How is Poitín illegal?

Capt'n Midnight

rubadub wrote: »

I have never once read of any incidence where somebody went blind or died from drinking distilled brewed alcohol -whenever I read about it it is invariably criminal gangs who are selling industrial alcohol. And I have read loads about it.

I seem to recall hearing of a poitin drinking competition held in UCG during rag week where a lot of the participants had to be stomach pumped

Fake alcohol is v. dodgy and too common

if buying cheap stuff in an offie double check the label

rubadub

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

I seem to recall hearing of a poitin drinking competition held in UCG during rag week where a lot of the participants had to be stomach pumped

That could have happened with smirnoff though. I am talking about the myths of it being unusually toxic, and or blinding compared to commercial spirits.

Anybody with half a brain making spirits will make a product superior to commercial ones (toxicity wise). I read of a guy sending off poorly distilled vodka for testing with to a lab along with with a common commercial one, and his badly made stuff had less toxic stuff in it. On distilling sites the verficiation of a properly made & properly run still is the lack of hangover, as there are very few impurities. Most make it from sugar based brews, so there is only bare trace amounts of methanol in it.

enda1

rubadub wrote: »

That could have happened with smirnoff though. I am talking about the myths of it being unusually toxic, and or blinding compared to commercial spirits.

Anybody with half a brain making spirits will make a product superior to commercial ones (toxicity wise). I read of a guy sending off poorly distilled vodka for testing with to a lab along with with a common commercial one, and his badly made stuff had less toxic stuff in it. On distilling sites the verficiation of a properly made & properly run still is the lack of hangover, as there are very few impurities. Most make it from sugar based brews, so there is only bare trace amounts of methanol in it.

That's quite interesting. The standards must be quite lax in that case regarding the commercial stuff. Any idea on how much of other alcohols would be allowed in a 40% 1 litre bottle?

Corruptedmorals

rubadub wrote: »

Loads of the same old myths and mistruths are being trotted out here. It is these myths that are partly to blame for it continuing to be illegal.

I have never once read of any incidence where somebody went blind or died from drinking distilled brewed alcohol -whenever I read about it it is invariably criminal gangs who are selling industrial alcohol. And I have read loads about it.

In many countries it is legal to distil, some have a limited on the size of the still, I think australia & italy limit the still to 5L

Not here and not from poitin, but Bali and other Indonesian islands have a big problem with methanol poisoning. They had something like a few hundred percent increase on alcohol duty, so now have a bigger reliance on unregulated stills..the stronger the better. It has affected arak, cocktails, and spirits. 29 tourists were killed in 2009. Tourist deaths are still ongoing, an Australian died recently. It was in the papers recently with regard to an inquest here, but it is not yet the confirmed cause. It is not known how many locals are affected, in fact its not even widely known or warned about in general. The bars that have sold the drinks that killed people are still open and are still testing positive for methanol. The Facebook page a drink to die from has a lot of articles linked. Its not criminal gangs making it, just poor people using makeshift stills.

rubadub

enda1 wrote: »

The standards must be quite lax in that case regarding the commercial stuff. Any idea on how much of other alcohols would be allowed in a 40% 1 litre bottle?

I can't remember but they are actually quite strict, I have seen them in artisan distillery guides. The point is that it would be very difficult to make a toxic spirit (methanol, cogener wise), even if you go out of your way to do it, even if you make no separations at all. The commercial people do not want to throw any out, so they carbon filter it and do other treatments to mask or remove the smell/taste/sensation of the unwanted chemicals produced in fermentation.

Nothing is produced in process of distillation, that is another misunderstood thing. If you distil 2L of wine to make brandy there is no more methanol in that brandy than in the wine. Standard practise is to throw out the first bit so there would usually be less.

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

Not here and not from poitin, but Bali and other Indonesian islands have a big problem with methanol poisoning. They had something like a few hundred percent increase on alcohol duty, so now have a bigger reliance on unregulated stills..the stronger the better.

Looked it up, as I expected it is added methanol - and not from drinking distilled brewed alcohol.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/05/30/arak-makers-continue-production-despite-poisoning.html-0

Arak, produced by distilling fermented rice or the sap of coconut palms, sugar palms or lontar palms. Laboratory tests have confirmed that arak oplosan - arak mixed with dangerous substances, primarily methanol - is the culprit behind the slew of poisonings.


"Some even have similar levels of alcohol as methanol. When you light it with a match, the liquid bursts into flame," he said.

Methanol, locally known as spiritus, is a clear blue liquid used by Balinese in rural areas to light pump lanterns.

Mixing arak with other substances to drastically increase its potency has become a widespread practice among the island's youths. The resulting arak oplosan provides the youths with a faster way to get drunk, and is a much cheaper alternative to beer and imported liquor.

"The most popular is mixing arak with methanol," avid drinker Robin said.

They make if from sugar palms, many home & artisan distillers use sugar based brews specifically because they only produce bare trace amounts of methanol. Unfermented apple juice will have more natural methanol in it than a gallon of sugar based distillate.

Methanol is actually more expensive to make than ethanol (drinking alcohol), when you buy methylated spirits it is usually mainly made up of ethanol, with a little methanol to make it poisonous, and a red coloured chemical which makes it unpalatable so winos will not drink it.

68 lost souls

It is a real shame the tax is so high on high content alcohol. Would love to see a way in which real Poiín is made kept alive. I have never managed to taste Irish Poitín but have drank proper Moonshine in the states before and that was delicious. Also had a bottle of everclear which was quite nice which surprised me being alkmost 96% alcahol. It is also surprisingly cheap in the states http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everclear_(alcohol)