Large bubbles with a short duration indicate a better alcohol content, whereas smaller bubbles that disappear extra slowly indicate decrease alcohol content. Although methanol just isn’t produced in toxic quantities by fermentation of sugars from grain starches, contamination remains to be potential by unscrupulous distillers using low cost methanol to increase the obvious power of the product. Moonshine can be made both extra palatable and perhaps less dangerous by discarding the “foreshot” – the first 50ml – 150ml (1.5 oz – 5 oz) of alcohol that drip from the condenser. Because methanol vaporizes at a lower temperature than ethanol it is generally believed that the foreshot accommodates most of the methanol, if any, from the mash. However, analysis shows this isn’t the case, and methanol is current till the very finish of the distillation run.
