Ethanol/methanol

["Tom Reed" <tombreed@attbi.com>]

Dear Harmon and All:

Harmon complained about mis-information, but added a little (and there may
be some here..  absolute truth is elusive).

~~~~~~
Fruit juices do make some methanol along with the ethanol when they ferment.
I was told that Schlivovitz (Plum Brandy) contains 2-3% methanol along with
the ethanol.

Fortunately, the alcohol dehydrogenase that digests the ethanol passes the
methanol through and out without problem.

The standard  remedy for accidentally drinking methanol is to drink ethanol
(to keep the enzymes quiet).

If you drink straight methanol the enzyme converts the methanol to formic
acid which can fry your eyeballs or kill you.

Methanol is about four times as toxic as ethanol - and isn't intoxicating.
So anyone setting out to get high on methanol will probably kill himself.
Bad rap!

The Merck Index (11th edition) says the usual fatal dose for methanol is
100-250 ml.  Doe;sn't say for ethyl alacohol, but lists lots of references
on toxicity, and we have all probably lost friends to good old EtOH.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Harmon Seaver" <hseaver@cybershamanix.com>
To: "Kevin Chisholm" <kchisholm@ca.inter.net>
Cc: "Crispin" <crispin@newdawn.sz>; "Enid and George"
<mawnpaw@speedline.ca>; "Stoves" <stoves@crest.org>; "Ryan Chladny"
<rchladny@ualberta.ca>; "Claire" <claire@hcctraining.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 7:20 AM
Subject: Re: Acid and Homely Likker Was: Re: Gelling fuel with calcium
acetate


>    Gee, an awful lot of misinformation about alcohol going around here.
High
> proof ethanol is not deadly, in fact when I was a student we used to drink
lab
> alcohol (100% or 200 proof) ethanol. Pretty common among students, at
least
> those who have access to labs. Of course even scotch or vodka, whatever,
can
> kill you if you drink enough in a short time. Potatoes, btw, don't ferment
into
> methanol -- nothing does. Potatoes are what vodka is made from.
>    Having grown up in moonshine country, I can assure you that most of it,
at
> least here in the US, is pretty good stuff. Moonshiners who add acid or
other
> things like hot pepper really do so because the alchohol content of their
> product is too low and they need something to make it taste strong.
> The term moonshine comes from the fact that it was often made at night so
no one
> could see the smoke. Here in the US you will sometimes find bootleg
alcohol
> being sold in regular stores or bars in name brand bottles with counterfit
tax
> stamps. Many people can't tell the difference, but I well recall stopping
in a
> small town bar and ordering a shot of tequila -- it was pure corn whiskey!
Good
> quality corn, but corn nonetheless. When I was a kid, the local sheriff
used to
> bring my dad gallon jugs of the best quality stuff they had seized in
raids, a
> lot of bootleggers have a real pride of craftsmanship.
>
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 14, 2002 at 09:29:53AM -0300, Kevin Chisholm wrote:
> > Dear Crispin
> >
> > Thanks for your interesting backgrounder!!
> >
> > Newfie Screech is "store liquor" and is quite safe to
> > drink... it is an average grade of Black Rum. It runs
> > 40% Alcohol....
> >
> > Pot still likker.... moonshine.... can be very
> > dangerous stuff;  perhaps it is called "moonshine"
> > because some of it will ensure that you never see teh
> > light of day again!! Shine from potatoes is apparently
> > particularily bad, because apparently, it ferments out
> > to yield a relatively high percentage of methanol..
> >
> > Would anyone with a brewing background know why
> > sulphuric acid is used in teh brewing industry? What is
> > it intended to accomplish?
> >
> > ...del...
> > > Here in Swaziland we have something caled Pikiliyeza which is a blend
of a
> > > small amount of traditional sorghum brew, lots of home-brewed
sugarcane
> > > alcohol,  a few spices and a liberal dose of battery acid (I am not
> > > kidding).  The name roughly means "The pick-axe is coming for your
head".  I
> > > am pretty sure it would gell.  Another local candidate translates as
"Doors
> > > to the mortuary".
> > >
> > > The guy who sells me diesel sells 600 litres of battery acid a month
to the
> > > local brewing industry in Manzini.
> > >
> > > Regards
> > > Crispin the abstainer
> >
> > KIndest regards,
> >
> > Kevin Chisholm
> >
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> --
> Harmon Seaver
> CyberShamanix
> http://www.cybershamanix.com
>
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>



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