We are going to Vietnam this year for holiday and I’ve read horror stories of poorly distilled alcohol in cocktails and such. Several tourists have died from methanol poisoning.
Would it be feasible to build a small detector for methanol? I’m okay with either a small chemical identification test or something like an IR spectrum analysis.
There are commercial test kits for professional laboratories but I need something affordable for regular consumers.
Ah my bias: I was only interested in grain mashes. My immediate reaction was, “why on earth would there be wood in your mash?” The answer is fruit stems. Methanol will be differentially in the foreshot but if you’re not expecting much because you’re not fermenting any wood, it’s going to be low in the foreshots and very low in the hearts, but not much anywhere. BUT if you’re fermenting something with woody stems, I can see that methanol removal is going to be worthy of consideration.
Not only stems, but if you just rake up your fruits and put them in a mash you get all kinds of sticks and leaves also in there. If you ever make a schnaps take care with the foreshot :)