Cognac is aged in casks cut from France’s famous oak forests, full of Quercus sessiliflora and Quercus pedunculata. American bourbon and Scotch whiskey too rely on stalwart staves of the oak variety to deepen their flavor over time. Wine, even, is fermented and aged in oak, acacia, or other wood until it is time for bottling. These then, must all be wood alcohols.
Wood alcohol? Not at all. Strike that impression from your mind immediately, lest you poison yourself. Wood alcohol is not to be drunk! It is a potent poison that blinds before it kills. Stick to the stuff aged in wood, not made from wood.
Wood alcohol is a layman’s term for methanol, sometimes referred to as methylated alcohol, hydroxymethane, wood spirit, methyl hydrate, wood naphtha, and supposedly, Columbia or Colonial spirit. Of all the alcohols (chemically speaking), it is the simplest with a chemical formula of CH₄O. On one side, 3 hydrogen atoms cling to a carbon atom, forming a methyl group. On the other side, a hydrogen bonds with an oxygen, forming an alcohol group. Taken together, we have methyl alcohol.
This poisonous form of alcohol is produced in trace amounts during normal alcoholic fermentation, but it is produced in large quantities during the destructive distillation of its namesake, wood. While normal distillation separates chemicals out of a solution using heat, destructive distillation separates out chemicals by decomposing an unprocessed material.
The process of decomposing wood is so straightforward that it has reportedly been used since ancient times when the Egyptians heated wood to create methanol-laced embalming fluids. They would have put methanol containing wood into a sealed container and cooked it until the liquids vaporized. Once cooled, methanol, acetone, and acetic acid remain. This can be refined further into pure methanol with distillation, although the Egyptians may not have had access to that technology.
In more modern times, the legendary chemist Robert Boyle discovered the chemical formula of wood alcohol in 1661 after distilling boxwood. Later in the 1800s, French chemists Dumas and Peligot discovered the molecular structure and named the molecule methyl after the Greek methy for wine and hyle for wood. Since then, it has been known as wood alcohol.
It was not until the 20th century that the industrial production and use of wood alcohol began. In 1923, German industrial chemist, Mathias Pier, pioneered the use of catalysts in the production of wood alcohol from gas. This made the process more efficient and cost effective, leading to large scale production.
State-side, the business environment for the industrial alcohol industry had been primed by a 1906 law. It stipulated that alcohol produced domestically for industrial purposes be tax free, so long as it was denatured. Methanol was itself a denaturing agent, a chemical added to potable ethanol to make it unfit for human consumption.
Early wood alcohol plants used pressured environments and acids to break down the indigestible cellulose which accounts for about 50% of wood’s mass. Sawdust and wood scraps from hardwood, birch, beech, maple, oak, elm, and alder were favorites of the industry. The acid wood mixture was agitated and heated by steam to over 300℉ for an hour. Then the acid would be neutralized with lime, and the resulting sugary soup could be digested by yeast into alcohol. Normal distillation ensued to make more concentrated chemicals. These early plants could produce 300 pounds of fermentable sugar from 1 ton of pine sawdust.
As industrial chemicals became increasingly important, new and more efficient techniques were developed. Hydrogenation (the addition of hydrogen atoms to carbon) and dehydrogenation (the removal of hydrogen atoms from a compound) made the production of methanol easier, and removed wood from the process entirely. Both processes used metals like nickel, copper, or palladium to catalyse reactions and allow them to occur at lower temperatures. Most of these chemical breakthroughs came from innovation in the production of ammonium which used similar reactions. Eventually, in 1963 two British chemists, Davies and Snowdon, invented a new process catalyzed by copper, zinc, and chromium that synthesized methanol directly from natural gas. This process, Low Pressure Methanol, is still used today.
Modern industrial methanol is used as a precursor to many other useful chemicals such as formaldehyde. As a race, we produce over 85 million metric tons of methanol annually. Among its many uses are anti-freeze, perfume, chemical solvents, shellac, racing fuel, fuel in chafing dishes, and printing solutions.
The one thing that methanol is decidedly not used for is drinking (and breathing as it also has noxious fumes). When metabolized, it causes acute poisoning and dissolves the optic nerve, doing permanent damage to vision if not blinding entirely.
Wood alcohol poisonings began to come into the public eye just as industrial production began. In 1917, the New York State Coroner’s office noted an uptick in wood alcohol deaths as they began testing the livers of those who died inexplicably. Prohibition would not improve on this trend. Indeed, most cases of methanol poisonings globally are the result of illegal alcohol production during which corners are cut to produce cheap and unsafe liquor. In the United States most wood alcohol poisonings involve the ingestion of antifreeze or windshield wiper fluid. Inhalation poisonings usually result from carburetor cleaner.
Ironically, the only cure for methanol poisoning is ethanol. When you find yourself going blind after one cocktail, drink another from a different bottle. Methanol is only poisonous when the body has begun to break it down. The enzymes we have metabolize ethanol more quickly than methanol (luckily!). Having lots of ethanol in the body blocks methanol metabolization. In other words, ethanol gets to cut in line and methanol gets flushed out in urine. Of course, this should only be used in emergencies.
Wood alcohol may sound natural and alluring, but it is deadly poisonous. In fact, it is used to denature normal ethanol that is being used for industrial purposes. It may serve as a silly reminder, but one can never be too safe, drinking is not an industrial purpose.
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George L Berry, field sec. of the National Committee for the Prevention of Blindness 1920
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MacKenzie, Donald, and Judy Wajcman. The social shaping of technology. Open university press, 1999.
“Recommendations Concerning the Manufacture and use of Wood Alchol.” Monthly Labor Review (Pre-1986), vol. 10, no. 000002, 1920, pp. 197. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/trade-journals/recommendations-concerning-manufacture-use-wood/docview/227909598/se-2?accountid=11752.
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In both Colima and Jalisco, locals mix raw milk from goats and cows with liquor, often tequila. The drink is commonly called leche caliente, but also carries a variety of names inspired by birds. It is strictly served at breakfast, when ranchers are milking their cows for the day. It is not meant to get you drunk, but it can cure a hangover. Just don’t drink too much raw milk. You might get sick.
Pulque is made from agave sap throughout Central Mexico, but not all pulque is created equally. Some pulque is adulterated with things like cane liquor or prickly pear mucous. The best pulque is found in the countryside where it is made. And to test the quality of pulque, see if it makes a scorpion.
Blue corn is native to the agriculture of New Mexico. Indigenous people in the region developed the crop. While it has been used in food and drink for thousands of years, New Mexico’s craft breweries are just taking notice. Now, breweries across the state are experimenting with the corn’s color, flavor, and texture in pilsners, ales, and lagers.
One of the worst chemical spills in US history tainted Charleston’s water supply in 2014.
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