iStill's Amazing Methanol Control!

The theory

Methanol, or wood alcohol, is toxic. Therefore, strict regulations are in place on how much methanol certain spirits can contain. Spirits that contain too much methanol will be recalled ... and the craft distiller that produced the contaminated drink can be fined.

As not all spirits categories are created equal, methanol levels are differentiated for different drinks. Gins may contain just a very little. The tolerance for fruit brandies is much higher, as the production of schnaps involves a lot of pectins and other wood-related substrate. How high? 0.66% of alcohol by volume (ABV) is the limit. In other words: all fruit brandies must have a methanol percentage no higher than 0.66% at a total ethanol ABV of 40%.

The problem

As we recently visited the BrauBeviale tradeshow in Germany, we learned that fruit brandy producers, of which there are many in southern Germany, struggle to meet these requirements. Some see their product, and even the medals that they won with their fruit brandies and even gins, revoked because the methanol levels are too high.

Is it purely a fruit brandy issue? Due to the wood-containing substrate? No it is not. The rules for gin, for example, are much more strict, much tighter. Today we heard about a German gin producer, running a traditional German copper still, that got his gin recalled because it had too much methanol in it! One could say that his GNS supplier delivered crap. Something that he could have prevented, had he tested the GNS upon delivery.

The cause

What do these failing distillers have in common? The ones that are in trouble, because they can't control their methanol levels well enough? They all use traditional distilling equipment. Traditional equipment isn't very good at separating out headsy components like methanol. They cannot concentrate them well enough at the beginning of the run, resulting in a methanol-infected gin or fruit brandy hearts cut.

The solution

iStill's Hybrid Column Technology is amazing at compacting headsy components. So ... theoretically iStillers should perform better on methanol content. But do they really? Today the iStill Laboratory tested an iStill-fermented and -distilled pear fruit brandy. The outcome? It only contains 0.05% of methanol. The best scoring fruit brandy ever! Our methanol levels are over ten times lower than most fruit brandies produced on traditional equipment.

The support we give to the craft distilling industry

Do you want to test your GNS, your gin, your whisky or fruit brandy on methanol? The iStill Laboratory delivers these tests to craft distillers, starting February 1st 2024. How it works? You send us a bottle of your product, we test it and inform you. The costs? EUR 75,- per test. Non-iStill customers pay EUR 125,-. If you want to pre-order, please reach out to Veronika@iStillmail.com.

Distilling pear fruit brandy with the iStill

The iStill-produced pear fruit brandy saw a 1.5x distillation approach, 35 minutes of heads stabilization, and a heads cut temperature of 80 degrees Centigrade. The iStill 2000 Hybrid was used for both fermentation and distillation. The hearts cut was 60% strong and then got diluted to 40% pre-bottling.

iStill-produced pear fruit brandy ...

With the lowest methanol level ever recorded for fruit brandy ...

www.iStill.com