Friday, 15 June 2012

Can Drinking Moonshine Really Make You Go Blind?

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The short answer: yes, it's possible to go blind from drinking moonshine. But it's also possible to go blind staring at the sun. When consuming alcoholic beverages of the DIY variety, the important thing is to let common sense be your guide.

The idea that moonshine or other home-distilled liquors can cause blindness is rooted in truth, but it's important to separate the causes of said blindness from the alcohol distillation process itself. When homemade spirits cause damage to the optic nerve the culprit is almost always methanol, cousin to the ethanol you consume when you toss back any glass of tipple.

1 comment(s):

Steve said...

I should say not necessarily. Blindness from drinking moonshine comes from the idea of having methanol in the liquor. Methanol is an optic nerve poison which can be present when fermenting grains or fruits high in pectin. There's a distilling guideline that must be followed to eliminate the methanol from moonshine , if everything is prepared carefully then it shouldn't be harmful.