Lao
The papers are all saying the baddies spiked the drinks with industrial methanol.
As the academics say “if a bear shits in the woods and no one cited it, did it really happen?”
To wit, in this entry I’m going to cite:
Methanol contamination in traditionally fermented alcoholic beverages: the microbial dimension, Elijah Ige Ohimain
Springerplus 5 (1), 1607, 2016
It is more likely that the methanol was produced during traditional ethanol fermentation, which is often inoculated spontaneously by mixed environmental microbes that have the potential to produce mixed alcohols. For example, methanol production in traditionally fermented beverages can be linked to the activities of pectinase producing yeast, fungi and bacteria.
Cases of methanol contamination have been reported in some of the wines produced from banana, plum and agave. Spirits made from mangoes, pears, banana and melon have been shown to contain methanol.
Up in the poor parts of Asia they’ll throw all their farm and food waste into the mix, and maybe the odd dead goat. Any cellulosic or decomposing organic matter is going to produce methanol.
They use different bugs every time because they rely on the environment to supply them. They’ll surely get some wood alcohol (methanol) every time, but also with different levels each time. Which is why they have to distil it, to collect the ethanol-rich portion and discard the methanol.
Ironically, in order to get high enough methanol concentration to poison someone, you need to distill it. So the solution is also the problem.
If you’re distilling your fermented mixed alcohol product to get ethanol spirits then you need to understand the theory and practise of fractional distillation in order to ensure you get rid of the methanol. You know, plate count etc.
The Laotians don’t. And sometimes the odd person karks it. It’s incompetence not malfeasance, but there’s a fine line there.
Generally they end up with a mix of ethanol and methanol in their spirits. Ethanol keeps your kidneys busy while you get rid of the methanol in other ways, before it turns into formaldehyde and kills you. So they get away with their dodgy practices most of the time. But just occasionally the methanol level is too high and someone dies.
Back to beer because spirits are stupid.
According to WHO, methanol concentrations of 6–27 mg/l in beer are not harmful. But I bet at the higher levels the hangovers are worse; think of craft beer and all the stupid shit they add to the mix.
I suspect the standard use of malted barley, hops, and added brewers yeast minimises methanol production in beer which is one of the reasons the Munich maestors adopted it in the first place in 1516. A small shout-out for the Bavarians!
The safe bet would be to make your spirits by distilling beer. Or just save yourself the bother and drink the beer.
offshore westerly 