6 ms·
If I recall correctly, most of the moonshine blindness was not due to improper distillation technique (i.e. not cutting your distillation head), but rather that
by skwb 6y ago
If I recall correctly, most of the moonshine blindness was not due to improper distillation technique (i.e. not cutting your distillation head), but rather that methanol was often used to dilute ethyl alcohol.
- toomanybeersies 6y agoMost fermented alcohol doesn't contain a significant amount of methanol to begin with, fermented fruit being the exception. After distilling you can usually drink the heads with no risk of methanol poisoning. You'll still get a nasty hangover from aldehydes and higher alcohols if you do, but it won't kill you. The majority of methanol poisoning cases are where illegal spirits have been deliberately adulterated with industrial methanol (most likely with denatured alcohol, which is still 90%+ ethanol) to increase profits.
- elil17 6y agoThe US government once methylated alcohol to try to convince people to follow prohibition. https://www.vox.com/2014/8/8/5975605/alcohol-prohibition-poison https://www.vox.com/2014/8/8/5975605/alcohol-prohibition-poi...
- refurb 6y agoGood old Vox finding nefarious deeds in everything. The gov't still "poisons" alcohol today. It's called "denatured" alcohol and there are a bunch of "poisons" added like diesel, methanol, Bitrex, etc. It's done because the gov't wants their alcohol tax.
- himinlomax 6y agoYou're just being stupid. Denaturing agents are used to make the product unpalatable. They may be mildly toxic, but they are so disgusting that users typically don't absorb much of it. Methanol, on the other hand, is not just more toxic but also reportedly tastes better than than ethanol. As such it encourages people to drink it. Using it to punish illicit alcohol drinkers is just plain evil.
- refurb 6y agoWrong. They still sell “methylated spirits” today, where the only adulterant is methanol. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol And no, they didn’t used methanol to encourage people to drink it - that’s just silly. Not everything is a conspiracy.
- elil17 6y agoYes, but people were dying en-mass from methanol poisoning
- refurb 6y agoI don’t disagree. But spinning a story where the govt was intentionally trying to poison people is a bit much.