Is this safe at all?

[forty5ive]

So, i've been looking into home-brewing and there was this extremely simple procedure i found. I was wondering if it was safe at all, it was basically putting yeast, sugar, and water into a jug, and fermenting it. Is this safe to drink? What would you say the alcohol content is, compared to a standard beer? Heres where i found the recipe... http://www.ehow.com/how_2310993_make-own-alcohol.html Thanks guys.

[Aperson444]

Is normal beer safe?

That's basically how you do it. However, since you put in pure sugar (as opposed to unconcentrated cereal-based sugar), you may get a higher alcohol content. Not deadly, but higher. It won't go too high, because the yeast will kill itself with all that alcohol. If you want more concentrated alcohol, distill it.

This wouldn't be beer though, since there would be no flavor. It would be like pure alcohol in water (with yeast). You could throw in something like corn mash (whiskey-like) or potato starch (like vodka). After this, store the jug in a warm, humid place. If you can monitor the pH, do that. Buy the yeast you want (not just baker's yeast if you don't want your beer to be shit). Throw in some flavor, or it will be pure alcohol, and will be shit.

[Transparent]

I don't know OP, I would be a little cautious about this. I'm no expert but should OP be worried about the formation of methanol?

[Aperson444]

Yeast does not ferment methanol, I do not think. It may depend on the sugar. Try to find fructose sugar (fruit sugar), then use table sugar.

[NTP]

I'm just guessing here but I wouldn't really worry about the methanol unless you made a still to purify your alcohol. Or if you plan on drinking a few gallons.

[Fractals]

I did that, it tasted like shitty, very watered down (but the alc. % was probably a little higher) beer. Not too bad, but not worth waiting for it to ferment, IMO.

[Von Bass]

It'll be about 3 - 6% I'd guess, and probably taste like yeast and carbonated water, the taste that you get before you pour the stuff in your mouth is fucking awful, let alone the actual taste of the beverage. Fermentation will produce a tiny, tiny amount of methanol, but not in any quantities that will damage you, unless you're drinking gallons of the stuff, or distilling it. Buy a super yeast strain and ferment it up to 10%+, then distil, just discard the first 10mls per litre.

[RAOVQ]

This is safe to do, but may not work.

Fruit juices contain alot of acidity that can make yeast very unhappy. Making alcoholic fruit juices like this is (usually) a fair bit more tricky than you may be after.
Another point is that you will need to disinfect everything. Well. You are leaving a sugary mixture in a warm place for a couple of weeks, any bacteria at all is going to go crazy and ruin the brew.

The 'recipie' will get you smashed, but will taste like piss. Using bakers yeast will make it nearly undrinkable.

Brew beer properly, it's dead easy and cheap. If I can do it, anyone can.

[DeadLegend]

Id say itd be safe to drink, though itd be sick as hell tasting.

Why not do that, and then distill it.

You can make a very easy still by doing this:

Take an agel food cake mold, and place it on top of a pot with no lid on it. Now take a plate thats big enough to cover the top of the angel cake mold and place it on top of the mold face down. Now, put a bunch of ice in a bag and place the bag on the plate.

Now bring your mash (the stuff your talking about making) to a low boil in the pot.

The alcohol will come up through the middle of the mold pan and condense on the chilled plate, and then drip into the mold.

Ive done it before, and this is the easiest way to distil something.

[forty5ive]

I understand. I figured it would taste like complete ass, but i'll probably try it anyway. What should i shop for yeast-wise? What would be best as a yeast, and best for a sugar, that is. Thanks for the feedback though

[Uriah Heep]

There is only one way to find out if it is safe or not my friend!

[forty5ive]

yeah, i guess. hahah, where would an ideal place to do this be? or does it not matter.

[Tybalt]

Depending on the sugar you're using it can get up to about 15% alcohol (ethanol) before the yeast dies. Then you'll have to purify.

[forty5ive]

Well, can i just use normal sugar used in say baking a cake, and not have to purify it? And if it gets to 15% or so alchohol, can i keep that, without purifying it and thats it? What sugar can i use to get my alcohol content up to around 15% ? Also, if i follow those directions, but use different products, will it still be around 3 days, than the baloon deflates? Will the balloons deflation mean the yeasts dead, so no more alcohol will be produced, meaning like, theres no more alcoholic fermentation?

[fcknut]

http://homedistiller.org/

[DeadLegend]

No, no matter what u use, you do not have to purify it. Purifying it wont do anything except make it taste better.

They do it in prison all the time, they call it "hooch"

end of story, yeah you can drink it, no you dont HAVE to purify it, yes it will taste like shit

[forty5ive]

Hahah, awesome So, what is purifying even? Sorry to be noob-ish on the topic. I know like theres distilling it, to greater the alcohol content, but i've never heard of purifying it. Please elaborate

[samguy700]

i did this, i left it for a week or so, dident work.
that recipe looks good might try.

[forty5ive]

Maybe it was the products you used?? Does anybody have any recommendations as far as sugar and yeast?

[The General]

My dad used to brew beer in our garage. I was four at the time but from what I remember it was a very easy, cool procedure. I think you may wanna go to a liquor store or a professional and ask. It's better to be safe than sorry if you know what I mean. Most likely you'll be fine

[Aperson444]

To get rid of all the nasty shit, your going to need a nice condenser mechanism. Shouldn't be hard to obtain. Your going to need to know the boiling point of methanol, hell up to ethyl acetate. Now, boil your brewed liquid at the BP of Ethyl acetate. This will get rid of acetone, EtAc, and methanol. What remains is OK, but you may want to boil at 120 C to extract the flavor and the ethanol. There's your ethanol. Add some fruit to it and bottle it.

Try to find different sugars. Mix fructose, sucrose, and maltose together with some trace minerals and add some brewing yeast. Add some starchy matter like potato or cornmeal.

[Von Bass]

You aren't going to separate ethyl acetate and ethanol with atmospheric distillation, boiling points are just too close, you'd probably just lose a significant quantity of the ethanol.

Also, boiling at 120*C is going to result in your bringing all the water over as well, not concentrating the mixture at all.

[fcknut]

Originally Posted by Aperson444

but you may want to boil at 120 C to extract the flavor and the ethanol. There's your ethanol. Add some fruit to it and bottle it.

Unfortunately, this would be physically impossible - one cannot boil water (for instance) at 120oC...

Anyways, purification may relate to the racking / sterilising / activated carbon wash...

[Tick Tock]

It seems like you're talking about making a simple sugar wine. People usually only brew sugar wine to distill the flavorless ethanol out, not to drink it plain; it tastes too horrible. Wine, cider, or even mead are your best bets. Beer is way too difficult and expensive for your very first try brewing, save that for further down the road. You should still add sugar to your juice to increase the alcohol content, but don't simply put sugar in water, you probably won't be able to stomach it.

The ideal place to brew would be a cool, dark closet that is very clean.

Originally Posted by RAOVQ

Another point is that you will need to disinfect everything. Well. You are leaving a sugary mixture in a warm place for a couple of weeks, any bacteria at all is going to go crazy and ruin the brew.

This man speaks the truth. Disinfection is the hardest step of the whole brewing process; I haven't even successfully completed it yet. Soap and water will not cut it, soaking in bleach is the cheapest and most effective solution no matter what type of brewing vessel you're using. You can find the right concentration of bleach in solution to use on google; I don't remember it off the top of my head. Some people will tell you the worst that can happen to your brew is that it will turn into vinegar instead of alcohol. That is absolutely incorrect. Among other things, bacteria can hijack your brew and start brewing butyric acid instead of ethanol. Butyric acid is what gives vomit it's characteristic smell. So yes, if you don't disinfect properly, there's a chance you could end up brewing a big old nasty bucket of vomit. I speak from personal experience when I say this stuff is the most godawful liquid you will ever have the displeasure of taking a whiff of. You will probably throw up yourself just from smelling it. Vinegar sucks too, so clean and disinfect all of your equipment (bottles, bottle caps, airlock tubing, etc.) This is not an option, you will regret it if you don't.

I think it would be better to brew a non-distilled, low alcohol content brew drinkable straight from the container for your first try. Save distilling for after you've mastered the basic brewing. You can use white sugar, brown sugar, it doesn't really matter. Just supply any sugar compatible with the fermentation reaction and the yeast will do the rest of the work. Like I've said before, bread yeast will not necessarily produce a prime product, but if it's the only thing you can get, it will do. People are putting this idea down, saying it will taste like shit, etc. Yea, it probably will taste like shit the first time, closet homebrew is a far cry from a legit brewery. However, it's fun, you can do it extremely cheap depending on the materials you use, and you will eventually figure out how to make the best product for your particular circumstances if you play around with the process enough. Expect to get some alcohol, but don't expect it to be of the highest quality. A water pitcher with activated carbon filter would be a fantastic purification device. They're not that expensive, and readily available.

[Aperson444]

Unfortunately, this would be physically impossible - one cannot boil water (for instance) at 120oC...

Anyways, purification may relate to the racking / sterilising / activated carbon wash...

No, no no. I never said concentrating it. It was to rid the wash of dangerous and nasty impurities. You WANT to bring water over. Then you can either concentrate it or bottle it.


Here's what you should do:

Mash up some cereal (Cheerios, Cornflakes) and some starchy stuff (Potatoes, Corn), add water to it. Then you should add some fructose (very little) and some glucose or sucrose (very little) to boost the alcohol content. You may also substitute some of the cereal with a fruit juice or simply mashed fruit. Add some brewer's yeast. Leave this to ferment in a closed wooden or copper pot in a dark, warm place. Copepr is preferred, because you must sterilize the pot first. To sterilize just heat really hot, and add denatured alcohol. It will guarantee kill anything in their. then you should add your yeast. After you have the wash, filter out the mash. Now pass through a carbon filter again. Heat to 200 C and distill out. This will leave behind fatty alcohols and acetic acid that hinder the taste, but still bring along the alcohol. You are not done here. Heat at the BP of methanol, ethyl acetate, and acetone. These are the main contaminants at the lower BPs. You now have a slightly better wash. Distill out this wash, maybe add some citric acid, bottle, then drink.

You must distill it, at least just for methanol

Methanol can easily blind a person or cause serious harm. I recommend you t least boil off methanol and acetone before you drink it.

[Tick Tock]

Brewing cereal huh? I would disregard the above post because it's so full of trolling and/or misinformation it's not even funny. You're worried about methanol contamination yet you rinse your brewing vessel with denatured spirits?

http://homedistiller.org/methanol.htm <--- That answers every question you could ever have about distilling and methanol. Look closely through all the info, you'll find that you don't even have to worry about methanol in non-distilled brews. OP, you don't have to worry about methanol unless you're distilling. However, if you do distill, I wouldn't use the above post as a reference.

[stateofhack]

Originally Posted by Aperson444

No, no no. I never said concentrating it. It was to rid the wash of dangerous and nasty impurities. You WANT to bring water over. Then you can either concentrate it or bottle it.


Here's what you should do:

Mash up some cereal (Cheerios, Cornflakes) and some starchy stuff (Potatoes, Corn), add water to it. Then you should add some fructose (very little) and some glucose or sucrose (very little) to boost the alcohol content. You may also substitute some of the cereal with a fruit juice or simply mashed fruit. Add some brewer's yeast. Leave this to ferment in a closed wooden or copper pot in a dark, warm place. Copepr is preferred, because you must sterilize the pot first. To sterilize just heat really hot, and add denatured alcohol. It will guarantee kill anything in their. then you should add your yeast. After you have the wash, filter out the mash. Now pass through a carbon filter again. Heat to 200 C and distill out. This will leave behind fatty alcohols and acetic acid that hinder the taste, but still bring along the alcohol. You are not done here. Heat at the BP of methanol, ethyl acetate, and acetone. These are the main contaminants at the lower BPs. You now have a slightly better wash. Distill out this wash, maybe add some citric acid, bottle, then drink.

You must distill it, at least just for methanol

Methanol can easily blind a person or cause serious harm. I recommend you t least boil off methanol and acetone before you drink it.

You have got to be joking...

[Aperson444]

Brewing cereal huh? I would disregard the above post because it's so full of trolling and/or misinformation it's not even funny. You're worried about methanol contamination yet you rinse your brewing vessel with denatured spirits?

Methanol is volatile and will evaporate off during your sterilization. Cereal contains glucose and various sugars -- perfect food for yeast (and bacteria if you're not careful). potatoes are used to make vodka, which is also made clandestinely in Eastern Europe rather quickly. But the dumb fucks either adulterate the vodka with methanol or they forget to distill or heat it. Cereal contains wheat, rye, or oats often which are all sugar and carbohydrate rich cereal grains. They can be crushed and added. Corn is used to make whiskey, which takes a little longer to make. Fruit also has a lot of sugars. Instead of pure sucrose, this might be better. I believe there is a lot of fructose in fruit. If you brew from apples, you might get some malic acid, which is also nice.

You have got to be joking...

Well if you like blindness, then by all means forget it. You could just heat your wash gently instead. That procedure is hypothetical, but it is perfectly viable to get rid of nasty shit. You can make a ghetto distillation system with 2 "flasks" and some piping (there's something out there for the production of nitric acid -- uses a ghetto condenser). Really, it's not that hard. If you just want quick alcohol, just get rid of methanol. If you want something you can actually drink, then you should distill. If you want both of the above, brew for a longer period. if you want some quick alcohol then just take some methanol denatured alcohol, evaporate off the methanol (or get Everclear). You can avoid adding citric acid, but it makes it seem more "authentic". Tarataric acid is what is being substituted for.... I doubt you will brew long enough for a lot of that to build up.

[dood44]

I did this, tested it after with a hydrometer it was around 5 percent. It ends up tasting crazy sweet. You can pretty safely freeze it and pour out the stuff that dosnt freeze and might get 15- 20 percent booze.

[Tick Tock]

Originally Posted by Aperson444

Methanol is volatile and will evaporate off during your sterilization. Cereal contains glucose and various sugars -- perfect food for yeast (and bacteria if you're not careful). potatoes are used to make vodka, which is also made clandestinely in Eastern Europe rather quickly. But the dumb fucks either adulterate the vodka with methanol or they forget to distill or heat it. Cereal contains wheat, rye, or oats often which are all sugar and carbohydrate rich cereal grains. They can be crushed and added. Corn is used to make whiskey, which takes a little longer to make. Fruit also has a lot of sugars. Instead of pure sucrose, this might be better. I believe there is a lot of fructose in fruit. If you brew from apples, you might get some malic acid, which is also nice.



Well if you like blindness, then by all means forget it. You could just heat your wash gently instead. That procedure is hypothetical, but it is perfectly viable to get rid of nasty shit. You can make a ghetto distillation system with 2 "flasks" and some piping (there's something out there for the production of nitric acid -- uses a ghetto condenser). Really, it's not that hard. If you just want quick alcohol, just get rid of methanol. If you want something you can actually drink, then you should distill. If you want both of the above, brew for a longer period. if you want some quick alcohol then just take some methanol denatured alcohol, evaporate off the methanol (or get Everclear). You can avoid adding citric acid, but it makes it seem more "authentic". Tarataric acid is what is being substituted for.... I doubt you will brew long enough for a lot of that to build up.

Wow, you combined the ingredients for vodka, whiskey, wine and breakfast into one brew. Next we'll combine honey, grape juice, wort, and apple juice in one pot and ferment all of that at once. We'll call it Mead-wine-beer-super-cider! At least that sounds better than Super-vodka-whiskey-wine-breakfast. As far as distilling goes, you only need to put flavor into your mash if you're using a pot still for things like whiskey or rum. Reflux stills strip out all flavor anyway. The only thing you're going to get from a reflux still is unflavored ethanol, so it's pointless to use much more than sugar, water and yeast. Some people like to tweak the recipe and add nutrients for the yeast so they live longer or adjust the pH with some lemon juice, but the basic formula is the same. Sugar, water, and yeast; keep it simple. Those are the only three ingredients absolutely required for fermentation after all. Even with the flavors being carried over in a pot still, that nasty mix of ingredients you have concocted would wreak havoc on the palate and taste like piss in the end. Having all those different sugars and starches doesn't really do much for the alcohol production either. Yeast can only ferment to a certain percentage of alcohol, and this depends on the type of yeast. Bread yeast tops out at 15% alcohol, while some genetically engineered turbo yeasts can get in the neighborhood of 25% I believe. The point is, I don't care if you have the dopest mix of sugars ever created, you're still only going to get a maximum percentage of alcohol in your final product. You might have to use a little more or less depending on the specific sugar, that's the only difference. And since I can just brew sugar wine for dirt cheap, it's cheaper to brew some more sugar wine than to try adding all those other expensive ingredients in there so the ABV might be 1-3% higher.

None of this really relates to the OP, because all you keep talking about is distilling. I think OP would have a much easier time brewing some undistilled ready to drink alcohol first and then moving on to distilling, because you have to brew to distill anyway. Don't even think about telling him to drink that cereal shit straight either. I feel sorry for anyone who drinks that shit distilled, but may God have mercy on your tongue and your stomach if you drink it plain.

Don't go trying to reinvent the wheel here. There are already recipes to make every kind of alcohol you could ever want to make. Anywhere from one to a handful of ingredients will produce one specific type of alcohol; there's no need to combine them all together not knowing what the end product will taste like.

Originally Posted by Aperson444

if you want some quick alcohol then just take some methanol denatured alcohol, evaporate off the methanol

You're the one who wants someone to go blind. The whole reason they denature ethanol is because they know it's almost impossible to seperate the denaturing agent from the ethanol and have an end product that's safe to drink. If this shit worked, everyone in the country would be going around cooking up tax-free alcohol. I wonder why we never hear of people doing that? Probably because the ones retarded enough to try it in the first place went blind and/or died already. You should be able to verify all of this with the methanol link I put in my previous post. Or just get Everclear huh? Well if I wanted to go down to the store and buy alcohol I wouldn't worry about brewing it would I?

Once again, I hope everyone can recognize this bullshit. This is not obvious trolling, this guy is posting as if he's someone who actually knows what he's talking about. His post makes it seem like he knows what he's doing, so I just want to make it clear. Unless you want to die, don't use AP's posts as any kind of reference for brewing and/or distilling.

[Aperson444]

None of this really relates to the OP, because all you keep talking about is distilling. I think OP would have a much easier time brewing some undistilled ready to drink alcohol first and then moving on to distilling, because you have to brew to distill anyway. Don't even think about telling him to drink that cereal shit straight either. I feel sorry for anyone who drinks that shit distilled, but may God have mercy on your tongue and your stomach if you drink it plain.

Tell me the difference between "cereal shit" and beer. And don't give me shit about hops. that doesn't apply here. And what about methanol? Sugars don't get decomposed solely into ethanol. There's all kinds of shit. Unless you are doing this in a well equipped micro lab, you will get all kinds of non-fastidious bacteria. You'll get propionic acid, you'll get heptanol, hell, you might get benzene (who knows?). You HAVE TO at least boil the alcohol a bit to let off low weight alcohols. I'm looking at this from a chemistry standpoint, not a brewing one.

Bread yeast tops out at 15% alcohol, while some genetically engineered turbo yeasts can get in the neighborhood of 25% I believe.

Brewer's yeast is perfectly legal to buy, and it's probably the kind you talk about producing 25%. I know a friend who brews beer with more sophisticated equipment. He added blood oranges to his brew to make it taste more tart -- and he distinctly spoke of at least a dozen strains of yeast that can brew well. look it up.

Wow, you combined the ingredients for vodka, whiskey, wine and breakfast into one brew. Next we'll combine honey, grape juice, wort, and apple juice in one pot and ferment all of that at once. We'll call it Mead-wine-beer-super-cider! At least that sounds better than Super-vodka-whiskey-wine-breakfast. As far as distilling goes, you only need to put flavor into your mash if you're using a pot still for things like whiskey or rum

Putting everything I said in there will not to anything. It's too much work for the yeast. I said that you can do any of those. For fermentation by fungal sources you ONLY need O2, Vitamins (via a supplement called yeast extract -- makes your stuff taste nasty though, but it is found in packaged snacks), and some kind of starch or sugar. Sugars are rings. Generally they are 6 carbon. Sucrose is fructose and glucose in 2 joined rings, I believe. They have a whole shitload of hydroxyl groups sticking out. The yeast breaks down the sugar and creates ethanol -- a 2 carbon alcohol. Do the equation. Take the formula of glucose (most common in most cereals), and calculate the ethanol production. You will also get CO2 as a byproduct.

Don't go trying to reinvent the wheel here. There are already recipes to make every kind of alcohol you could ever want to make. Anywhere from one to a handful of ingredients will produce one specific type of alcohol; there's no need to combine them all together not knowing what the end product will taste like.

Nope. Bacteria and yeast can do more than just ethanol. Methanol is produced in small quantities. Some bacteria generate carboxylic acids. Unless you work under a sterile hood it is impossible to avoid contamination. Whether it is cat piss or some contamination in the sugar.

You're the one who wants someone to go blind. The whole reason they denature ethanol is because they know it's almost impossible to seperate the denaturing agent from the ethanol and have an end product that's safe to drink. If this shit worked, everyone in the country would be going around cooking up tax-free alcohol. I wonder why we never hear of people doing that? Probably because the ones retarded enough to try it in the first place went blind and/or died already. You should be able to verify all of this with the methanol link I put in my previous post. Or just get Everclear huh? Well if I wanted to go down to the store and buy alcohol I wouldn't worry about brewing it would I?

Not if you have a condenser and a proper distillation system. I speak of methylated spirits, not USP grade Denat. Alcohol. I don't know what happens with the denatonium benzoate they put in there as a bittering agent. In USA Denat Ethanol contains methanol, acetone, denatonium benzoate. I know people who have consumed denat alcohol. You need a few mls of CH3OH to cause blindness and what, 20 ml to kill you?

If you really don't want to go through safety procedures, then why bother brewing ethanol? You're too stupid anyways. Just buy it.

Even with the flavors being carried over in a pot still, that nasty mix of ingredients you have concocted would wreak havoc on the palate and taste like piss in the end

Which is why you separate esters and alcohol from fatty alcohols and carboxylic acids (ketones and methanol of course). I take this from a chemistry and biology standpoint.

Once again, I hope everyone can recognize this bullshit. This is not obvious trolling, this guy is posting as if he's someone who actually knows what he's talking about. His post makes it seem like he knows what he's doing, so I just want to make it clear. Unless you want to die, don't use AP's posts as any kind of reference for brewing and/or distilling.

Nice judgment. You clearly don't know the difference between a volatile mix of fatty alcohols, propionic (butyric, valic acid), ketones, and ethanol. Unless you want cat piss, then please go buy a pack of beer instead. Unless you want to devote considerable money and time, do not attempt it. It's not only nasty, but it may be dangerous. A lot of sugar contains some kind of anti-caking agent -- who knows what. I know what I'm fucking talking about. I survived the whole fucking term of O Chem 1, I did substantial research on fatty alcohols and acids. I don't brew, but I can tell you....... what you say will give you the shittiest mix you will ever taste. You might as well just chug some pure alcohol mixed with lemon juice (forming esters). I suggest you try some distillation before shitting on me.

[Fractals]

Originally Posted by Aperson444

ZOMG 2 much MeOH in muh beer!!!oneone!!

Find me a source that shows more than 10ppm (0.00001%) of methanol in undistilled, homebrewed beer, brewed at STP (room temp., standard atmospheric pressure). With that little methanol, the ethanol would kill you first.

[Aperson444]

Find me a source that shows more than 10ppm (0.00001%) of methanol in undistilled, homebrewed beer, brewed at STP (room temp., standard atmospheric pressure). With that little methanol, the ethanol would kill you first.

Precautions, precautions. And what of the fatty alcohols and acids? I took it from a previous post here. You never know what kind of bacteria gets in your brew.

[Fractals]

Originally Posted by Aperson444

Precautions, precautions. And what of the fatty alcohols and acids? I took it from a previous post here. You never know what kind of bacteria gets in your brew.

I didn't say anything about fatty alcohols or acids. I didn't read about them at all when I was researching homebrewing. If you have a source that proves they are present in any harmful concentration, I'm sure everyone here would be happy to see it.

Also, what does that post have to do with your claim that methanol must be distilled from homebrewed beer? As for bacteria, I'm sure the ethanol would take care of them pretty well.

[Aperson444]

Most bacteria survive at concentrations of EtOH lower than 30-40%. That is why when i work in the micro lab, I often use a little EtOH as a solvent.

If you want actual flavor, larger chain alcohols and acids are of concern. Especially butyric and propionic acid. They both smell like shit (also other acids like octanoic, hexanoic, heptanoic). It is a well known fact that they are byproducts from Bacterial catabolism. Probably yeast to. You might not think about it, but in a way, yeast need to take a shit to. That shit is your ethanol and your CO2, but also byproducts from daily maintenance. Also remember that ethanol is easily converted into acetic acid (vinegar) easily. Especially at this simple, unsophisticated level. Sugar alcohol is only good for pure EtOH, cereal-based alcohol is good for actual flavor, or something you want to drink. MeOH won't be too much of an issue, but there's no harm in heating the wash gently to 65 Celsius. You'll boil away useless low weight alcohols. Not the fatty ones though. Fatty alcohols DO NOT = lipids. They are larger chain alcohols and carboxylic acids. For example octanol, decanol. Those will taste awful, but are not produced in large enough quantities to kill you. Unless you want some horse shit, at least sterilize your brewing vessel. Make sure it is copper based. Whatever you do, do not make conditions anaerobic. The bacteria I am currently working with and its class (Shewanella, and relatives) are metal reducers and oxidizers. You will end up with copper inside your brew if you keep the thing in anaerobic conditions. Distillation will not get rid of flavor, because flavor comes from the various esters formed. So acetate production is good to some extent as acetate esters are often flavorful (although I think ethyl acetate is a nasty). I have no source, because most homebrewing, unless it's extremely ghetto (like this) uses at least a little sophisticated equipment. They moniter pH, add flavorants in at the right time (citrate esters are quite fine I hear, as is citric acid). I'm no genius at homebrewing, but I'm looking through a biological standpoint. The methanol post was a precaution (it was post number 2 or 3 I think). It's good to get rid of methanol anyways, because it has such a low BP.

[addingaroth]

Okay okay okay, the only time you have to worry about methanol is when you are distilling! If you ferment sugar water and yeast, (completely feasible by the way) and DO NOT DISTILL IT, you can siphon out the liquid (to remove dead yeast) and drink it without having to worry about methanol. If making in large quantizes of "moonshine", then you would die from water poisoning and the ethanol before you would die from the methanol. Think of it this way, undistilled wash = lets say 2% methanol (give or take a few %) and then distilled wash = 8% methanol. See where I am going here? METHANOL BOILS AT A LOWER TEMPERATURE THAN ETHANOL! THAT IS WHY YOU THROW AWAY THE "HEAD", OR THE FIRST STUFF THAT COMES OUT WHEN YOU DISTILL!!

[Fractals]

Originally Posted by addingaroth

"moonshine"

moonshine = distilled homebrew made with potatoes

Originally Posted by addingaroth

undistilled wash = lets say 2% methanol (give or take a few %)

No. ~100mL of methanol would kill you. If it was 2%, you would die if you drank 500mL of your mash! Methanol is usually present in homebrew at 10ppm, or 0.00001%, nowhere near 2%.

[Aperson444]

Okay okay okay, the only time you have to worry about methanol is when you are distilling! If you ferment sugar water and yeast, (completely feasible by the way) and DO NOT DISTILL IT, you can siphon out the liquid (to remove dead yeast) and drink it without having to worry about methanol. If making in large quantizes of "moonshine", then you would die from water poisoning and the ethanol before you would die from the methanol. Think of it this way, undistilled wash = lets say 2% methanol (give or take a few %) and then distilled wash = 8% methanol. See where I am going here? METHANOL BOILS AT A LOWER TEMPERATURE THAN ETHANOL! THAT IS WHY YOU THROW AWAY THE "HEAD", OR THE FIRST STUFF THAT COMES OUT WHEN YOU DISTILL!!

No. Look. Ethanol boils at 78 Degrees. Methanol boils at 64 or so. Just heat to 64 or 65. You will avoid ethanol from boiling off. Is there really any harm in doing it? Not only will you eliminate MeOH, but you will also get rid of Acetone, and maybe some acids. Eben if there is little MeOH, it is an easy precaution to take. And it will make your product taste better (by removing some volatiles).

[fcknut]

Originally Posted by Aperson444

And it will make your product taste better (by removing some volatiles).

Or removing those volatiles may make it taste worse...

[Aperson444]

The flavor comes from esters. These esters have BPs that are quite similar to EtOH. Some flavor may be supplied by organic acids (citric; tartaric; malic) or cyclic compounds like limonene. These all have higher BPs, and are more complex that MeOH or Acetone.