If you don't stop, you could go blind, or worse.
There were several deaths from consuming contaminated cleren a few weeks ago; according to the newspaper articles. I know a limpiabotas who is a mini celebrity on El Conde who partakes of the spirit in question on the weekend and is a mess come Monday morning. Not a pretty sight.
Or it was methyl and not ethyl alcohol.
Methanol Toxicity
Methyl alcohol (methanol) is the bad stuff that could be found in moonshine. Pure methanol is very dangerous and it is definitely able to cause blindness and even kill people. As little as 10 ml of pure methanol could blind someone and as little as 30 ml could kill someone. 30 mililiters is equivalent to the amount of liquid in a standard shot glass.
How is Methanol Produced?
Methanol is found naturally in certain fruits and vegetables. It may also be produced as an unintended byproduct during the fermentation process. Spirits distilled from fruits, such as apples, oranges, and grapes, are more likely to contain methanol. Both beer and wine generally contain methanol. Studies have determined that wine can contain as much as 329 mg/L and beer may contain somewhere on the order of 16 mg/L. This makes distilled wine (grappa, brandy, etc.) potentially more dangerous than all grain shine - such as corn whiskey.
Why is Methanol A Concern for Moonshiners?
If wine contains methanol but doesn't pose a risk of methanol poisoning then why is it potentially dangerous to drink once distilled? The difference is that the methanol concentration in, say, 5 gallons of wine, is evenly distributed among the 5 gallons. For someone to ingest a potentially dangerous amount they would need to ingest more than 5 gallons....or 28 bottles!
During the distillation process methanol is concentrated at the start of the run because it has a lower boiling point than ethanol and water. The boiling point of methanol is approximately 148 degrees farenheit, which is quite a bit lower than ethanol (the good stuff). This means that methanol (148F boiling temp) will start to boil before the ethanol (174F boiling temp). This is why moonshiners always throw out the first bit of shine they produce from each run (more on this below).
Here are a few examples of the dangers of methanol:
If 5 gallons of wine containing the abovementioned concentration of methanol (329mg/L) were distilled, there could be as much as 8 mL of methyl alcohol in the first jar - a potentially dangerous amount.
Scale this up to a 100 gallon batch, distilled all at the same time in a large still, and you could potentially have a very big problem if the methanol was not discarded. Distilling 100 gallons of wine containing 329 mg/L of methanol could result in the concentration of 40ml of methanol, which could be fatal if someone drank it all at once.
https://www.clawhammersupply.com/bl...207958-methanol-will-moonshine-make-you-blind