Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Such a sad read for our hobby. My brother in law sent me this link this morning.Hope it doesn't make him doubt my produce!

http://www.news.com.au/national/courts- ... b3c1cd672f

Everybody here knows that these people didn't die from 'methanol poisoning' after drinking poorly cut spirits.

But you're right, it's not a good look for our hobby.

The Evidence

"Both the heads and the tails contain increased amounts of methanol."

Is this wrong would think that the tails would have the least amount of methanol.

Zak Griffin wrote:Everybody here knows that these people didn't die from 'methanol poisoning' after drinking poorly cut spirits.

But you're right, it's not a good look for our hobby.

what did they die from Zak...I thought it was from methanol / wood alcohol... I have not really followed the story, is there more to it....either way it is sad.

Doc

Just read the coroners report and there is a lot is assumptions in it.
Can someone explain what 22g/100ml ethanol and 4.2g/100ml methanol means in terms of abv?
And, a t500 producing that quantity of alcohol from 1 X 30L fermenter?

my understanding is that the 4.2/100 ml would amount to 4.2% abv maybe it was a beer.
the 22/100 ml would be 22% abv maybe an attempt at a liquor of some sort.

agreed, it does seems strange that one turbo could produce so much grog.

I haven't read this completely yet, but from what I understand it outlines that to get a harmful concentration of methanol, one needs to be reusing heads and tails from many, many, many batches of wash containing lots of pectins (fruit washes)
http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/a-study-on ... CGNA16864/
I'll get around to reading all of it eventually...

ed9362 wrote:my understanding is that the 4.2/100 ml would amount to 4.2% abv maybe it was a beer.
the 22/100 ml would be 22% abv maybe an attempt at a liquor of some sort.

agreed, it does seems strange that one turbo could produce so much grog.

Not quite, abv is a vol/vol measurement so you first need to convert the 22g of ethanol to its volume by dividing by the density of ethanol (0.789g/ml) which gives 27.8ml, so ~28% abv.

I would guess they didn't do any cuts at all.

is the sweet smell of heads caused by methanol?

ed9362 wrote:I would guess they didn't do any cuts at all.

is the sweet smell of heads caused by methanol?

Nope, mostly from the acetone/ethyl acetate afaik.

Methanol is colourless and odourless if you look into it as a single entity

The methanol levels seem very high .


The methanol levels ranged from 0.7g/100ml to 2.3g/100ml

Sure they cut it. Cut it with industrial methanol used for fuel production.
Methanol is not odourless in high concentrations. Very similar to ethanol in color and odour.
This was done to death in another discussion that I can't be bothered trying to find right at the moment.

If this stuff they sold was!! just straight off the still, than the HBS and manufacturers that make the stills would have their asses sued off by now they don't just sell their stills in Australia.
Surely they have bulked up the spirit with dangerous consequences? ;-)

There has to be more than us evident otherwise a lot of us including nd would be pushing up daisies by now.

Poor people that drank that poison RIP.

I reakon they would have been cutting it with metho...

So who is at fault?
The "not so sharp" makers of the poison?
The media for shows saying how to make crap?
Misinformation on the net?
Government ruling banning alcohol in some area to stop drinking related problems?


If there were less mystic about how spirits are made maybe there would be less of this.
Or maybe not.
People are idiots..... especially if they choose not to think out their actions.
Including ingesting homemade poisons .

A lesson for those that have survived.

bluc wrote:I reakon they would have been cutting it with metho...

Has anyone looked at the ingredients list on metho?
Contains minimum 95% ethanol.
Trap for young players.

Cheap and readily available.
One shop keeper in Mossman Nth qld was known to keep bottles of metho in a fridge out the back of the shop for the local aboriginals .

:handgestures-thumbdown: :handgestures-thumbdown:

dogbreath vodka wrote:

bluc wrote:I reakon they would have been cutting it with metho...

Has anyone looked at the ingredients list on metho?
Contains minimum 95% ethanol.
Trap for young players.

Cheap and readily available.
One shop keeper in Mossman Nth qld was known to keep bottles of metho in a fridge out the back of the shop for the local aboriginals .

:handgestures-thumbdown: :handgestures-thumbdown:

As per the report from this case (linked earlier), all metho made in Aus contains no methanol by law

The maker has clearly put something else into the bottles that didn't come off the still or has put something incredibly stupid into the boiler.

Either way I would say the person who made it and sold it is at fault and should be up for 3 counts of manslaughter as a minimum.