We are going to Vietnam this year for holiday and I’ve read horror stories of poorly distilled alcohol in cocktails and such. Several tourists have died from methanol poisoning.
Would it be feasible to build a small detector for methanol? I’m okay with either a small chemical identification test or something like an IR spectrum analysis.
There are commercial test kits for professional laboratories but I need something affordable for regular consumers.
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This is a good occasion to go alcohol-free during holiday.
Or at least refrain from ordering alcohol at bars, restaurants, and only buy it from stores when it’s a clearly labeled bottle (contents/ingredients, origin, producer) that you will open and pour yourself.
Am considering that. Though it’s quite nice to have a gintonic and watch the sunset.
Edit: my view has been substantially altered. Due to my existing bias towards all grain mash, I hadn’t considered the possibility of woody material fermentation on methanol creation. I still believe negligent adulteration is more of a risk than negligent distillation, but negligent distillation is not a totally irrelevant risk.
My investigations into home distilling convinced me that distillation doesn’t convert ethanol into methanol. Moonshine poisoning is the result of adulteration of the product, (mixing it with other intoxicants) not bad distillation.
Basically sometimes people put other stuff in moonshine to reduce their costs, or give a special buzz. There’s no guarantee that the adulterant to be concerned about is methanol.
Yeah, ethanol doesn’t get turned into methanol by distillation. But fermentation produces both and one purpose of distillation is separating them. Thats why you have to remove the foreshot. An incompetent distiller can still cost you your eyesight or even life.
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