 Methanol
by: Alan on 04.Aug.2004 18:03:33
country: CH
Does anybody know what to do to prevent the production of methanol during fermentation?
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 RE: Methanol
by: Willi on 14.Sep.2004 13:00:02
country: Bavaria
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Yes, to work as clean as possible, no rotten fruits, no leaves etc.
Methanol derives from woody parts of the mash. So when you make a mash from marc (the residue of filterpressing grapes for making wine), the mash and also the distillate will contain a relatively high amount of methanol, because of the lots of pits. You can test this very easily: compare a very cheap grappa with an expensive one. The cheap one has a high amount of Methanol, therefore it will taste much hotter than the expensive one.
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RE: Methanol
by: Bernard Deham on 16.Feb.2005 03:21:42
country: Thailand
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It is unfortunatly not possible to separate methanol from ethanol, the percentage of methanol depends upon the material (kind of fruits) you are using.
For instance avoid apples with a high amount of pectine.
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RE: Methanol
by: Dave on 24.Feb.2006 11:05:04
country: Australia
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It is very easy to separate methanol from ethanol.
Methanol has a lower boiling point (65 deg C) than ethanol (78 deg c), and it therefore comes out of the still as "heads".
Just discard the first part of the distillate (that will smell like nail polish), or wait until the temprature is > 75 deg C, and Bob's you're uncle!
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RE: Methanol
by: Harrell Sellers on 11.Jul.2006 15:53:52
country: USA - South Dakota
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The above post is correct. If you're just making ethanol, then you should distill more than once. The second (and third and fourth) distillation is to separate the aldehydes, ketones and methanol from the ethanol. Watch your temperature carefully. Do it slowly. You should see a plateau in your temp. vs. time curve when the methanol starts coming off. Toss it.
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RE: Methanol
by: Butch Taylor on 26.Feb.2008 17:01:49
country: USA
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The above information for making the distillation "cut" the minimize the carry over of methanol to the product is dependent on temperature and patience. In distilling with a reflux column you want to drive the heat under the pot to get a slow gentle reflux in the distillation column. By doing it with patience the plateau the previous post indicated will very easy to spot. Butch
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RE: Methanol
by: Michael Williams on 08.Jul.2011 22:42:20
country: UK
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I'm afraid it's not that easy. Ethanol and methanol form a so-called azeotrope when mixed. I'll spare you the technical details; it basically means the two liquids together have a different boiling point than the separate compounds.
If you try to achieve separation through distillation, both alcohols will evaporate at the same temperature, meaning you won't get any separation. The same effect occurs with a certain volumetric mixture of alcohol and water, which prevents you from getting 99.9% pure alcohol through distillation.
Also, methanol doesn't really smell like nail-polish in my opinion; I believe you're confusing it with acetone on that point.
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RE: Methanol
by: Ton on 06.Sep.2011 07:58:47
country: Netherlands
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Methanol is NOT an azeotrope with ethanol, nor water according to:
Chris Barsby, “ Methanol Brochure” Alberta
Gas Chemicals Ltd. Technical memo
No.850220, March 7, 1985
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 RE: Methanol
by: Bernard Deham on 02.Apr.2012 16:00:58
country: Thailand
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So dear Einstein, you manage to get a 100% vol alcohol by normal destillation because water and ethanol do not form an azeotrope mixture...
You must be the only and unique one on the earth!
Tell us the secret, please...
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RE: Methanol
by: Bernard Deham on 02.Apr.2012 15:55:39
country: Thailand
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I've just discovered this message. Of course eliminating heads, as everybody knows, eliminates part of unwanted components like methanol, but far away from all of them. So I consider this kind of message completely irresponsible and unprofessional.
It is, with usualal stills, IMPOSSIBLE to completely eliminate methanol from your destillate. To avoid methanol, produce ethanol from a mash containing sugar, no fruits! All fruit spirits like Williams etc. contain methanol, up to 5%... Nobody dies from it, just a hanghover if you drink too much of that stuff.
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