I've been toying with the idea of making some home brew but I'm worried the neighbors might think I'm cooking some meth and call the authorities.
I built my own still Don, but threw it in the trash when I discovered that if the temps are out by only a few degrees I'd be making poison rather than whisk(e)y. A friend of mine's brother made his own whisk(e)y and died at 55, and was slowly going blind before he passed. No-one put 2 and 2 together until after he died.
Terry, this is not worth arguing about, but there is actually no danger in destilling your own. Methanol is a by-product of fermentation; more methanol is produced in fruit fermentation than in grains. Brewers do not remove the methanol in beer and wine because methanol is not especially toxic at low concentrations. You are looking at between 0.4%-1% methanol in wines and brandies and smaller amounts in beers. Distillers remove almost all the methanol in most cases. Ever notice how vodka produces clean hangovers and wines (particularly reds) give you very nasty hangovers? Methanol. That, and dehydration!
Methanol is an especially nasty type of alcohol because the body tries to break it down the same way it metabolizes, or breaks down, ethanol, the type of alcohol in beer, wine and other drinks. Metabolizing ethanol produces chemicals less toxic to the body than alcohol. Unfortunately, if the same chemical action is performed on methanol the result is formic acid, lactic acid and formaldehyde.
Formaldehyde attacks nerve cells, especially the optic nerve and can damage the liver and kidneys. Formic acid and lactic acid also attack the kidneys and liver. Most people who have drunk methanol die of severe and sudden kidney and liver failure.
Chronic methanol drinking will cause optical damage. The stories of moonshine causing blindness comes from U.S. prohibition times where some bootleggers used to cut moonshine with methylated spirits to increase profit.
My country just went through this - over twenty people died due to booze maker who cut the alcohol with industrial methylalcohol.
