# Home distilling **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Tags:** liquor-alcohol\ **Created:** [April 11, 2026, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-distilling/1029202 "2026-04-11T12:13:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 16
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2026, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-distilling/1029202/16 "2026-04-12T17:28:45Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > My university textbooks certainly spread the dangerous myth that distillation separates by boiling point.. For anyone reading this later, I think the point Ruekn is trying to make is that single-stage distillation is not effective in complete separation, which is why distilled liquor still contains some water, and that the ethanol and methanol fractions are close. And is also a reason why expensive vodka is more expensive than cheap vodka. > > And yes, Methanol is more volatile than Ethanol, and as a direct result, the gaseous phase of an evaporating mixture contains a higher proportion of methanol than the liquid phase. And as a result, the liquid phase contains a decreasing proportion of methanol as the distillation proceeds.(Unitl it reaches an equilibrium, as described by the phase diagram). And as a result of that, t he gas phase contains a decreasing proportion of methanol as the distillation proceeds. Which is to say: _the head shots have more methanol_. Either your university textbooks contained different content that you misremember or they oversimplified what they were teaching to teenagers, as is the custom. Raoult’s law applies to ideal solutions, i.e., not what we’re dealing with. Armchair scientific just-so stories get people killed because it’s a short hop from “the head shots have more methanol” to “this reduces methanol elsewhere”. If what you wrote were true, it would be nigh on impossible for isobutanol (bp 108 C) to concentrate early but there it is, along with esters of C6 and C8 acids. Methanol appears in all fractions and can be concentrated in later fractions depending on the composition of the liquid phase. If you can’t trust the rando internet guy who says he has a PhD in this stuff then maybe you’ll trust a random sampling of literature from his reference manager: _ACS Food Science & Technology_ **2021** _1_ (5), 839-844 DOI: 10.1021/acsfoodscitech.1c00025 _Separations_ **2026** , _13_(1), 27 DOI: 10.3390/separations13010027 European Commission: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, _A study on the possibilities to lower the content of methyl-alcohol in eaux-de-vie de fruits_, Publications Office, 1996 Guymon, J.F. Chapter 11: Chemical Aspects of Distilling Wines into Brandy. In Chemistry of Winemaking; University of California: Davis, CA, USA, 1974; pp. 232–253 DOI: 10.1021/ba-1974-0137.ch011 --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-distilling/1029202)._