Methanol and house wine.

I didn't know where to put such a topic so I decided to go here. Actually, this wine has something to do with "Na wesoła" :D

I wonder how it actually is with the methanol in the wine. I know that there is a bit of methanol in each drink, but in such a concentration that it is not dangerous, and besides, as you know, ethanol is the antidote to methanol, so we drink the antidote together with the poison.

I am only tormented by the question of whether such wine may produce a large (life-threatening or health-threatening) amount of methanol due to some neglect of the purity or freshness of its ingredients. As far as I know, methyl alcohol is produced from the fermentation of wood, and apples, pears, plums etc. are related to the tree.

I know a lot of people make wine at home and no one cares about methanol. Is it right? I have heard about many cases of methanol poisoning, but most of them were caused by someone driving their own moonshine and then distilling it, and as you know, methanol evaporates at a lower temperature, so in the first 50ml (per 20L of mash) the concentration of methanol will be the highest and drinking it was the reason blindness or death. In addition, people also bought alcohol from untrusted sources and someone decided to earn money by saving on products and making moonshine from what he had at hand - firewood.

Summarizing my considerations, should I care about methanol in home wine production?

In fermentation, methanol is really produced in trace amounts in the case of wine / brewer / fermented yeast. In the case of wine, I would not worry about it. Numerous methanol poisonings are caused by the consumption of alcohol from an unreliable source, e.g. distilled from solvents or plague, methanol itself has the same taste and smell as ethanol.
Ordinary moonshine from mash - you will sooner go to the other world because of an overdose of C2H5OH than you will go blind because of CH3OH ...
Methanol is called wood spirit because it is obtained by DRY DISTILLATION of wood, not by fermentation of it.

veteran5 thanks for the info. I had concerns about my "stafik" :)

And I also have a question, is I breaking the law by producing alcohol with a power of over 20% for my own and my colleagues' needs?

The law in Poland is so stupid that every person over 18 years of age can produce up to 50L of wine or beer at any given time and the production of "moonshine" is completely prohibited. So if you add a little prunes, apples, etc. to your home-made brew, it is already legal production.

I recommend this one page

As far as I know, this recipe for 50L of wine has long been abolished :|

So for my products to be legal, do I have to add plum wine to the spirit?

If the police find you even a liter of mash, they will have something to complain about. But if this liter turns out to be wine, that's fine. Only now is the trouble, when does the wine start?

What if he can find me a liter of wine made of just water and sugar? What if he finds 60% alcohol diluted in water? I want to know exactly what substance is illegal.

Nobody knows exactly how it is, because like most of such legal provisions, they can be translated in many ways. As for the police in the apartment, don't be afraid, because the police must have a warrant from the prosecutor, and the prosecutor must have some circumstantial evidence, suspicions from the police about you. So if you don't boast too much to your friends (especially those who don't like you too much), you have a headache.

PS. If you can know what exactly you are rushing (I will not report you )

Most often it is spirit made from a mash of water and sugar. Some of them go to the home toilets and first aid kits, and most to tinctures. Of course, sometimes I also go out to people for house parties, etc.
Besides, sometimes I do Ryżówki, Śliwowice, but very rarely. Most often pure alcohol for tinctures and for mixing "with cola" ;)

I am still wondering if it is illegal for giving this alcohol to my friends in exchange for the things they do for me? Same wine - is it illegal to give away?

As far as I remember correctly, it is illegal to make distilled spirits. Except for products whose alcoholic raw material was excise alcohol - e.g. spirit bought in a store. From this purchased spirit, you can make a tincture and distill it, obtaining, for example, the so-called white tincture, gin, absinthe, anise, etc. Completely legal! (apart from the question of whether the production / possession of real absinthe in Poland is forbidden - I do not know this myself)
Wine handing out - it could be brought up for sale, which is illegal if you didn't take out the excise duty and without all those stupid procedures ...

If they find someone with diluted alcohol (which you cannot prove with the excise tax), they may have problems due to the failure to pay the excise duty ... it is probable for me, because why are they chasing people who drive diesel oil or food oil ... different consumption compared to alcohol, but also a different degree of excise duty (more than 50% of the price of vodka is excise duty, and in the case of spirit, even more ...)

In the south, for example in such Croatia, you can distill your own rakija - they are doing well ...

So distilling your own wine is also illegal :(

PS.

What about regular yeast? I don't think there will be much difference?

Ordinary yeast - you mean what?
I suppose it's about baker's yeast ... they are actually top-fermented brewer's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) ... but as you know wine, whether the taste of the same is not special compared to wine yeast ... These are differences due to a slightly different composition of yeast and products themselves - wine yeast is selected in terms of the production of esters (the lower the fermentation temperature, the more of them are formed) which, among others, are responsible for the bouquet and taste of wine ...
The less foreign components in the yeast's food besides sugar and nitrogen-phosphorus nutrient solution, the less components other than ethanol will be formed. In the case of fruit, yeast also devours other substances contained therein, not necessarily into ethanol (some breeds can eat up to 20% of organic acids from fruit, but excrete ethanol!)

I think that the higher fermentation temperature is not conducive to the formation of "larger molecules" so I would consider a greater production of methanol ... However, these are my guesses not necessarily consistent with reality ... So far I am not studying biotechnology, but how do I get ) then I will be able to say more ;-)

Best regards and I wish you tasty products and no next day syndrome !!!