on my own number skills to get this right. thanks for any help xxx
About the flame test, what is it that causes the methanol to burn yellow? as far as i know pure methanol burns pale blue, so both ethanol and methanol should look almost the same when burned and ethanol should have a slight yellow flame. Might be some other volitile organic stuff that distill over with the methanol if there is any.
I have also seen on parties where people do the flame test when drinking moonshine, and looking for a clear blue flame, and i find it strange because if someone has intentionally added methanol to increase volume it should burn blue anyway, and if the methanol from the mash is mixed with all the ethanol from the mash i dont think it would poison you when considering that most likley it's a pretty small percentage methanol(some people say methanol can contribute to worse hangovers, i dont know, could be)
Thank you so very much for the video. You are a great teacher ❤🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻❤️
Great teacher thanks. Keep it simple
Great vid. I am new at distilling. As a matter of fact I just bought my first still today. Love Amazon. Lol! Anyway I am terrified of getting all that nasty methanol in my finished product. You have put to rest a lot of my fears. Thank you. Wish me luck...
Awesome Vid! I was wondering if there are any special considerations regarding methanol when using a thump keg?
I've only distilled fruit wine once. I think the fore-shots smelled more like acetone than methanol. Acetone seems more plausible because it is in the metabolic pathway near ethanol, while methanol needs another substrate altogether. Is there any research along this line?
I am not really a researcher, but from a paper I found on "pectinase", the pectin in fruits (or all plant cells, actually) contain a "metyl-ester bond" that is "hydrolyzed" by certain pectic enzymes, and methanol is a product of this process. This would mean some methanol is already in pretty much all fruit, especially ripe fruit. I have never seen any studies showing methanol as a result of yeast metabolism, but I have seen acetaldehyde and diacetyl have been mentioned, along with propanol and isobutanol. So I suspect that there was a large amount of acetaldehyde, and maybe some methanol, but that the methanol was already mostly already present in the fruit mash prior to fermentation. I have heard it claimed that pectic enzymes are hindered by ethanol, so in theory, perhaps very fresh fruit and fast/large amounts of yeast may reduce methanol levels. No data to back that up though.
Great information George
Thanks 👍
Hi George
Love your lessons.
Clear and solid explanation. I am going to do my first distillation in near future. I am now more confidence about proccess and saftey. Thank you.
You can do it!
Thank you George. You are very informative.
I read through some more of the comments below. Firstly let me say that George is an awesome guy and sells quality products at a very reasonable price...and those come with free tech support. His malted Barley, Rye and flaked corn are all very nice products.
But for all of you wondering, this process happens naturally, EVERY TIME and in EVERY run you do. There is no way to get around it. Same as the fact that you will never extract ALL of the Ethanol from a mash...you will never extract ALL of the Methanol. Don't overthink it, point of this video is to show you how to NOT put the extracted Methanol in with the extracted Ethanol.
If you're just starting out, buy good equipment. Buy a still with a thermometer built into the vapor stream and listen to George tell you the collection temps (all stills run a little/slightly different temp) in his other videos. He has told you all you need to know in his other vids.
Great run down. I appreciate it.
George
Thank you George! In industrial hygiene class and chose this topic
I always wondered about the wine and beer. I assume what you just said! Thank you for affirming that.
What if the flame test is not producing a flame? Hydrometer is reading 40 as well, but no flame. The liquid does smell though. This is during distillation.
So awesome info thank you so much for video ..
Good info. I however don't trust the flame test....
Very good video. The reason a little methanol in liquor is ok but the same amount on its own is very toxic is because our liver will ignore methanol in the presence of ethanol. But methanol on its own is converted to formaldehyde. The antidote to methanol ingestion is ethanol (usually vodka).
Thank you so much for explaining this. You have a new sub. Cheers
I've learnt a lot of you man, keep up the maths and explain it like you do, and people will keep following your channel like the pipe piper 👍🏻🇦🇺
Can we just have a moment of silence that quart that was thrown out...
Is that ramblin jack Elliot playing in the begging of the video? I love it
Great and informative video. I'm concerned as to remove the Methanol that its the Mash that you heat to 145degreesF or is that the temperature measured at the still head/top ? (So the mash would be hotter ?) Or is it a matter of balancing up the mash and head temperatures at a lower temperature first (say 110F) then gradually increasing both together to the achieve the 145 F?
im going to do it your way no longer go high ABV until im ready to make fuel alcohol which is my main interest, No benzene, toluene etc, exhaust emissions are far safer, so what if i have to advance timing, boost compression, and rejet, theyve been running pure sugar alcohol in brazil or thereabouts no issues for decades
Thanks man I always learn more and more from u and I've been at this for some time now so keep them coming even though I've learned most of the common stuff I'm trying to learn more about gravity and mash using a hygrometer
Great video George! Chemistry question? I have a family member who will not try my corn shine because she has a corn allergy. Any idea of how much of the allergen comes through following distillation? I just make fruit for her but I was just pondering.
I have no idea.
George, I just heard you say your in Texas. I was just getting started and trying to absorb all the great knowledge her but just heard that it's illegal for me to distill alcohol even for private use in Texas. Bummed! Am I uninformed? Can I make spirits for private use here?
Many thanks for your great videos! Are there different temperature set point between a reflux and pot stills. I have used your set point on my reflux with great results. I want to try pot still now. Brewhaus pot temperature setting are completely different than your reflux settings. Please suggest something. Thanks again
Excelent video! Thank you
I just love the way you explain thank you George, can you please make detailed video how to make wheat wash without yeast thank you so much for grate work subscribed
Hi George thanks for your videos.I want to add some information.We know that we need wood or woody things to produce methanol.Wood contains pectin, and methanol is formed after pectin is broken down by the pectinase enzyme during fermantation .If you use sugar wash to produce alcohol you cant get methanol easily so it is trustworthy and also when you are fermentating beer or wine you are not using woods.In beer fermentation you are using malt only .If you put all the grapes with woody parts without clearing them and also crack the seeds before fermentation you can get methanol.(examine wine production).I want to give this information. Please warn me if I am wrong.
Hello George
Not a newby but it been a long time
The other day I watch a video where he used freeze fruit wine to
remove the water.
He ended up with brandy but he didn't cook
Seem to me a bad idea
The bad menthol would still be still be in the wine
? Could you cook after freeze it
Yours truly. Barney
It seem a good idea
When distilling spirits once you have the hearts and decide to distill again do you redo the process again separate the heads and heart and tail
No....methanol only comes out once...after that its gone.
I was searching for videos on Meth Injection (as in diesel engines), but this gentleman was so interesting I couldn't help but stay tuned. Yes, the Channel would have been a clue, but I only jumped on the title. If he doesn't know his stuff, he sure has me fooled. I like that he seems to be talking to us, the audience; not the camera. He's the kind of guy I could sit with in discussion for hours on end.
Thanks. I enjoy what I do and hope it is helpful
George
Hell, one average size bottle of wine and an 8 dollar cigar, and I must be going blind.
So are these temps off the boil vessel or at the top of the Column?. I have a milk jug style still with a meter tall column- and production doesn’t start till the column temp hit 185F??
Methanol and methane are not the same thing. Methanol also does not burn “yellow” compared to ethanol.
I cant' get my pot of mash up to 172 degrees I can work up to 139 I live in the Midwest does the sea level have something to do with it I'm on my gas stove and that thing is jets full open should I just get a turkey fryer heat source I refuse to go electric or an out side burner? I bought one one those 8 gallon still on line it works well and my flame is blue like yours and I throw out the first 3 or 4 ounces and I have so far never had a head ache I had a abscess on my tongue I put a shot of 150 proof in my mouth in a matter of minutes the abscess bump and all I had spit it out Good shine Happy Distilling .
This is perfect video busting all the myth's related to methanol and ethenol.Thanx a lot
nice one mate. cheers from the uk
You don't see them taking the forshots out on the JD distillery video
My son's father in law is from Romania .I fermented plums and he made brandy twice run through a 5 gallon still .He does not throw out anything .After he cut it with well water the final brandy is quite smooth at about 90 proof .Through his daughter interpreting I was told he never tosses the first part of the distilling .He has a 1,000 gallon fermenting tank from 100 plum trees of fruit in Romania .This was my first experience watching distilling in person .I have learned plenty from your videos .I might be drinking methanol .I had about 10 gallons of must and got about 1.2 gallons of brandy .Call it cultural diversity .They call it moonshine .
How much is the quantity of a “run” that he is talking about? 1 gallon? 5 gallons? More?
if you throw out 2oz for a 5 gal run, then I assume you would throw out 4oz in 10 GAL RUN?
True
and a thought for you people out there. collect the foreshots as uses it in alcohol lamp, you can use methanol in alcohol stoves but it does not burn as hot
It's been tried. Liquor is always a much lower octane then even the stale stove fuel you would throw out. It's also a lot of work to purge bad fuel from most alcohol stoves. So you might only want to keep it in a separate starter fluid bottle and watch it fail to start a few charcoal briquettes in a small grill.
if your Running a t500...what temp is the menthol coming out
and what temp is it ethanol
coming out ..because it is reading the water temp coming out..???
The T500 is designed in reverse and tracks the temp of the condenser water instead of the head temp.
@@BarleyandHopsBrewing
so can you tell at what temp menthol is coming out then it changes to ethanol