Why were some people poisoned in speakeasies?
It is not ethanol which is the problem; ethanol is the alcohol in all strong drink. Other alcohols are produced in the distillation process, depending on the ingredients, the temperature of the mash and so on. In reputable distilleries two things combine to make the drink safe: 1…The copper pipe which takes the vapour to the cooling coil rises about 8 feet before turning down. The poisonous alcohols (mainly methanol) have a chance to condense and run back into the mash, while the ethanol rises and eventually condenses in the coil and runs off to a receiver.. 2…The spirit is stored for some time in wooden casks before being bottled. This allows the drink to breathe, and (in a way I do not understand, not being a chemist) the undesirable alcohols to disappear. As someone said, the speakeasies and distilleries were run by criminals who did not care whether people were poisoned or not as long as they made money. They produced the booze as cheaply and quickly as possible, so that much o
