When you ferment a mash, eg. grape juice a byproduct is methanol. If the beverage is left undistilled you actually drink that poison, eg. apple cider has high amounts of methanol along with the desired ethanol.
Distillation, when properly done, removes the methanol and logically makes the drink safer.
For some reason this guy was drinking extracted methanol (otherwise known as the "heads") when he should have discarded it, I would not call this "moonshine". It's stupidity, much like the people that get botulism from home canning (and yet for some reason home canning is not illegal, really makes you think).
I didn't know much about distilling truth be told I still don't, however its something I'd like to try someday and now I know that the methanol needs to be extracted, would have had no idea without seeing this first, I do find it funny that more ethanol is what he needed to save his life though.
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