Methanol In Moonshine Mash?!

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While Methanol boils at 148.4F (64.7C), that does not mean that all the Methanol
will evaporate even it you held the temperature at 212F (100C) for an hour.

The way I learned it is to make at least three passes thru the still. The first one at
212F for 8 hours. You will have Water, Ethanol, and Methanol.
Dump the still, flush it, and add back in what you've collected.

The second pass is at 158F (70C) for a few hours until the drip stops.

The third pass is at 185F (85C) for a few hours. Toss out the the first
10 ml because it may contain Methanol remaining in the tubing.

If you keep it at 180, you will boil off ALL of your alcohol, not just the bad stuff!

You're basically doing a fractional distillation -- you have 2 compounds and you're separating them by boiling point. So you want to keep your set up at 155-160 degrees, since methanol boils at 148 -- this is high enough to get impurities and methanol, but not high enough to affect ethanol, since it boils at 178 (much higher than 160!).
What's left in the flask after the distillation should be ethanol.
The only way to test for sure is chemically, because 4 ounces (120ml) of methanol will kill you.

Have a nice day!

Organic chemist

First, depending on what you brew, your wash does not contain methanol. If it does it contains it in so little of an amount to as only be used as a scare tactics for outlawing home distillation.

Second it has a lower evaporation point then ethanol. This is why you throw out the first of your distillation, called the heads. But the real reason you throw out the heads is it contains allot of the fusil (meaning bad tasting) oils. So really you trow it out for taste, not methanol.