methanol

, also known as wood or methyl alcohol, is a toxic form of alcohol that can cause blindness or even death if ingested in sufficient quantities. See health, spirits. Produced in very small amounts during fermentation, methanol, which boils at 64.7° C, is an important part of the heads, the first, toxic, part of the distillate, and must be separated from ethanol (which has a higher boiling point) and other desirable compounds to make safely potable spirits. See distillation; fermentation;, heads. Methanol is also added as a denaturant to industrial ethanol to render it unfit for consumption (and therefore not subject to taxes imposed on alcoholic beverages). In the years leading up to and during Prohibition, it was also frequently added to spirits by unscrupulous producers, often with disastrous effects; in the parts of the world where bootlegged and counterfeit spirits are a problem, methanol poisoning is still common. See moonshine, Prohibition, Temperance in America.

See also ethanol.

“Wood Alcohol’s Trail.” New York Times, January 15, 1922.

By: David Mahoney