Which alcohol has the most and least methanol?

Question

Which alcohol has the most and least methanol?

Answer 1

That's hard to answer as it really depends on how dilligent the distiller was.  Methanol is typically the first thing to come out of the still.  The amount of methanol will vary depending on what the sugar source was for creating the "wash". (Wash is a term used to describe the resulting liquid when sugar, water and yeast are combined and allowed to ferment.)  Distillers usually don't bottle the condensate that first comes out of the still.

Liquor that is distilled from a fruit based fermentation such as brandy typically has the best chance to produce methanol during fermentation.  This is because the fruits used such as grapes and berries are high in pectin.  When pectin is broken down enzymatically by microorganisms during fermentation, the byproduct combines with water to produce methanol.  These microorganisms are usually introduced because of an unclean fermentation process.

Grain (vodka, gin, whiskey) and sugar (rum) based alcohols produce little or no methanol when fermented.  But that doesn't necessarily mean that brand "A" of vodka has less methanol than brand "B" of brandy.

Distillers make the very best effort to eliminate methanol in a spirit because it can seriously affect the flavor.  It is also thought to be a contributor to hangovers.

Just for comparison, check out the second link below to read about how plain orange juice can contain 10 to 50 times as much as methanol as a sugar wash.  And check out the first link to see just how little methanol actually ends up in the final product.

Answer 2

Distilled spirits have the greatest potential to be the lowest in methanol as long as the distillation is precisely managed. Fruit based alcohols, cider and wine, tend to have the highest concentrations. I would say traditional apple jack would have the highest concentration due to fractional crystallization which concentrates the alcohol indiscriminately.