Rant: I used to think hobbyist distillers were reckless, then my neighbor showed me his setup

I used to lump all home distilling in with bathtub gin and the risk of methanol poisoning. Last Thursday, my neighbor Gary invited me over and walked me through his whole process with a copper still he built himself. He showed me how he does a full ethanol distillation with a thermometer reading at 173 degrees, then tosses the first 50ml of heads every run. I still wouldn't try it myself, but I get why some people do it now. Anyone else have a hobby they misjudged at first?

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eric_carr14d ago

I actually read this article a while back about how the whole "you'll go blind from methanol" thing is way overblown with home distilling. They said the methanol boils off at a different temp so as long as you're not drinking the first bit you're pretty safe. Still seems like a lot of work for a jar of booze though haha.