Does the fermentation of alcohol create any harmful byproducts?
Ethanol, even though it is your desired product, it is also the main harmful product, and that is only if you drink it in really large amounts. After that, the only real harmful stuff is fusel alcohols that are produced when you ferment at too warm a temperature (above 75degrees F). These are still in trace amounts, but will give a solvent type flavor to the beer, and can lead to hangovers. However, these amounts are so small in beer and wine, that they won’t be able to cause much more damage than a normal hangover. When you distill alcohol, then you can concentrate these heavier alcohols, and get worse flavors and more noticeable bad health effects. In normal proper fermentation, there are no harmful byproducts that can be made, and don’t believe anyone that tells you that you’re going to go blind by accidentally making methanol. Methanol only ends up in home fermentation if you add it yourself, by using denatured alcohol or straight methanol. In beer and wine, even if you get a conta
