The state's chief minister M K Stalin said the 34 died after consuming liquor that was tainted with methanol, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
this explains it a bit. The quick and dirty answer is that when you boil a mash, you are boiling a solution, not just 3 individual liquids (ignoring all the other stuff in there). It’s similar to how adding salt to water lowers the freezing point and raises the boiling point.
Water is polar, while ethanol only has mild polarity. Methanol is more polar than ethanol, so it holds onto the water more. If you had a mixture of methanol and ethanol with no water, you’d probably get more methanol first, but the water changes things.
Dude ikr. You have to actively try to make methanol when you’re distilling, like only collecting the foreshots over and over.
And by that point I’d be super easy to tell it’s not regular alcohol because it will smell like nail polish remover and other volatile compounds.
There’s actually more methanol in the tails than the foreshots due to complicated chemistry.
Can you elaborate or link to further reading?
I assumed methanol is the first to go because of its lower boiling point — 65 degrees compared to ethanol at 78
this explains it a bit. The quick and dirty answer is that when you boil a mash, you are boiling a solution, not just 3 individual liquids (ignoring all the other stuff in there). It’s similar to how adding salt to water lowers the freezing point and raises the boiling point.
Water is polar, while ethanol only has mild polarity. Methanol is more polar than ethanol, so it holds onto the water more. If you had a mixture of methanol and ethanol with no water, you’d probably get more methanol first, but the water changes things.
What kind of smells am I looking for?
Jack smells like gasoline to me, so I’m not sure.