Fusel Oil Lab Analysis Results # 1

[Photonic]

As many of you will know, the instructions of an AirStill (Easy-Still, Mr Distiller, Smart Still etc) recommend that for their "Triple Distilled" yeast that you do not need to make cuts, nor throw any foreshots away.

Despite moving on from Turbos, I decided to test what they said.

I made a wash of "Triple Distilled" wash exactly as the directions called for, and then ran it through my still.

The instructions say to collect the first 700ml of a 4l run, then dilute to 40% alcohol, and carbon filter. I did this, but I took 55ml of each run and kept it separate. I presumed this to be a mixture of foreshots and heads.

I sometimes send some of my wine to a wine lab for analysis (as I am experimenting with yeasts and nutrients) so I arranged for a wine-lab to run some tests on it. I submitted 100ml of foreshots, 100ml from the remaining 645ml and 100ml of the remainder after dilution and filtration. I also submitted some of the original wash.

The samples were tested for fusel oil content, and the results of some of my samples are shown below.

I was surprised to see that the amount of methanol was so small that it was actually recorded as >5 (less than 5mg/l), even in the foreshots! To be safe in my calculations, I assumed the maximum value of 5mg/l, as I did for the other fusel oils that I've highlighted in grey.
The numbers in the top left corner are the ABV% of the various samples.

(Click for higher resolution chart)

LD50 Data sources:

http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/HY/hydroxyacetone.html
http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/IS/isoamyl_alcohol.html
http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/IS/isopentyl_acetate.html
http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/IS/isobutyl_alcohol.html
http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/BU/1-butanol.html
http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/PR/1-propanol.html
http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/ET/ethyl_acetate.html
http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/f8040.htm
http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/ME/methyl_alcohol.html
http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/AC/acetaldehyde.html


However, it is clear that the foreshots do contain much higher proportions of other fusels than exist in the other samples.

I also had a scour on the internet for the dosage required to kill 50% of rats that ingested the various fusel oils (LD50), I was able to find the human LD50 for Methanol.

I did some approximate calculations of how much spirit would be required to reach these doses, I hope that they are accurate, but I haven't had time to check them, so please scream if there are any mistakes.

I thought it might be of interest here, although I guess that the carrying over of fusels will vary from still to still and according type of still.

Next time I run a batch of a different wash, I could submit a sample if anyone is interested in the results.

[HookLine]

Nice work. Hard data is good.

[blanikdog]

Certainly is good work. Well done photonic.

blanik

[stillton]

good stuff Photonic!
this clearly show that you cant just strip your wash and carbon filter the product extra much to get the same result as if running a reflux still, or potstill with clean wash and proper cuts.

If you ask me, I would like to see a competition between a MUM and alcotec vodka star fermentation http://www.turbo-yeast.biz/Svenska/Alco ... a_Star.htm

i understand you get surprised about methanol levels, as your used to see the values from wines. without all the pektin the fermentation will produce virtually no methanol, even if it produce ten times more fusel oils in general.

[Barney Fife]

Great to have hard numbers, but don't just look at the methanol, boys. Looks at the acetone numbers! Helluva lot more in the fores. 4 times more, in fact. 10 times more iso-butanol, nearly 10 times more iso-amyl alcohol, 35(THIRTY FIVE!) times more ethyl acetate, and so on and so forth. All of those are nasty, some nastier than methanol. YOU can keep your fores if you wish, but I'm not interested in the headache, tremors, puking, and paint thinner flavor, thank you very much. It may not kill you outright, but you may wish you were dead the next morning

Seriously; methanol is what we are lead to believe is the nasty by-product of poor distillation practices, but there's an awful lot more ingredients that make up the nasties in the foreshots. It's just easier for the local news to say "Local man goes blind from drinking homemade moonshine that contained methanol". That doesn't make the newsguy right, does it?

[HookLine]

Seriously; methanol is what we are lead to believe is the nasty by-product of poor distillation practices, but there's an awful lot more ingredients that make up the nasties in the foreshots.

Agree. I have always been more concerned about acetone and ethyl acetate, for a start.

•••••••••

And thanks for the MSDS links too, Photonic.

[Photonic]

Indeed.

I always throw the foreshots (I'm not that desparate for 55ml of spirit, even with the tiny yield that my still gives).

The other fusels are interesting. I always assumed that I could smell acetone in the foreshots and even in the heads (when I collect in small glasses). I now assume that what I was smelling was Ethyl Acetate. The Iso Amyl Alcohol is interesting too.

Stillton, what's a "MUM"? The Methanol did surprise me, as I've made wines with around 40mg/l methanol content.

[stillton]

Stillton, what's a "MUM"? The Methanol did surprise me, as I've made wines with around 40mg/l methanol content.

its a recipe that many potstillers use, and claim to be the best way to make a clean fermentation from white sugar. of course there are many other, but it seems to be what many use instead of turbo yeast.
there is probably a thread about it some were in here, but hers the recipe: http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/MBX3SlsOzL ... ion%29.pdf
im not sure if you can access the file without yahoo membership.. let me know, and I can upload it elsewhere.

[rad14701]

stillton, Document Not Found

[kiwistiller]

Irish moss in that recipe... interesting. other than that it is pretty much Birdwatchers and WPOS combined. not sure you'd need both tomato and miricle gro?

[stillton]

Irish moss in that recipe... interesting. other than that it is pretty much Birdwatchers and WPOS combined. not sure you'd need both tomato and miricle gro?

i havnt tried it myself. My point is however that it would be fun to see a competition between a well reputed diy wash and one made from a good turbo yeast. I only took MUM as an example, since its the recipe i heard most about.

[Photonic]

I have a bottle of Birdwatcher's wash (but using wine yeast) ready for the lab next time I send some in.

I plan to also submit a bottle of the All-Bran one.

Thanks for the link to MUM.

I think another thing that is interesting to see is that the alcohols with a boiling point higher than ethanol are included in the foreshots. I know the reason why, but it is still interesting to see that it pans out with the numbers.

[glassman]

i think the link from stillton has some spam thing attached to it. the ad box follows my curser and i can't open the mum file. realy wierd.gman

[kiwistiller]

i think the link from stillton has some spam thing attached to it. the ad box follows my curser and i can't open the mum file. realy wierd.gman

I didn't have a problem with it, but I've tricked out Firefox with every adblocking addon known to man. I think I see a very different internet to most people (adblock plus is the pick of the bunch, IMO)

[Photonic]

i think the link from stillton has some spam thing attached to it. the ad box follows my curser and i can't open the mum file. realy wierd.gman

There's a "close" tab on that box, then you have to wait for the counter to finish before you get the file.

I'll try attaching it here, but I don't know if the forum software allows PDF files...