G’day - Methonal

[Sam.]

Hi guys I’m new to this forum.
I’ve only started recently getting serious about making genuine whiskey,
I’m having trouble finding reliable good information about testing the spirit for the presences of methonal,
I know by distilling that we take it out but I’m still really cautious about it.

One method I found was using sodium dichromate and sulfuric acid with 10ml of alcohol in a test tube.
What method do you guys use for testing the presence of methonal?

[Otago Elvis]

Cuts

[db1979]

The dichromate test depends on your ability to detect the smell of methanal which is an aldehyde formed in the reaction. Ethanol in the reaction forms ethanal and is supposed to have a different smell. I doubt this test would be very reliable. It's important to do cuts anyway (not just to avoid methanol) so you may as well put the effort into trying to learn the difference between smells of the different cuts. Just like otago said.

[Sam.]

Moved your post here mate where all first posts should go.

Also unless your fermenting fruit your methanol content will be slim and dealt with your fores cut :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Minpac]

Most of us don't detect it as it's difficult/messy to do chemically. But it's boiling point is much lower than the alcohol you want to collect - so it comes off the still first. Make sure you make your foreshots cut (say 150ml from a 50L batch) as this contains all the methanol (in a grain based wash) when you run slowly.

[warramungas]

:text-+1:
Smells are subjective though I'm not familiar with the dichromate test.
I mean I think my farts don't have any smell but my family strongly disagrees.
Without lab equipment its very hard to test adequately for methanol presence.
Guaranteed it will be there but in quantities so small you'll probably need a gas chromatograph to detect them in the body of the wash.

[wynnum1]

Methanol is cured by the ethanol that is how they treat poisoning depending what you make it will have some Methanol the cuts do not remove all the Methanol completely but what you keep has a very low level which is made safe by the high ethanol content just do not drink or store the crap alcohol without marking as poison some put a dye .Methanol is converted by your body that is what causes the problem and its natural to have a very small amount but you only need a small quantity to cause harm if drunk on its own.. That is probably why its no used as a fuel for cars too easy to abuse plus exhaust fumes could be lethal.