apple cider isn't distilled, though; it's fermented

use yeast to convert sugars from apples into alcohol: fermentation

boil that until it becomes a concentrated liquor: distillation

distillation is significantly more dangerous than fermenting

Historically non-edible apples (grown from seed, as well as dedicated cider apples) are widely available and only useful for cider, so it would be a waste of an edible apple to make cider out of it.

you can only make and eat so many pies. if you've got a lot of apples they'll rot long before you're making food w/ them.

so cider them, and that'll stay stable for weeks / months. longer if cold and well stored.

"jack" it via freezing or distill it w/ boiling and the booze will stick around even longer

Even apart from you literally getting this wrong, while I don't care for weed, I find weed culture and smokers obnoxious, I still accept that weed is much less dangerous than moonshine.

Which country are you referring to?

In the U.S., heroin, LSD, and marijuana are the same federal schedule. Have to fill the for-profit prison labor camps somehow, and admitting dealing marijuana isn’t as dangerous as dealing heroin would put a dent in that. Leave that to the corporate opioid peddlers legally addicting Americans in pain.

https://www.dea.gov/drug-information/drug-scheduling

https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/how-fda-failure...

Such concern is inconsistent with the present reality. Gasoline for a lawnmower incorrectly stored in a garden shed or garage is explosive. The propane tank for the BBQ can easily destroy a chunk of you house if placed too close to an open flame. The OTC medication in your bathroom can also poison you if you're careless. There are many creative ways in which the electric supply of your home could result in your death if not treated with care. The examples are practically endless.

Even just a half decent kitchen knife will be razor sharp and capable of removing a digit or two if handled incorrectly.

> All that said home distillation is dangerous

No, it is not. Not more dangerous than rice stir‑frying

> methanol poisoning is real

Ethanol is antidot. So again, your chances to severely poison yourself not much higher than if you instead of alcohol were doing Japanese cuisine.

Yeah, same for working on your car when mechanics exist. Or building a computer when you can buy one. Or million other mildly dangerous things. I personally think anyone who plugs in a light bulb is playing Russian Roulette with their lives. Let's not get started on the weirdos who camp.

Some people just enjoying have hobbies; distilling hooch isn't on my bingo card, but it being illegal in the era of "we swear it's definitely not sports betting" is silly.

No. It is not likely that it will be possible to sell homemade liquor. But, it's this experimentation that will lead to more businesses.

Many microbreweries and small breweries started when home brewers went pro. They had recipes that were popular. They decided to go through the fundraising and investment in order to build appropriate facilities and get licensed.

It's this permission to experiment and play that has inspired many of the popular ales available today.

I think they are saying the micro distillery effect will be stronger than you think, not that people will be selling homemade liquor.

Clandestine operations for most illicit substances tend to be quite dangerous. There are safe ways to distill alcohol, but given that one can't purchase quality distillation equipment in locations where it is illegal, folks often end up making their own.

I think it's perfectly acceptable if these is a reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing process, like for HAM radio or small game hunting, that covers safety. This doesn't eliminate the possibility of accidents, but it does reduce this possibility.

Looks like it was petrol, and direct criminal attempt at insurance fraud.

Edit: In addition to a successful plan murder during the explosion.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-46865455

> ethanol is incredibly explosive

My friend is a chemist and we both like whiskey so we thought experimented this.

You can speed up the aging of whiskey by increasing the surface area of charred wood. It takes 3 years in a barrel, a couple days (hours? maybe? I'm an engineer not a scientist) if you splinter it into wood chips and char them first and agitate the solution.

What you can't really speed up is the oxidation of the tannins which for all we know (barring experimentation) are a key part of the flavor profile. What you could do is mix in oxidizers like bubbling oxygen through it.

The combination of oxygen and ethanol has a name though: "liquid rocket fuel." The idea of combining heat, ethanol, oxygen, and agitating at bottling volumes sounded kinda scary.

I hope people don't try it at home without knowing what they're doing.

More realistically though, the biggest danger comes from leaky apparatus and an open flame. The horror stories come from home distillation over gas burners. Electric heat is plentiful and home stills would most likely be basically kettles.

Methanol poisoning is another risk.

Methanol is a natural fermentation byproduct of pectin breakdown of fruits like plums, cherries, apricots as well as grapes.

Methanol collects in a still easier than ethanol. Methanol boils at approximately 64.7°C (148.5°F), while ethanol boils at 78.4°C (173.1°F). Professional distillers carefully measure and discard the initial fraction (the heads/foreshots) of a distillation run to remove the methanol. Easy for a novice to miss this key safety step.

This is a bit misleading. While it is possible for distilled spirits to contain methanol, it's generally in very low amounts and removable. Often unless specific ingredients are used, it's not even much of a concern. And funny enough, ethanol itself is a competitive inhibitor for methanol and is an antidote of sorts for methanol ingestion. Most anecdotal stories around poisonous spirits are scare tactics and due to other more serious issues such as prohibition-era bootleggers using car radiators with leaded solder, adding adulterating chemicals to stretch profits, etc.

I'd say that it is actually fairly easy to poison oneself brewing different kinds of alcohols. It is a risky activity. So is driving. So is making fireworks. So is chemistry. So is making cheese, pickles, sauerkraut, and canned goods. People die of botulism every year because they don't follow basic safety procedures when canning, or they eat canned goods that someone else improperly prepared.

That doesn't mean that one shouldn't be allowed to do these things. It means that we should provide appropriate training and, in some jurisdictions, reasonable / non-discriminatory licensing for those who wish to do these things.

When it comes to distillation, the rules are pretty straight-forward:

Keep a log book. Use quality equipment. Measure temperatures. Learn to discard heads and tails. Use appropriate ventilation and fire safety protocols. Purchase qualitative test equipment to verify that the product does not contain harmful contaminants. Licensing is a great way to ensure that people know about these things and follow them. A blanket ban actually makes it more likely that people who violate this ban to distill alcohol will poison themselves or others.

>It is rather tricky to distill liquor and NOT poison whoever drinks it

sure is news for all the east europeans out there distilling their own rakija

bollocks. the methanol exists in tiny quantities and has the lowest boiling point of basically anything in your booze. you don't need "to know how to get rid of it" -- there are no skills needed: just pour it out.

you literally just pour out the first 0.5% of whatever comes out of the still. water it down heavily and flush it down the toilet or burn it or whatever. I literally just take the first ~25-50ml of liquid and ditch it -- problem solved.

all other nasty compounds have a very noticeable smell and are fairly easy to detect coming out of the still.

if you're getting poisoned from a home distillation you probably shouldn't be allowed to drive a car or use open flames.

explain

Not to mention, Big Bathtub.

Addicts won't have the time to glue in the time to distill, unless they're addicted to making the liquor and not necessarily consuming alcohol

If people who normally don't drink or drink very little may start drinking more which leads to increased alcohol purchases when out at restaurants or at the grocery store.